Navigating the Good Life

Keynes predicted a 15-hour working week by 2030 because people would ‘have enough’ to lead the ‘good life’. Yet in today’s reality we tend to confuse the ‘Good Life’ with the ‘Goods Life’.

People Want Meaning
When trying to understand tomorrow’s consumer rationale it is important to keep in mind that people want authentic experiences. Clearly, equating satisfaction with ‘more stuff’ is not working because the Meaningful Brand Index found that only 20% of brands are perceived to have a positive impact on people’s wellbeing and quality of life.

Rethinking Fundamental Questions
This means leaders need to ensure they deliver value in all dimensions and must rethink fundamental questions – such as why they exist and why people will choose to buy goods and services from them. Our Trend Management Toolkit contain a Trend Atlas of key society drivers, which underpin all future strategies. While we describe them separately, they are all interconnected.

Be Where People Are
In the digital Reputation Economy, organisations must work harder to be noticed and trusted. Edelmann’s Trust Barometer 2013 revealed that globally, 64% believe transparent and honest business practices are key to corporate reputation. Weconomics and collaborative consumption are redefining how we consume, as we move away from ownership in favour of access through sharing, mobility and affinity networks, such as Facebook, where 30 billion pieces of content get shared each month. Organisations must be where people are, adapting messages and offers to multiple devices

Think Global Act Local
Ours is a Mobility Society, in which culturally open, mobile Global Citizens are setting new standards in virtually all areas of society. By 2025, half the world’s population will have joined the ‘consuming classes’ and businesses must adapt to local contexts to strengthen their brand. This brings a need for Glocalisation (thinking global, acting local), in which provenance, regional identity and ‘deep storytelling’ are incorporated in order to deliver the ‘real thing’. Great brands connect by leveraging the power of the communities and cultures where they operate – recognising that ‘still made here’ carries a premium in a globalised world.

Making a Positive Difference
Conscious Consumption is rising as people recognise that business, and not government, should be the primary driver behind a sustainable future. Globally, almost 2/3 say they prefer to work for companies making a positive difference and people aspire to contribute positively through interaction and participation, buying into brands that contribute to Better World principles. This relates to Social Capital, in which individuals – be they customers or consumers – demand to know and feel exactly why they should engage with your brand.

New Measure of Success
Smart Wellbeing has become a key issue as people seek out intelligent health options and recognise that self-improvement boosts quality of life. The re-definition of the Good Life goes public, as we question conventional ways of measuring success and recognise the value of positive psychology. Economists has found that happy people are more productive, engaged, creative and focused. Productivity is said to increase by 40-50% in service and creative fields and that’s a lot in terms of revenue.

The Good Life Ecosystem
Ultimately, all organisations must operate using a Good Life Value System, measuring their performance using the ‘4P’ Bottom Line of People, Planet, Purpose and then Profit. Future strategies must deliver both the Rational drivers of Connectivity and Multi-Channel and the Emotional drivers of Betterness and Meaning. This focus on delivering a positive impact on people and the planet, with a purposeful ethos to match, guarantees place in the future for your organisation, and profit will follow.

Meet Tomorrow’s Consumer Typologies

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Images
1) The Treehotel in Harads North Sweden
2) IGI Presentation
3) What is Yours is Mine
4) Kastrup Søbad Project
5) The School of Life
6) The Good Life Ecosystem
7) Premium Hunters Lifestyle Collage
8) Happy Bohemes Lifestyle Collage
9) Global Sustainers Lifestyle Collage
10) Wellbeing Hunters Lifestyle Collage