Stuffocation and its Impact on Brands by James Wallman
Taken from the “Culture” section of our latest book: Hacker, Maker, Teacher, Thief: Advertising’s Next Generation.
Probably the most important question you’ll ever ask yourself is this: how should you, and the rest of society, live in order to be happy?
As you’re reading this, though, chances are you’re asking yourself something a lot less philosophical, something like: how can you market your clients’ goods so that people buy more of them?
Fair enough. I doubt you’re reading this book for advice on how you, or anyone else, should live. Don’t dismiss the first question out of hand yet, though, because the two are intimately connected. By that, I mean that if you know where people are looking for happiness — and status and identity and meaning as key ingredients of that — you’ll have a much better idea of how you can sell to them.
There was a time, of course, when people looked for status, identity, meaning, and happiness in material goods. That time was called the 20th century, when the possibilities of mass production and the magic of mass media combined to create a materialistic value system that believed more was better, and greed was good.
And the system worked. First, it hauled billions of people out of poverty. Next, it provided them, and us, with central heating, indoor toilets, colour TVs, Ataris, Barbies, BMXs, Louboutin shoes and a myriad of other consumer knick-knacks. It was the best idea of the 20th century, taking society from scarcity, which had been the condition of 99% of humans since the dawn of time, to abundance. Lucky us.
But then something happened. Or, rather, lots of things did. And then, not only did materialism not look so shiny and great anymore, but all those things added up to what I think is the defining problem of our generation, a problem I call Stuffocation.
Stuffocation is about how we have enough, and how we’ve had enough of stuff. Don’t take my word for it, though: take the “Have you had enough of stuff?” quiz at the end of this chapter. And consider the Center on the Everyday Lives of Families (CELF) study, the most extensive piece of research ever conducted on how ordinary people are living.
After more than a decade of research, the team of anthropologists, ethnographers, and psychologists concluded, as the final report states, that we are living in “the most materially rich society in global history, with light-years more possessions per average family than any preceding society”, that we are at a point of “material saturation”, that we are coping with “extraordinary clutter”, and that we, as individuals and as a society, are facing a “clutter crisis”.
So, why is Stuffocation happening, and why now? If you ask a different expert, you’ll get a different answer. An environmentalist will tell you it’s because we’re worried about landfill, carbon footprint, climate change. A philosopher, like Alain de Botton, say, might tell you it’s the status anxiety that comes with meritocracy and materialistic consumption. A psychologist, like Oliver James, might say all this stuff is giving us affluenza, that mass production and mass consumption is causing mass depression. A political scientist, like Ron Inglehart at the University of Michigan, for instance, might tell you that, as we now live in a stable society with enough food to eat and a guaranteed roof over our heads, we’ve climbed up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and become post-materialist. A demographer might tell you it’s because of the rise of the global middle class — making resources still more scarce and costly — and urbanisation — when people choose to live in cities rather than the countryside, they are trading space for experience. And a technologist might agree with all the others, but point out that the shift away from materialism is simply because we can: why have a second car when you can use Zipcar? Why fill your carry on with books when you can take a Kindle?
And what do I, a seasoned trend forecaster, think?
When I write these reasons down and consider the list, two thoughts strike me.
The first is: what about Facebook? Social media is not only changing how we communicate, it is changing how we present ourselves and signify status. In the 20th century, you could indicate your status with the Breitling watch on your wrist, the Prada handbag on your arm, or the Louis Vuitton wallet you use to pay. But, unless you made a point of telling them, no-one would know that, last weekend, you had been to a concert, Secret Cinema, a pop-up restaurant, or that you played golf on the roof of Selfridges. Social media has turned that 20th century truth on its head.
Now, only a relative few will see your car or your handbag. But with all your friends and followers on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, many more will know that you are watching the sunset from your riad’s rooftop in Marrakech, or on a chairlift in Chamonix, or about to run the New York marathon, or see the Stones in concert, or you’re at TEDxHoP or SXSW. That means experiences are now more visible, more tangible, more valuable, and more likely than material goods to contribute to your status.
The second is that these factors are not minor blips that are here this year, gone the next. All of the factors causing Stuffocation — the stable upbringing, the stress of stuff, the environment, the rise of the middle class, the move to cities, the rise in costs, the switch to digital, and the rise of social media — are the result of observable, observed, long-term trends. Taken singly, each of these would have an effect on the world like a wave surging and crashing against a sea wall. Since all are arriving at the same time, they are massing into a greater, weightier tsunami-size wave, creating a perfect storm for today’s materialist culture. That is why, now, and for the foreseeable future, so many of us are disillusioned with material goods and materialism, and feeling Stuffocation.
So, as our fundamental values, attitudes, and behaviours are changing, what can you and your brand do about it?
The simple answer is: focus on selling experience rather than stuff. I don’t mean ditch anything that’s tangible. We are still flesh and blood. We still need and want and use and use up material things. But we want less material clutter, less waste, less monotonous, commoditised stuff. And we will still want status.
“People still want to keep up with the Joneses,” says Jim Gilmore, who, with Joe Pine has been promoting the experience economy since the late 1990s. “Before, they wanted goods that were shinier, faster, more powerful. And they still want to keep up in the experience economy. But now they want things that are different — more durable, say, or more egalitarian, or more participatory.”
This is useful, but better still, in my opinion, is in a statement Gilmore and Pine made in The Experience Economy: that you should try to make every engagement your audience has with your brand touch them “on an emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual level”.
There are some doing that, I think, and, at the same time, addressing the problems of, and taking advantage of the opportunities inherent in, Stuffocation. For example: Bompas & Parr, Patagonia’s Common Threads Initiative, Puma’s Clever Little Shopper, and, of course, Apple.
Have you been to a Bompas & Parr event? Each one, like crazy golf on the roof of Selfridges or dinner at the Andaz Hotel, is designed to not only give you a visceral experience, it’s designed to share. “Everyone is an autobiographer nowadays, it’s like everyone is actively writing their own biography all the time,” says Bompas. “So stories are becoming even more important. In the ‘80s, people wanted a fast car. Now they want a good story to tell.”
In its Common Threads Initiative with eBay, the outdoor brand Patagonia asked people, as the company’s founder, Yvon Chouinard said, “to not buy something if they don’t need it”. This is a radical, revolutionary statement. It is the antithesis of the “more is better” idea of materialism. Yet it is the sort of thing that makes sense in a world feeling Stuffocation.
Puma created a bag that, rather than add to the clutter in your home, or the guilt you get when you throw it out, just disappears. Put the brand’s Clever Little Shopper bag in hot water for three minutes and it harmlessly dissolves, so you can pour it safely down the plug.
Apple has become the world’s leading brand because of its ruthless focus on experience. It makes everything pleasant, from the stores, to the moment you open the box. “Not only do the guys at Apple make sure their products are products people love to use,” says Joe Pine. “They even think about the packaging, about the ‘box opening experience’, so even that is unique and engaging.”
You can mine each of these examples for ideas. But a still better place to look for inspiration, I think, is in that fundamental human question, the question that Aristotle asked in the Nicomachean Ethics almost two and a half thousand years ago: how should you, and the rest of society, live in order to be happy?
In the 20th century, as we progressed from scarcity to abundance, the answer was materialism. Then, people found happiness, status, identity, and meaning in material things. Now, instead, in this time of abundance and so much stuff we are feeling Stuffocation, the answer is what I call “experientialism”. Now, feeling Stuffocation, people are finding happiness, status, identity, and meaning in experiences. If you, and the brands you work for, can help them find those things, through experiences rather than stuff, you are more likely to connect with them, and sell to them.
Have you had enough of stuff?
In your home generally, do you ever worry about the mess and that things aren’t in the right place?
Is there a part of you that wishes there was a “clutter fairy” who would clean it all away, work out what you really need, and get rid of the rest?
When someone you live with brings something home, is your typical response “but where are we going to keep it”?
In your bedroom now, if you wanted to hang a new dress or shirt in your wardrobe, would you have to heave the stuff that’s already there left and right to make a gap, and jump in with the new thing, because if you weren’t quick enough that gap would close up?
Do you have clothes you haven’t worn for more than a year or, even, never worn?
When you open a drawer, do clothes pop out like they’re trying to get some air?
In your kitchen, when you put something away in the cupboards, do you have to push and pull and poke, to fit the thing in your hand around all the other stuff that’s already there?
Even when the kitchen looks clean and tidy, like a picture in an interiors magazine, are all those cupboard doors camouflage for the bedlam behind?
If you have a garage, is it packed so full with junk that there’s not enough room to house the number of cars it was designed for?
Think back to a time someone gave you something in the last year. Perhaps it was at Christmas, when Auntie Doreen and Uncle Peter held out a gift-wrapped box. Maybe it was your birthday, when your mother really shouldn’t have, but did, and handed over something, she said, was just the perfect thing for you. Was your gut reaction ever to think “not more stuff”?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you, like millions of others, are feeling Stuffocation. Join the conversation by tweeting your score, and look for #stuffocation on Twitter.
The above text was taken from the new Creative Social book, Hacker, Maker, Teacher, Thief: Advertising’s Next Generation, which features chapters from 35 leading creative directors and business owners.
And if you enjoyed this, also be sure to check out James Wallman’s new book — Stuffocation: Living more with less.
