Gauravonomics Blog

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I spoke at the Interesting New York conference yesterday and I totally loved it.

Here’s the final version of the slides I used for my talk –

– and here’s a transcript of my talk –

[SLIDE 1] Good afternoon! My name is Gaurav Mishra and I’m the marketer who went off consumption. I know… I know… it’s weird enough to say “off” and “consumption” in the same sentence and if you add “marketer” to the mix, it become so strange that it’s almost sublime.

Well, I found myself in the unenviable position of having to explain it all to a twelve year old girl the other day and I all I could do was to talk about dolls.

[SLIDE 2] So, let’s start with a story about dolls. But, first, let me ask all the lovely women in the audience: how many of you have owned a doll? [most women raise their hands] Great! How many of you have owned a hundred dolls? [one or two giggles] Come on, don’t be shy, raise your hand. [one woman raises her hand] Great! Wow! A hundred dolls!

Well, all girls want to buy dolls. First, they want one, then they want ten, then they want a hundred. For a while, in spite of how many dolls they have, they want to buy more. Then, when they are twelve (or twenty two), they stop buying dolls. The interesting thing is that even when they stop buying dolls, even when they stop playing with their dolls, they can’t imagine giving them away. Then, even that changes and, one day, they wake up and decide that it’s OK to give their dolls away.

That’s exactly what happened to me.

[SLIDE 3] I was the typical corporate fast-tracker in Mumbai until I realized last year that I was split into two halves. As an individual, I was tired of being targeted by commercial messages from the brands-media-retail triumvirate. As a marketer, I loved the art and science of marketing, adored brands, and was hardwired into the idea of capitalist free markets driven by consumerism.

My endeavor to reconcile these two parts of me has led me down some interesting paths.

[SLIDE 4] First, I stopped buying new dolls.

On March 23rd, I went off consumption for a year and decided to buy only the bare necessities. The basic principle is that apart from groceries, not much else is a necessity, which means no car, no maidservant (it sounds strange in New York, but everyone in India has household help), no eating out/ drinking out/ going out unless it’s free, no buying books/ CDs/ DVDs/ clothes/ accessories and no mass media.

[SLIDE 5] Then, I gave away my old dolls.

One catch in my off consumption experiment was that I was still allowed to consume what I already had (and I had a lot of stuff).

Two months into the experiment, I got an opportunity to take a year off my corporate career (and my seventy hour workweek) to teach and do research in Washington DC. It involved a significant salary cut (especially if you factor in how much more a dollar can buy in India compared to America), but my needs were already minimal, and it was an easy decision for me.

I have always been fascinated with the idea of a life that fits into a backpack. So, instead of storing my stuff (in temporary storage or with family and friends), I decided to give it away to strangers, for free. I ran a contest on my blog and announced that I would give away everything I own to the reader who told me the most interesting story about why they should be the one to get it. More than twenty people shared their stories with me (thanks to some coverage in mainstream media) and I gave away my things to five of them. What I was left with fits into four bags, instead of one backpack, but it’s liberating to know that everything I own is in those four bags (or in my bank account).

[In retrospect, I should have had another slide here]

When I moved to Washington DC, I didn’t want to set up a full household, so I started searching for a furnished apartment. The only apartments I liked were $3000 a month corporate apartments but I couldn’t convince myself that they fit into my off consumption experiment. So, I decided to go to the other extreme and stay at a hostel, with a hundred other people, some of whom I may be teaching in Spring. I share a room with a (sweet but untidy) twenty one year old Japanese guy and it’s an interesting experience after living alone in a three room flat throughout my adult life.

So, that’s my story so far. It has been more interesting and less difficult than I expected it to be and I still have six months to go.

Whenever I tell people (friends and strangers) about my experiment, they have a million questions to ask. I’m sure you have some questions too, so I’ll answer the three I’m asked most often.

[SLIDE 6] The first question I am asked is: why go off consumption? Here’s a chart I have often drawn (mostly on napkins) to explain why.

Every society has a materialism curve. In the pre-materialistic stage, people are driven by survival. In the materialistic stage (where most of us are), people are driven by a combination of things, experiences and relationships. It’s tempting to think of these three as a continuum (things, then experiences, then relationships), but they are often intricately interlinked. In the post-materialistic stage, people are driven by their search for meaning. This chart is often asymmetrical in one direction or the other and I have used a symmetrical chart only for convenience.

At some level, my off consumption experiment is an endeavor to move beyond things and experiences and search for meaning. I’m hoping that by freeing up the space (more metaphysical than physical) occupied by things and experiences, I’ll create a cognitive and spiritual surplus that will allow me to search for the meaning of my life.

[SLIDE 7] The other question I am often asked is: how can you even talk of post-materialistic values in a pre-materialistic country like India? Here’s another chart I have often drawn to explain why.

Within this big materialism curve (let’s say, for the world), there are small materialism curves for each country, each community. Therefore, in India, where so many people own so little, it’s possible to feel that you own more than enough, even if you don’t own as much as, let’s say, most Americans do. So, what I gave up wasn’t much in the context of how much all of you own, but it felt like a lot in the context of how little everybody else in India managed to get by on.

[SLIDE 8] Finally, after I have explained all this, I’m often asked: OK, I understand the off-consumption part, but where does the marketer fit in?

Well, as I have said before, I saw these seven consumption trends, in developed countries like America, but also in developing countries like India — from multi-tasking to down-shifting, from fitting in or standing out to being, from owning to experiencing, from buying to sharing or exchanging, from hoarding to giving, from conspicuous to conscious and from individuals to groups or communities.

When I observed people wanting to spend less, swap instead of spend, go local, go organic, stop buying things, or generally say no to brands, one part of me (me-as-a-consumer) knew exactly what they are talking about, but the other part of me (me-as-a-marketer) wondered what will happen to our brands when more people go “off consumption” because they are tired of consuming, tired of things.

If you are a marketer, you can react to these trends in two ways. You can ignore them until they hit you, or you can immerse yourself in them, like I have chosen to. I have made some of these consumption decisions myself (from multi-tasking to down-shifting, from owning to experiencing, from buying to sharing or exchanging, from hoarding to giving, from conspicuous to conscious) and I’m sure there are many other consumers like me who are asking themselves and the brands they buy similar difficult questions.

[SLIDE 9] I’m writing a book about these trends and I’m looking for stories of people who have asked themselves some of these questions. So, if you know someone who has stopped buying dolls (or given away their dolls), do drop me a line. I’ll be grateful to you. Thank you.

Some of the other talks I liked most were given by David Art Wales (secret societies), Scott Ballum (another conscious-consumption experiment), Faris Yakob (recombinant culture), Dallas Penn (the Bodega food pyramid), Aaron Dignan (the game of life) and Morgan Friedman (how to wander around in a city). I’ll link to the videos once they are up.

The high point of the event for me, however, was meeting Grant McCracken who writes a fascinating blog about the intersection of anthropology and economics.

Thank you David, Rick and Jinal for putting up the wonderful show and having me over.