I am sure by now you’re plenty tired worrying about when the economy will begin to turn around and grow again. For many of us involved in marketing, the state of the economy has taken more of our collective bandwidth from thinking of important innovation strategies to urgent survival strategies to cope with these uncertain times.
According to Silicon Valley futurist, Paul Saffo, we are experiencing more than a cyclical recession, it’s a total shift into the beginning of a new economic era that he calls the “creator economy”– where we create and produce at the same time. Read about it here.
The Crash of 2008 may indeed have been the first shoe to drop. I think we are at the beginning of something more– nothing short of a global push of the reset button. But the sky is not falling. What if our current state of affairs is the new normal? What if this is as good as it gets for the foreseeable future? Can we sustain our current model of producing more and more goods for more and more to consume? I don’t think so. It might be a better idea to place more thought on contributing to the flow rather than consuming the source. Where then, will the growth and expansion that drives our prosperity come from?
Where it has always come from– value creation. Regardless of what has been the main driver of economic growth this past century, (producers in the first half, consumers in the latter), creating and perceiving value has always been the key to growth and prosperity. This underlying principal has held commerce together throughout the ages–seemingly, one the corporate world has forgotten about. As a result, we find ourselves in our current drama. As long as human beings trade with each other, creating and perceiving value will drive lasting prosperity.
The Crash of 2008 is nothing more than a marker in time between the old and new order–the inflection point that defines the new economy we are entering into. Ideas born from inspiration as opposed to desperation will rule the day. Marketers who create more value from ideas that turn into goods that help all people enjoy a better, more sustainable life will be rewarded with prosperity. In this new idea economy, where the old idea of shared value (relationships) is the new currency of life, we need to keep our focus on inspired ideas that really matter to people.
We are experiencing, through these uncertain times, the creative destruction of the old for the new. A space is being created for the new market leaders who understand that lasting prosperity is the effect of thinking win-win, as opposed to “I win”–on creativity, not competition.
What do you think?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
One implication of this paradigm shift will hopefully be the elimination of “preceived value” in the consumer’s mind – they will no longer be able to pay for this illusion. Instead manufacturers of goods and service providers will have to rely on producing product of more intrinsic value than there competitors instead of relying on their advertising dollars (which have never been of any help to the economy by the way.) and marketing services providers to create “value” out of thin air. An example? Almost all major drug store chains, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, carry their own brands of OTC drugs like Excedrin. They contain the exact same compounds and sell for almost half the price. Well guess what? In 2008 sales of Excedrin were dramatically down and CVS was one of the few retailers to post a profit because so many consumers bought the CVS brand instead of the higher priced brands with the higher “perceived value.”