Not so long ago I read one of Steemit’s post from a blogger who had visited Nike’s headquarters as a part of bloggers’ excursion. The article started with a controversial statement: “generally, I dislike big corporations, but Nike surprised me here”, and so on. After that there was a long and detailed story illustrated with cozy pictures. That was a nice posts, and I read it with pleasure.
But this got me thinking: what are the reasons for us not liking those corporations? By “we” I mean my generation and my circle, i.e. active people around 30, who are self employed, or growing their own small/medium business.
Generally speaking, those who live their live the way unimaginable ten to fifteen years ago.
What has changed? I’m back on my favorite horse – the ways and velocity of information circulation changed. And today we can work anytime, from anywhere, with whoever we want to. Me myself, for example, communicate every day with colleagues who reside on two different continents, and we jointly create products, set up and organize big event and so on. And this is natural.
I quit buying closes in big department stores where big brands are presented. Instead, I follow my designer friends on Facebook and order directly from them.
It wasn’t long ago when designer outfit was far from affordable to middle income people. In case talented designers created something and had no plans to producing en masse, they had to keep their prices high. Why? Simple enough, in order for the customer to meet this product, he or she had to physically appear in a boutique or show-room somewhere in the city downtown. To know of the product, we had to get to it with our feet.
And today we see pictures on the web, in FB or Instagram translation, contact the producer directly and buy or sell whatever we want.
And I wonder, will the next step happen? If 3D printer can produce everything we want, and over time one of those will be installed in each garage, is it possible that the only thing we will need is downloading profound instruction for the thing directly from the internet?
And the following question arises: how individual will our consumption become? Historically, Nike produced multimillion series or similar sneakers. There were limited line with several color variations and special décor. And today this company gives us an opportunity to build up our own model, like from the kid’s play kit.
And, given this, what would be the future of, let’s say, Nike? Most probably, it will be selling information, popularizing images and trends, and creating those images. In effect, it will become a creating marketplace for talent, a gathering point (virtual, most probably) for co-creation and product development.
It is a fact already: big brands sell us not good but rather a way of thinking and ideas. This car will free you up; this outfit will provide you comfort, or sexuality. And who am I selling this? You know and feel this all on your own.
Having taken this all into consideration, it is worth asking – what will happen with consumption? Will we learn to separate things from emotions and understand clearly, what we need, why and of what quality? Will we differentiate more one from each other, surrounding ourselves with more individual, not standardized stuff?
And, by the way, this decentralized and individualized consumption model accords well with the concept of crypto currencies. Do you want to know why?
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