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I first heard about Patricia Martin and her book RenGen (Renaissance Generation) while I was listening to Susan Bratton’s Dishy Mix, one of my favorite podcasts.
The basic premise of RenGen is that we are about to see a cultural movement that is similar in scope and scale to the Renaissance. This movement will be spearheaded by a sophisticated and demanding group of ‘cultural consumers’ who are expressing themselves creatively and organizing themselves into communities using the powerful tools provided by social media. To succeed in this context, brands will need to transform big ideas into reality (idea brands), build compassionate relationships (compassion brands), provide the tools to remove anxiety (anxiety brands), fuse opposites into a holistic collage and provide authentic experiences.
Now, Patricia is the founder and president of LitLamp Communications Group, which specializes in building brands through art sponsorships, so it’s easy to dismiss RenGen as a rather sophisticated sales brochure for her agency.
However, even if Patricia’s case for a cultural renaissance is a little overstated, her observations on the trends that are reshaping consumption are totally spot on. These are the same trends that led me towards my off consumption experiment. Specifically, these three trends are especially worth watching out for –
1. People Want Personalization: Social media has changed how we express ourselves creatively and organize ourselves into communities. Not only that, social media has enabled us to have conversations with each other about the brands we buy, which means that the brands that listen to these conversations, participate in them, or provide a platform for them, will emerge as winners. Social media has not only allowed us to control exactly what we read, hear or watch, but also enabled us to become influencers or mediators ourselves and shape others’ choices. Now, all of us are creator, editor and audience all rolled into one, and mass media has given way to personalized media. Moreover, now that we look at personalized media experiences as a given, we are beginning to demand personalized brand experiences, and part of that involves asking if the brands are relevant to our lives in the first place.
2. People Want Authenticity: A related trend is that we want real and authentic experiences, instead of packaged formulaic one. So, when we travel, we are not satisfied with the usual photo-opportunities; instead, we want to participate in adventure sports, or immerse ourselves in local culture, or go off the beaten track and explore nature. When we eat out, we are not satisfied with the fast food version of a foreign cuisine; instead, we want to taste the authentic cuisine in its authentic ambiance, which means that nothing beats home cooked food eaten at home. When it comes to music, we are not satisfied with listening to the latest hits on TV; instead we want to watch our favorite local band perform live, or even better, pick up a guitar and jam with them at a house party. Brands are great at reducing experiences into formulas and packaging them for mass consumption. Brands that resist the urge to reduce experiences and instead try to enhance them will build a cult following for themselves.
3. People Want Simplicity: Even as we crave for meaningful personal and authentic experiences, we realize that it is time, and not money, that stops us from having these experiences. We feel overwhelmed by the bombardment of messages from brands, media and retail and learn to filter them out. We feel overburdened with the demands of the million things we own and decide that we don’t really need them. We feel overstretched with our 12 hour workdays and realize that there is a trade-off between time and money. So, we don’t only want to personalize our media and brand experiences, we also aspire to personalize our work experience. It means different things for different people, but it often involves down-shifting, working for ourselves, or blurring the boundaries between work and play. Brand that help us reduce clutter and free up time will become the most important necessities, the only things we can’t do without.
You can call us the ‘new rich’ (like Tim Ferris does), or the ‘creative class’ (like Richard Florida does), or the ‘cultural consumer’ (like Patricia Martin does) — the bottom-line is that we are part of an increasingly important subculture that is different from the mainstream masses in important ways. Brand still have a place in our subculture, but only if they allow us to interpret them or even change them, instead of trying to dictate our desires or telling us what we need or want. By the way, brands don’t really have much of an option, because even though we are only a sub-culture today, we will be the mainstream soon.
Comments (11)
Gaurav-
Thanks for the post. Listen, you are walking proof of the RenGen phenomenon. A self-described “marketer and poet” you live a fused identity. Your values are right in line with the spirit of the RenGen, and I look forward to reading your book when it comes out.
Best,
Patricia
Gaurav,
Thanks for the shout out to DishyMix. Patricia Martin was one of my personal favorites this year in my guest line up. I really enjoyed RenGen and all she brought to the concept.
Next week I interview Joe Pine, the author of three books that are leading concepts in marketing:
Mass Customization, The Experience Economy and Authenticity, his latest, which dovetails beautifully into Patricia Martin’s estimation of the market opportunity in our culture today.
I’ve also read Timothy Ferris’ book and seen him speak at SXSW. I guess I’ll have to ask him on the show next!
All the best,
Susan Bratton
Host, DishyMix
CEO, Personal Life Media
your trends are correct, but one other message needs to accompany them …. you cannot fake it!!!
your motivation for trying to market to me is more important than what or how!!
if you are for me, i feel it, if you are for yourself, better forget it. that time is soon to be over
Gregory-
That’s right, stand up for yourself and ask for messages and products that feel real…authentic. RenGenners take their cues from the natural world. They’ll accept a naturally flawed product to a pristinely manufactured one every time. The tyranny of artificial perfectionism is dying off. Bye, bye Martha Stewart, hello Alice Waters.
Patricia
@Patricia: I can’t tell you how delighted I am that you dropped in here. I haven’t read the full book yet (I can’t buy any books through my year of being off consumption), but I have read your blog and the free chapters, and I agree with most of what you say.
The assertion that we are on the verge of a second renaissance is somewhat stretched though. I agree that a growing subculture is indeed in sync with the values you and I are talking about (authenticity, simplicity, personalization, community, back to culture, back to nature etc.), but I also believe that this subculture has always existed, in some form or the other, and never really moved into the mainstream.
As writers, and trend-watchers, we often project the values of this subculture onto the mainstream, and by doing so we sometimes play a part in making them ‘more’ mainstream.
On the whole, however, these values will never really become mainstream. Most people will never really embrace art, or go back to nature, or go off consumption.
Even though I don’t really want to, I find myself agreeing with Roger Sandall’s views in The Culture Cult, and especially, his essay on 10,000 Years of Nostalgia.
@Susan: Dishy Mix is now officially my favorite podcast. I totally loved your interview with Joseph Pine and it has set me on a wild goose chase on the idea of the noble savage.
Yes, you should interview Tim Ferris. He’ll be perfect for your podcast.
BTW, if you have any more signed copies of books lying around, do think of me. I can’t buy any books in my year of being off consumption, so I’m basically relying on the generosity of friends and strangers. In any case, as you can see, I’m making it a habit to write about your podcasts.
@Gregory: Yes, authenticity is a core personal aspiration for many of us now, and since we often realize our aspirations through the brands we buy, we are now demanding that brands be authentic too.
Well, brands, like all economic offerings, are inherently inauthentic, so we are really talking about brands becoming ‘more authentic’, or brand trying to ‘cue authenticity’.
But, what you are talking about is perhaps brands becoming ’selfless’. Yes, that’s a big thing too, and many brands are also trying to ‘cue selflessness’ in their messages.
Gaurav-
Ooooh. Love a lively debate. I have found that people who like feeling a part of the indie sub-culture resist the notion that there are many more people like themselves out there. It’s antithetical to being “indie.” Because the web is somewhat invisible in the way it masses people, it’s easier to believe cultural consumers are still a “subculture.” I agree this kind of consumer has been around for a long time. I’m challenging just a bit the idea that they will always remain so during the coming rebirth of the civilization. The 90M members of MySpace use it as a vast digital canvas to express themselves. This goes beyond glorified “personals” and elevates it into the realm of festivals and craftsman parades of the Italian Renaissance where lots of average people jumped into the act, sewing tapestries onto their clothes, parading in the town square with oil paintings of saints. If I am guilty, as you suggest, of inflating numbers to make this seem like a mass movement, (and I have numbers that prove otherwise), then is it possible that those who identify most with RenGen values also want to remain slightly apart from the masses as a way of enhancing their uniqueness? Just askin’?
Patricia Martin
@Patricia: I too love a lively debate.
You got me there, didn’t you?
I also agree that the explosion of user-generated content has dramatically democratized the creation and distribution of art. Still, to claim that we are on the verge of the rebirth of civilization because 90mn people have a MySpace page seems excessive to me.
I do realize, of course, that I’m playing the devil’s advocate here, at least in part. Still, I would love to hear your views on the first few paragraphs of Roger Sandall’s 10,000 Years of Nostalgia, the part before he starts talking about Xenophilia and Freud.
Hi…a really interesting debate here. Love it when the author joins in!
My $0.02 - I feel that the core lies in the third trend - need for simplicity. Because of the bombardment of brands, people become information hungry. This turns into a vicious cycle of mistrust. Hence, any option which makes decision making very simple - a no-brainer - would be welcomed.
The basic need of simplicity gives rise to the other two trends, and together they form a convoluted circle!
And yes, I don’t really feel we are on the verge of a cultural revolution in terms of consumption. But, I haven’t read the book yet. So, the opinion might change after that!
@Sandeep: Yes, I agree that the need for simplicity is the most powerful because it operates at the level of a pressing “need”, while personalization and authenticity operate at the level of “wants”.
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