Today I am going to do something that requires guts: I am going to predict the future. I want to make a prediction about the development of the economy and society. It is a prediction that (if it comes true) has far-reaching consequences for you as an entrepreneur or marketer. Do I have your attention? Then keep reading.
Well, I know that history wasn’t the most exciting subject at school (what a boring man Mr. De Ree was!), but I still want to start with a bit of history.
There was once a time…
From experience to meaning
…when a chicken was just a chicken and not an organic three-star chicken with a pedigree. Those were simpler times . Cars ran on petrol or diesel and never on electricity, hydrogen or holistic cow manure. Vegetables were always sprayed with poison, and if they weren’t, there were black spots on them, and you didn’t trust that.
Slowly but surely, entrepreneurs began to realize that you had to do more than the competition if you wanted to make a ton of money. (And of course entrepreneurs wantedmake a ton of money!) They discovered that they could win over the consumer by doing things big, bigger, biggest. People saw foolishness as an added value to a product.
Thematization of a product or sales location became important
It will come as no surprise that this development started in the United States, the country of exaggeration par excellence. People started adding amusement park-like elements to shops, department stores, offices and… well, all other places where money could be made. The product economy of the time changed into an experience economy. If you couldn’t offer an experience as a brand, you were out. Well, in the Netherlands and Belgium it never got as crazy as in America, but here too we knew what exaggeration was.
Society is constantly changing, so the experience economy didn’t keep up either. Rightly so, because the overly large Starbucks coffees with twelve toppings may have been impressive, but they were far from healthy. And the coffee beans didn’t necessarily come from responsible sources. (By the way, 99% of Starbucks beans are now Fairtrade, for which kudos!) And big Hummers do indeed provide a cool driving experience, but they have engines that burn an extraordinary amount of fossil fuel.
People started to see that all the exaggeration of the experience economy was destructive to the planet and to people. Yes, they said, a roller coaster on the roof of a hotel is fun, but it doesn’t make the world a better place. Consumers started to demand products that had meaning: that made the world a better place. Consumers demanded that entrepreneurs do their business in a socially responsible way. In a way that was good for people, animals and the environment.
The experience economy turned into a meaning economy.
Photo source: Lubo Minar on Unsplash
‘What? No organic spelt bread here?’
The meaning economy is the economic movement that currently determines the thinking and purchasing behavior of a large part of the population. There are a thousand characteristics of the meaning economy, but in summary it comes down to the following. In the meaning economy, the thinking and purchasing behavior of a large part of the population is determined by the thought: ‘Does my action contribute positively to people, animals and the environment?’ It is a product of the meaning economy that you hear people at the bakery say things like: ‘What? No organic spelt bread here?’ It is a product of the meaning economy that Lidl has replaced the roll of plastic bags in the vegetable department with a roll of biodegradable ones.
Change and adaptation
Where is the current economy headed? What will be the nextWe give you the biggest kind of database accurate and quality wise to help you connect your desired target audience with simplicity. Ultimately, we want to shop guide your company on the path of perfection where zero mistakes lies in you Database. We also update our database every week. Our database come whit databaase or hihg volume with list websites. trend? And will that trend last long enough to influence the thinking and buying behavior of the masses? These are questions that every entrepreneur must ask themselves. After all, it determines what you should sell and how you should do it. Before I answer these questions (I promised a prediction of the future, didn’t I?), let me first say this. A socio-economic shift never happens overnight. It happens gradually, over a period of many years.
Also, the previous economic situation never dies out completely. Elements of it will intertwine with the new situation. Starbucks’ oversized coffees with the most diverse toppings were typical products of the experience economy. But did they go out of business when the meaning economy came along? No. What happened instead is an adaptation: the oversized coffees in plastic cups became oversized fair trade coffees in paper cups. Better for the environment, better for people.
But okay, so much for the present and the past. What about the future? Because in my opinion, a new socio-economic movement is definitely coming. Are you curious?
Photo source: Naufal Giffari on Unsplash
The no-nonsense economy
My prediction for the future is as follows:
We are heading towards a socio-economic situation in which a large part of the population demands no-nonsense products that are sold in a no-nonsense manner.
I expect the meaning economy to transform into a no-nonsense economy (or nono-economy, as I now affectionately call the concept in my head). This economy will have the following characteristics:
A clear, straightforward approach from companies to consumers will be highly valued.
It will again be socially accepted to occasionally not be healthy or responsible.
Entrepreneurs who strip their product of all unnecessary marketing bells and whistles will gain ground.
Social responsibility will no longer be considered special, but self-evident.
Why I think this
I base my prediction on three factors:
There is the principle of counter-reaction. Almost every socio-economic development is a counter-reaction to the previous situation. The meaning economy is a situation in which entrepreneurs and consumers emphasize their social responsibility and involvement to the extreme. Therefore, it is to be expected that a situation will follow in which the opposite is the case.
I observe people. In my work and private environments, I hear more and more ridicule when someone brags about their veganism or their electric Toyota Prius. People are getting CSR fatigue (CSR stands for corporate social responsibility). Or maybe they are not so much CSR fatigue, but simply tired of being constantly confronted with the semi-holy CSR souls of companies and fellow human beings. (Semi-holy because a vegan still takes polluting flights, and because the organic baker does not necessarily pay his staff well or separate his waste.)
When can we expect the nono?
The product economy roughly ceased to exist shortly after the Second World War when the experience economy emerged. However, the experience economy took a long time to flourish: the 1980s and 1990s were its peak. From the 1990s onwards, the meaning economy made its entrance. This movement became dominant much faster: from 2010 onwards, we started eating quinoa en masse and paying CO2 compensation for air travel.
As I write these words, it is 2019, and I already see signs of the next movement. I suspect that the nono-economy will not need long to become big. Developments in society are happening faster and faster thanks to increasing globalization and the constant exchange of information between people all over the world. I think that the nono-economy will be at its peak in ten years (in 2029) . How long the nono-economy will dominate and what comes next? That is a discussion for the future. (Check out our blog overview again in the year 2029.)
The short-term consequences
I’ve said it before: big changes don’t happen overnight. Take the changes at Starbucks: making a company of that size socially responsible takes years. So don’t think you’re going to wake up next Monday and suddenly find a different world. Don’t worry.
However, that does not mean that you cannot already pioneer in the emerging demand for a no-nonsense approach. One successful way to do that is by applying humor, as the lemonade manufacturer Exota does. Another way is to strip your product or service of anything that comes close to ‘hot air’. Of course, sometimes you have to use a technical term. But there is a difference between using a technical term and then explaining it. Or using a technical term without explaining it, in the hope that your what is semrush? how to use it? customer will be impressed by the difficult words. Again, the sentence ‘We are user centric and data driven’ flashes through my mind. What is wrong with saying ‘We put users first and find numbers important’?
Communicate like a person, not a company. That’s what it’s going to come down to in the no-nonsense economy.
Photo source: Rafaël Balrak
The socially responsible elements of the meaning economy will to agb directory largely continue to exist in the nono-economy. The difference will be that the socially responsible aspect will be considered something normal, the status quo. The hipness around CSR will disappear. It will no longer be necessary to make a big statement that your coffee is fair trade. This will be a given.
The long term consequences
People will stop taking selfies with super healthy poké bowls with avocado and chia seeds. Because super healthy has become a standard. And on top of that, the masses will realize that selfies are excessive vanity. Away with all the pretentiousness, they will shout. There will be a purification among vegans: the vegans who are vegan out of deep conviction will remain. Those who are only vegan because it is hip to be vegan will have no problem outwitting cows again. (Because why would you deny yourself something tasty if you no longer get likes for it on Instagram?)
The meaning economy will continue to exist in the nono economy, but stripped of all the nonsense. It will also be okay again to occasionally not be good. Sinning will be allowed again. Bring on that lemonade with real sugar!
All this means that as an entrepreneur you will have to adapt your way of communicating . Because you can no longer distinguish yourself by shouting that your cars run on electricity (after all, electric cars will be commonplace by then), you have to stand out thanks to the quality of your product. So you shouldn’t just sell electric cars. You have to sell the best electric cars! For entrepreneurs and marketers it will be an interesting challenge to sell superior products in a clear, modest way. Start thinking about how you are going to do that.
