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Is the Economy Creating Happier People?

Guest post by: Stefan Doering

Article Overview: One of the great things about the great recession is people are re-learning how to live more simply… and happily. Here is how to adjust your business to accommodate this growing trend.

Is the Economy Creating Happier People?

Yesterday I met a wonderful colleague for lunch. Devin Stewart, the director of the Carnegie Council’s Global Policy Innovations, played a major role as a platinum sponsor for our Green Entrepreneur Summitthree weeks ago.

We had just finished agreeing to work together on our next Summit in November when I mentioned I was inspired to write this week’s newsletter from one of the best articles I’ve read in a while: But Will It Make You Happy?by Stephanie Rosenbloom, in the New York Times.

He laughed and said he and his wife Ayano read the same article, inspiring them to put their two-year apartment search on hold until they sorted out some things in their lives and careers.

We discovered at lunch that Devin, Ayano and I have been scaling back in our material possessions and finding it was actually making us much happier.

And we’re not alone. In the US— one of the most materialistic societies in the world— people have been downsizing by the droves. And while driven by the economy, many experts and researchers agree this is not going away anytime soon.

In fact, people are finding it is a new way of being. And if you listen to various experts, it is here to stay. Rosenbloom writes, “Many retailing professionals think this is not a fad, but rather ‘the new normal.’”

Goodbye to wanting more and bigger things in order to be happy. Goodbye to wanting to “one up” others. Goodbye to caring about what the Jones’ are doing next door.

So what is taking its place? Two things:

1. Experiences—quality time, leisurely activities, more frequent and smaller vacations to name a few. Recent research shows that spending on fulfilling experiences creates longer-lasting happiness over buying material items. Relishing longer what a person buys and does, rather than the instant gratification and impersonal experiences from online purchases and mega stores is key.

2. Strong Relationships—with friends, family and colleagues creates happier people, according to recent research. In the Times article Roco Belic, an LA filmmaker creating a documentary “Happy” says, “The single one trait that is common between every single person that is ‘happy’ is strong relationships.”

How to position your business to address these two shifts?

Create a Powerful Experience With Your Customers. Bring in the emotions, fun, excitement. Make it memorable. Slow down the sale cycle. Make it exclusive. Have them anticipate the purchase more. Anticipation creates excitement.

One of the hottest strategies corporate America is embracing is co-creation,where companies work together with customers to generate a more powerful experience and brand loyalty.

Nike is a master at this with their crazy popular Nike iDprogram, where online customers can design and make their own shoes before having them shipped directly to them.

B-to-C companies should eliminate the “Pile it high and sell it low” strategy and replace it with making the experience fun, hip, cool, and/or meaningful. Build a story behind your products and services. What made the Body Shop so successful wasn’t there all natural and healthy products. It was the story each product had about how the customer was helping a community of indigenous women in Africa make a living for themselves, for example.

Also, make sure your products and services enhance home life and improving the experience and living at home. WalMart has started bundling themes of products, so you can bet it is an important trend.

Build strong relationships with your stakeholders.

Stakeholders include your vendors, employees, community, customers, other synergistic businesses and so on.

Social media is helpful in this regard, but make sure they are strong relationships. It really doesn’t matter if you have 28,348 “friends”, “fans” or “followers” unless you really are connected with them.

It’s the quality, NOT the quantity. Work together and leverage each other’s resources through referrals, co-branding, partnering and so on. Do a joint mailing list promotion for example.

So here Devin and I are sitting at lunch excited about the article in the Times. Excited because in this recession, many people are forced to get their happiness back on track.

And after all, downsizing means less stress, less debt, and less consumption of resources.

And a smaller carbon footprint.

And while some economists and members of our society still judge success based on the dollars generated by the consumption of goods and services (Gross Domestic Product), more and more of us are finding this is to be a flawed measurement tool.

Perhaps most importantly, happier people means less violence and more a peaceful society.

And in the end, isn’t that what we’re really all about?

Action Steps for the Week:

In your business look to see what you can do to amp up the customer’s experience of your business. Especially if you are a business-to-consumer play.

Study Apple Computers, the masters at this. It’s no coincidence they are one of the few retailers doing quite well right now.

Also take a look at your relationships. Which ones are strong? Which ones are NOT? How can you leverage the ones that are strong and build the ones that are lacking?

How can you partner with like-minded businesses to do more experience-based cross-promotions?

The cooler more interesting and innovative, yet simple, the better.

And remember, have fun and stay happy in the process. Customers will pick up on this and want to give you more business.

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Article Tags: changes in consumer spending, consumer spending, happier spending, managing finances, market changes, Market trends, marketing trends, reducing spending



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