There’s been a fundamental change in consumer behavior over the past several years. That change is a shift in consumer motivation, from deals and convenience, to causes and values. This generational shift in consumer values is being driven by the worldviews of Millennials and Generation Z’s and their growing awareness of the threats posed by the titans of the Web.
Many consumers, particularly the Boomers, are asleep at the wheel and are seemingly quite content with the convenience of the Web and online marketplaces. What many fail to realize, however, is that the titans of the Web (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon – GAFA) have successfully ensnared consumers in various data sharing and consumer trafficking schemes, where consumers are tracked, isolated and manipulated in ways they can’t even imagine. These rather insidious schemes, powered by AI algorithms, operated unchecked and unquestioned for years, causing so many of us to unsuspectingly adopt the values and desires of the creators of these AI algorithms.
Everything was going wonderfully for the GAFA folks and their various web minions, until the Millennials and Generation Z’s (MZs) woke up to a world they didn’t like and began to ask questions. They found that the actions of their grandparents and parents had created a world suffering from pollution, climate and natural resource abuses, and they saw unprecedented income disparity and economic exclusion resulting in the greatest disparity in societal wealth in our 250 year history. These realities, coupled with their awareness of the threats posed by GAFA’s behavior, have led these younger generations to believe that the world’s problems are caused by the current values contained in our free market system, and they are now quite motivated to either change or completely replace the system.
The younger generations think that convenient and cheap today means something bad will happen tomorrow. Gen X’rs will buy 8 of something if they can get a good deal. Boomers pride themselves on gouging business owners, where the biggest bragging medal comes from forcing a business to lose money on their purchase. MZs are the opposite. If someone is selling 3 for 1 – 50” tv’s, that means someone, something, and/or somewhere got the short end of the stick. It could be our planet, climate, under compensated workers, or excessive bonuses for those executives who mastermind the hurt locker for all participants.
As a product of their understandable anger and discontent, Mz’s are asking questions: Do we need 3 tv’s given the real consequences in being able to buy them for $100? Is it ethical and moral to pay less for something when someone is being hurt by it? How much should this cost in order to sustain our natural resources? How can we align our purchases with our values? As a result of these and many other questions, MZ’s are willing to wait, save and purchase the one thing from the right business that conforms to their values, and GAFA cannot break that code.
Whether you agree with them or not, MZs are 130m strong, and are growing wiser, stronger and more vocal each day. They will not stop their march on our free market values until those values change. Accordingly, we need modify and be more mindful of how we make our goods and services, how we treat our partners in the supply chain, how we treat and honor our employees, how we transport, distribute and retail our products, and lastly, how we go about making sure the victors in the marketplace build and reinvest wealth to benefit society as a whole.
For MZs, a caused based economy means that all matters of commerce must be aligned with the values they share. Values are never a fad; they are permanent and foundational to our civilization. Sometimes those values get lost temporarily in myths, like the Amazon myth that cheap stuff delivered instantly to your door is somehow benefiting our society and our planet. If you really study them, you will see that MZ’s are and will continue to be the most powerful and greatest generation in history, and they are leading a revolution to restore values and civility in our economy and in our world.
