Moral status anxiety

Sometimes reading in-flight magazines is worth it. This from the April 2007 KLM magazine, in an article called 'Sign of the Times':

Consume or create?
Uber trendspotter Faith Popcorn argues that we are all increasingly affected by 'moral status anxiety'. Our individual standing, she says, is more and more likely to be measured not in terms of what we own, but how far we've developed ourselves, and what we do for others. Linked to this are predictions of the end of conspicuous consumption. Conscientious consumption will take its place: according to Popcorn, the holiday others will envy us for won't be the most expensive, but the one during which we can help the most people. 'Less is better' was the surprising cover line on consumer style magazine Wallpaper's Jan issue. Or, as other forecasters have put it, 'less is the new more'.

'Until now, everything has been about how much you consume', says Reinier Evers, the Dutch founder of consultancy company trendwatching.com. 'But consumption is too accessible now. What really counts today is status - at that comes from your eco-credentials, or your status in the virtual world, or your creativity as a consumer'.

I find myself in near complete agreement. Especially interesting is the notion that consumption is too accessible. Since we are generally seeking status with many of our purchases (and nearly all our luxury purchases), an important part of the purchase motivation is that 'I'm getting something hard to get', something that 'sets me apart from others'. This results in an infinite march towards more and more expensive / exclusive items. This can be seen in the increase in contemporary super-luxury consumerism: bespoke and individualized products produced at great cost, often with a high degree of manual work involved. Limited edition is the way to go, tied to the creation of high value experiences around consuming the product. Hence the rise of the built-to order Bentley where you can go the factory to watch your custom cigar humidor being installed in your new dashboard.

No question that this is bad news, for many obvious reasons (see my video below). The inflation of value in status consumerism is rendering it increasingly worthless and at the same time overpriced. More importantly, this road leads to misery not happiness.

Hence the appeal of alternative ways to express status. The new avenue for business is clear: provide ways for consumers to express status that are not tied to physical consumerism (buy and display). Create products that enable: personal expression, the recording and display of activity, virtuous and impressive behaviour, and things about us that set us apart from others. This is what I have been calling 'virtual status', and is the beginning of a new market. In Stefano Marzano's terms: 'an unlimited market'.