Your Patriotic Duty

The gallery in woburn walk has one of these posters in the window (although I got this on Flickr.) Says it all really. We should make up some placards and get down Oxford St.

P

Inherent Contradictions

The way things work becomes clear in times of crisis. Marx believed that capitalism contained inherent contradictions that would eventually be its downfall. Well, they don't come more contradictory than the current situation where the government lends public money to bankers hoping they will lend that money to borrowers. The banks prefer to use the money to clear bad debts rather than create even more bad debts by lending it to businesses in a recession. If the banks did lend all the money then we could all get out of the recession faster but the banks have to be primarily self-interested as long as they are still private institutions. Same goes for consumers: we should all spend our way out of the recession but common-sense tells us to pay off debts and save our money. Catch 22. Good article by Simon Jenkins in today's Guardian.

COMPARISON SITES

A recent study by E-consultancy and DoubleClick shows that 10 per cent of all online sales are now coming through price comparison sites; a huge proportion!

This is frugality on another level as consumers strive to get the best deal possible. This growth in awareness of competitor pricing is likely to have an impact on retailers as they will have to market themselves carefully if they do not want to risk being undercut by their competitors.

Postconsumerism 2

What kind of tipping point will 2008 be?

With the seismic shifts of the credit crunch and escalating oil prices hitting us just as public concerns for the environment reach an all time high, 2008 is beginning to be seen as a crunch year heralding in fundamental social changes. I was wondering if 2008 will have anything in common with earlier tipping point years and what we should do in response.

Will 2008 be 1929 again? The Wall Street crash was the most devastating economic crisis in the history of the US, triggering the Great Depression, mass unemployment and a decade of decline across the world’s industrial nations. If this is what we’re in for get your cash out of the banks before they collapse.

Will 2008 be ’45 again? Britain came out the war on the winning side but skint. A decade of austerity followed. People grew their food, made do with what they had and wasted nothing. We came out of it with the Welfare State. Get your name down for an allotment.

Will 2008 be ’73 again? The OPEC oil crisis led to increasing price of petrol and the (temporary) end of the big American car. In Britain, escalating cost of living intensified industrial strife over the following decade. Power cuts, strikes and 3 day weeks defined the 70’s. Buy some candles.

Will 2008 be ’98 again? For months the media whipped up fears of a recession but it turned out to be a storm in a tea cup. The economy kept going and was ultimately buoyed by the dotcom boom. Stop reading the papers.

Or will 2008 be nothing like any of the above yet just a little like all of them? People trade down to more eco-friendly cars not only for environmental reasons but because petrol is just too expensive; people start growing their own food because food prices skyrocket; people stop betting everything on the housing market because the banks can’t afford to give anyone a mortgage so there is little growth in value; and then the banks start offering better saving rates because they need to raise capital and so people achieve a healthy level of personal savings.

OK, making forecasts like this is just asking for it but here’s one that seems likely: the big cultural debate of the next decade will be between the advocates of sustainable living in the broadest sense and those who still encourage conspicuous consumption.

Maybe.

Phil

Postconsumerism

Funny old thing, serendipity. There I was reading an article from last weeks Campaign predicting the end of conspicuous consumption, when one of our clients called to ask what I thought the implications of long-term economic slowdown would be for his brand.

So what do we think? Are we about to enter a long decade of austerity? Will people have to pare down their desires and aspirations? Will we all be growing our own veg and learning how to mend stuff again? Will an economic downturn be a blessing in disguise for the environment as, for example, rising petrol prices pushes drivers towards non-petrol cars? What implications will all this have for the lifestyles people chose for themselves and for the brands that we work with?

These are big questions, let’s see if we can pool our collective brainpower and come up with some bright insights.


Phil

From the pockets of babes....

While M&S has just reported a nasty downturn in trade (this isn't an ordinary slump, it's a M&S slump etc), online retailer ASOS is going great guns, with trade almost twice what it was this time last year. And not simply because of the growth in online shopping.

The key difference is the customer - ASOS attracts a younger shopper. And, only 3% of 18-24's claim to borrow to finance their lifestyle. So they're the last people to be hit by the credit crunch. So while everyone else tightening their belts, the younger shopper is buying new designer ones.

Makes you wonder whether any of our brands should be thinking about this age group. Targettted jewellery collections? Is it an opportunity for charities? Or a drinks brand? Any thoughts?

Dan H