“This plague has been a great scourge, but it has also served as a good broom, for it has swept away some, my children, from whom I never thought we would free ourselves… If things always worked out this way with the plague, it would really be a sin to speak ill of it”. It was in these words that the character of Don Abbondio, in Manzoni’s The Betrothed, described the epidemic that had brought about the demise of Don Rodrigo.
The participants in this seminar devoted to the topic of new consumer models observed that the current financial crisis is beginning to be viewed in much the same way by more astute commentators.
This approach sees the crisis as a period of unease, different from those of the past, which has accelerated the pace of changes that were already in progress, including technological innovations, integration between cultures and a growing awareness of resource depletion. It also embodies a sense of a time of difficulty which, once passed, will reveal a changed world characterized by different values and new behaviors, chief among which will be a withdrawal from fast living, choice from a limited range of options, a selective reclamation of the past, a demand for authenticity and new rules of ethical conduct.
It also envisages that the legends of Faust and Don Juan, synonymous with the “all at once” and “life is now” culture, will fade together with modern society and the present-day that spawned them – and with them will go the model of the compulsive consumer devoid of intentionality.
The participants observed that the economic and social model identified with the “American way of life” has now been called into question, as has the West’s way of looking at the world and interacting with it.
Individuals have once again begun to plan and to understand that they are part of a greater communal endeavor (as in Nenni’s “cathedral” parable). Their consumption has also become creative, informed and mature, marked by an ethical dimension (it is collective, social, and peer-to-peer) and an aesthetic dimension (linked to an appreciation of the pleasure of small things, fragility and Leopardian anticipation). Consumers are maturing; thanks to the possibilities offered by technology, they are more autonomous in their choices (information asymmetry has disappeared) and businesses – now forced into what is (at the very least) an equal relationship with their clients – must adapt.
Spending patterns have also shifted to different forms of consumption and any attempt to maintain market share by reducing prices is futile and counterproductive. Today’s consumers look for models that are within their budgets (right pricing), tend to buy services more than products and are guided in their decisions by ethical considerations.
In short, the participants concluded, once the storm clouds of the crisis have lifted and the sun is revealed, it will shine on a very different consumer landscape.
