Co-creation 4.1 - Clearing the fog of "consumption": the fourth consumer era and the rise of sharing consciousness

The consumption era and sharing consciousness are not only a market and economic trend, but also promote people's optimal use of resources and the achievement of sustainable development goals. At the same time, it also promotes people's pursuit of quality of life and creativity. This article describes the relevant content and hopes it will be helpful to you.

Concepts such as consumption, consumers, consumer society, consumer market, consumption trends, consumption upgrade/downgrade, consumerism, new consumption, etc. are everywhere, but do you really understand what "consumption" is?

Why is it necessary to study “consumption” when studying “sense of co-creation”? The answer is simple. If we do not understand “consumption”, how can we see through the fog of new consumption and find a secure future?

This article takes a micro approach and discusses consumption, consumption characteristics and future trends at six levels.

1. What is “Consumption”? Baudrillard, Kevin Kelly, Sanpo Miura and China’s Generation Z
2. Miura Hideki's 4 consumer eras and changes in consumer values
3. The core of the fourth-consumer society: "Shared consciousness"
4. The fourth consumer society in Japan and the reasons for the emergence of "sharing consciousness"
5. Re-understanding China’s new consumption: replica and difference
6. The dividends of China's post-new consumption era - co-creation and sharing

Today, let’s first look at what “consumption” is and the evolution and advancement of Japanese consumption. In the next section, we will re-understand China’s new consumption.

1. What is “Consumption”? — Baudrillard, Kevin Kelly, Sanpo Miura and China’s Generation Z

Since the word consume appeared in English in the 14th century, its meaning has been constantly evolving.

"Con" means "all" and "Sume" means "take". In the early days, people mainly consumed food, so "consume" meant "use up", "burn up", "eat up", "drink up", and later extended to negative meanings such as destroy, waste, and exhaust.

Since the 18th century, "consume" has entered bourgeois political economy with a neutral attitude, but its negative meaning has not completely disappeared. In fact, it shows a critical stance, that is, the observation and criticism of a wasteful and extravagant social living situation.

With Baudrillard, "consumption" becomes very different.

1. Baudrillard’s foundation: “Consumption” is a symbolic attribute

In 1970, French sociologist Jean Baudrillard published Consumer Society, a landmark work.

Baudrillard points out in his book:

• The establishment of a consumer society requires at least the following conditions: commodity production reaches a considerable scale, and people's daily consumption capacity, consumption desire and consumer market are fully cultivated and closely integrated.
• At this time, consumption is no longer only to meet the needs of social reproduction or people's daily needs, but to further satisfy people's non-productive consumption desires.
• Since the consumed objects have fully satisfied people's needs and desires in terms of practical functions, the entire capitalist consumption has begun to transition from the consumption of the usefulness of objects to the symbolic consumption of objects, and the symbolic value has replaced the use value . Therefore, consumption is no longer the consumption of material attributes, but the consumption of symbolic attributes.
• In The System of Objects it is clearly pointed out that: “To become an object of consumption, an object must become a symbol”.

To rephrase this in modern language:

• Consumer society is a social form centered on consumption, and its core feature is that consumption has become the dominant and meaningful basis of human life.
• In a consumer society, consumption not only satisfies people's life needs, but is also a cultural symbol, identity marker and social behavior .
• Consumption has become a key way for people to gain social recognition and satisfy their sense of self-worth . It is also one of the important driving forces for economic growth and social stability.

The theory of 1970, how powerful!

2. Kevin Kelly’s new understanding of “consumption” – from “ownership” to “participation”

Futurist Kevin Kelly believes that the development of technology and the Internet has brought about tremendous changes in our consumption habits, and consumption is shifting from traditional "ownership" to "participation."

People are no longer just passive recipients of goods and services provided by businesses, but have become creators, co-creators and participants. He calls this phenomenon the "sharing economy."

We are moving from a static world of nouns to a fluid world of verbs.

In the next thirty years, all tangible products will become intangible "verbs". Products will become services and processes.

Just like, cars will become a transportation service, a constantly updated material sequence that quickly adapts to user usage, feedback, competition, innovation and even wear. Whether it is a driverless car or a private car that you can drive, this transportation service is inherently flexible, customizable, upgradeable, networked, and can bring new conveniences.

Shoes will also no longer be finished products, but an endless process of shaping our feet. Even disposable shoes will become services, not products.

In the intangible digital realm, nothing is static, nothing remains unchanged. Everything is becoming something else.

--Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable

These forces are not destiny, but trajectory. They do not provide predictions about where we will go. They simply tell us where we will go in the near future, inevitably.

3. Sanpu Hideki’s new thinking: “Consumption” is achievement and free pleasure

Japanese sociologist Hidetoshi Miura has new thoughts on consumption in "The Fourth Consumer Age".

Sanpu Hideki believes that there is another word similar to consume, Consummate. Here, "Com" means "all", "Sum" means "total", and as a verb "Consummale" means to complete, realize, and achieve.

• Complete, perfect, impeccable, superb. It can be used to describe excellence or perfect results in a skill, art, behavior, or relationship.
• Related to sexual behavior, usually refers to experienced and skilled. For example: "He was a consummate lover".

Consomation in French also means " completion" and "achievement" .

In addition, Sanura Hideki believes that the key point is the derivative word "Consumatory" of Consummate, which is an important concept in sociology. It is translated as "self-sufficient" and can be extended to mean that the emotion brought by art and "my heart leaps with joy when I see the rainbow" can be achieved without any means.

This gives us a completely new insight - the word "consumption" not only means "use up, consume"; it also includes "accomplishing perfect achievement"; a stronger inference is that "consumption" also means "a kind of free pleasure without any means."

Finally, Sanpu transformed his ideas into a clear theoretical system - "The Fourth Consumer Era" (details later)

4. Interpretation of "Inspiration" - "Consumption" is a kind of meaningful consumption

In "Inspiration", Luo Zhenyu expanded on "consumption" and "consumerism" to a certain extent.

Scholar Xu Zhiyuan said, "Our society today is not actually short of material things, but short of meaning. The vast majority of consumption is actually consumption of meaning and identity."

Many people buy books but don’t read them, and this is actually the reason. For example, if you notice a book and really like the title, you buy it. Once you get it, you feel satisfied with the meaning of owning the book, and your interest in the book ends.

Therefore, Luo Zhenyu and others believe that possession itself is the realization of meaning, which may be the biggest secret of the new consumption era.

So what is consumerism? It is not about being lazy and extravagant, but about using consumption to solve the problem of lack of meaning.

For example, I buy an iPhone or a bag to prove that I am something. How can this be considered buying something? This is buying a meaning; in turn, it proves that I don’t have the ability to create meaning myself, and I need to buy something ready-made. This is called consumerism.

For the same thing, some people see it as consumption, while others see it as an investment.

5. Generation Z and Generation Alpha have different pursuits: “Consumption” is a kind of life sovereignty

With the collision and integration of digitalization, technology and ideas, Zygmunt Bauman's "liquid society" and the era of individualization have arrived.

Liquid society provides the basis for free flow, mutual connection, and loosening up at any time; individualization means that individuals break away from traditional collective social relations and structures, have complete personal rights, and can make independent decisions and shape their own lives.

In other words, you can finally decide for yourself what kind of person you want to be and what kind of life you want to live.

Therefore, these new humans have different pursuits for "consumption": from passive consumers to active people, evolving from consumer sovereignty to life sovereignty (the following is quoted from "Super Sense Recode").

• Earlier, the ideal life of Generation Z was described as seeking a sense of control, such as having more consumption choices and participation rights , defining their own pace of life and personality, which is essentially a kind of consumer sovereignty. However, in the past two years, the importance of new consumer groups in the entire marketing chain has continued to increase, and the demand for consumer sovereignty is escalating and expanding to the demand for life sovereignty.
• "Sovereign evolution" is not about providing products and services to the business world. It emphasizes that today's young consumers are well-informed, rational and savvy, and can deeply participate in sovereign consumption at all links of the consumption chain . Instead, it is about being able to reflect on and break the mechanism that shapes desires, and gain true sovereignty in life by independently mastering the resources to realize desires.
• Focusing on the "evolution of life sovereignty", young people have begun to reset their desires and try to form their own life scale. This includes consumption with reflection; not being ashamed of not having money and trying to live a good life; breaking away from the routine of commercial desires and establishing their own trust mechanism; re-expanding their physical and mental resources; finding ways to make all their resources find opportunities to operate and live freely; and rediscovering the value of life in rural areas and small cities.

This is also the underlying reason why you can see various small utopian communities, self-sufficiency, wild teachers, returning to hometown to start a business, planting trees in the desert, lying down across the country, Citywalk, dopamine happiness and other small interest explosions and "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" today.

More importantly, these new humans view the meaning of "consumption" not only as "owning and obtaining", but also as emotional satisfaction, life testimony, self-construction, etc .; they actively use "consumption" as a way and force to intervene in various social issues, and bring positive changes to society through practical actions.

Now, do you know what "consumption" is? Maybe you are more confused, which is right, because you begin to think about the nature and meaning of "consumption".

However, no matter whether "consumption" refers to "symbolization of objects", "achievement and pleasure", "participation and sharing", "meaning and identity" and "life sovereignty", "consumption" is no longer just about buying and using. It has unprecedented charm and unlimited imagination, and also means a better future.

2. Miura's four consumer eras and changes in consumer values

Brand Ape believes that among the many social consumption studies, if you want to have a more thorough understanding of China's consumption changes, trends and possible future, you only need to read "The 4th Consumer Age" published by Sanpu Hideo 10 years ago: on the one hand, you can read China's 50 years of consumption changes in the phenomenal world, and on the other hand, you can continuously explore the underlying logic of consumption changes from a rational perspective.

Sanpu Hideki divides Japan's consumption since the Industrial Revolution into four eras based on time, characteristics and attitudes :

1. The First Consumer Society (1912-1930)

Consumption background: prosperous economy and rising country.

The Takarazuka Revue was founded in 1913; Japan's first station department store opened in 1920; the Shiseido chain opened in 1923; Suntory Whisky/Tiger thermos bottles were put on the shelves.

Main group: consumption by the rich and a small number of middle class.

Consumption orientation: high-end, westward.

Consumption values: Private consumption that emphasizes status.

Benchmarking China: 10 years after the reform and opening up, those born in the 1960s consumed the four major items and became the first group to get rich.

2. The Second Consumer Society (1950-1974)

Consumption background: economic revival, rapid growth, and reshaping of national mentality.

1964 Tokyo Olympics; 1966 Toyota Corolla mass production "first year of private cars"; 1968 China became an economic power second only to the United States; 1970 Osaka World Expo.

Main population: 100 million people are becoming middle class. Small families and young housewives are appearing in large numbers.

Consumption orientation: larger consumption (bigger is better, large items, tendency towards big cities) and family consumption (pursuing a society symbolized by private homes and private cars).

Consumption values: Emphasis on private consumption for family and society.

Benchmarking China: accelerated urbanization, consumption by those born in the 1970s, the housing boom from 1998 to 2008, and the emergence of the middle class.

3. The Third Consumer Society (1975-2004)

Consumption background: economic bubble, population explosion, widening disparity, and financial reform.

7-11 convenience store in 1974; Sony's first cassette player in 1979.

Main groups: Singles born during the economic boom (freelancers), popular for individual food (eating alone/instant noodles/instant coffee), late marriage is popular.

Consumption orientation: European and American brands, high-end luxury fashion .

• From needs to wants: The pursuit of individuality and expression, toward a life of self-expansion.
• Consumption upgrading from material consumption to service consumption, and from household consumption to personal consumption.
• People no longer buy necessities of life, but non-essentials, goods that make people happy; people are willing to buy thin, short, and good-looking goods; they hope to be different and add new elements; they hope to be able to relax and have more personalized operating space.

Consumption values: Emphasis on personal private consumption.

Benchmarking China: New e-commerce retail started in 2008; personalized and self-pleasing national trends, etc.; the main consumers are the new middle class and those born after 1990.

4. The Fourth Consumer Era (2005-2034)

Consumption background: The economy has been in a long-term recession. Population is decreasing, consumption is shrinking, and housing problems are becoming more prominent.

MUJI, UNIQLO and Tsutaya Books were born.

Main group: Single individuals of all ages.

Consumption orientation: simplicity, leisure, and lifestyle tendencies; Japanese and local tendencies; the birth of sharing consciousness.

• From advocating fashion and luxury goods, yearning for the city, experiencing the focus on quality and comfort, and then transitioning to returning to inner satisfaction, a peaceful state of mind, local traditional characteristics, pastoral life, and the bonds between people.
• People still focus on interests, but they are no longer blindly selfish. Instead, they realize that society is a collective and have a stronger sense of social responsibility. When resources are scarce, they try to use resources as reasonably as possible to maximize their interests.
• Advocate an environmentally friendly, gentle and simple lifestyle.

Consumption values: transforming consumption into a process of self-enrichment and pursuing consumption with the meaning of life.

Benchmarking China: Starting from 2020, the Chinese romance of the Winter Olympics; the new poor and refined poverty; involution and lying flat; challenges and anxiety, yearning and action, and the pursuit of green environmental protection and sustainability. Core groups: post-95s, Generation Z, and digital natives.

"In a nutshell, the fourth consumption is getting rid of material abundance. This increases people's non-material desires, and they hope to communicate with each other, form new community connections (shared blocks, new community groups, story shops, etc.), and also hope to change from complete private ownership to common ownership and common use (sharing). It also reflects people's yearning for an ecological life." - Sanpo Miura

If you look closely, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that Miura's four consumer eras perfectly echo China's development over the past 50 years, especially the past two years (see the next chapter).

3. The core driving force of the fourth consumer era: "sharing consciousness"

Sanpu Hideki believes that the core element driving the fourth consumer era is - "sharing consciousness"!

This view, in fact, inherits Baudrillard's "Consumer Society" and Alfred's "The Meaning of Life" , and is later integrated with Zygmunt Bauman's "Liquid Society" and Kevin Kelly's "Sharing Economy" .

Three progressive logics help you understand Miura Sho’s "sharing consciousness".

1. What is "shared consciousness"?

• First of all, the consciousness of sharing, or altruism , is based on the possession of abundant material goods. Only in a society of overconsumption, when everyone has surplus, can people give away what they don’t need for others to use.
• Secondly, shared consciousness is not the same as uniformity and equality. Individualism, in which people should respect each other, is the premise for the existence and spread of shared consciousness.
• Third, shared consumption behavior means that many people jointly own or use an item, choose to rent rather than own, or recycle and reuse old items. Therefore, environmentalism will inevitably arise from it, and the lifestyle will tend to be minimalist, eliminating the unnecessary parts from the whole life.
• Fourth, in the past, people could gain a greater sense of satisfaction by monopolizing material things, but owning something that is bigger, more valuable, and rarer than themselves can bring a stronger sense of satisfaction.
• Finally, sharing consciousness does not deny private and individual life . On the contrary, more and more people, because of their desires that cannot be satisfied by private and individual life, seek satisfaction through sharing behavior.

In summary, a society that values ​​"sharing" places more emphasis on the relationship between people and the relationship between people and society, and thus "social consciousness" comes.

2. From personal consciousness to social consciousness

• In the past, material wealth was achieved through the private possession of material things; today, people’s judgment of value is no longer limited to simply obtaining satisfaction through the consumption of materials and services, but rather to whether relationships can be established between consumers, and whether purchasing goods can promote communication with people and form a circle.
• People's values ​​and behaviors tend to regard the act of establishing connections with others as a kind of happiness . People begin to care about how to build interpersonal relationships that do not rely on money. In other words, instead of showing off or flaunting their uniqueness to others, they look for commonalities with others and use this as a medium to create new connections with others.
• Third, before the consumer society, people focused on "things", and the products/environment/services made people feel satisfied, happy, and that they got the value they paid for. Consumption focuses on "people", and what is important is not what you consume, but what you do with whom.

A simpler understanding is the change from "happy" to "glad".

For example, a comparison between “I went to a theme park with my friends yesterday, it was so fun” and “I was so happy to go to a theme park with my friends yesterday” shows that the focus of the latter is on the friends . The feeling of being able to meet and the level of relationship between each other cannot be experienced through happiness.

Another example is the current economic consumption behavior. People will basically spend money on things they think are meaningful. Therefore, they will only be willing to spend money when they encounter something different from the past and think "this will make them happy" .

In the future, we will yearn for connections between people and between people and society more and more!

Image from the Internet: Beichen Youth WeChat

3. From Egoism to Altruism

• When the sophisticated egoism that prioritizes maximizing self-satisfaction is constantly weakened in the baptism of "sharing and social consciousness", an altruistic consciousness of considering others, or in other words, the idea of ​​wanting to do something for oneself, others, and society is naturally born.
• For oneself, the consumption and recycling of goods is regarded as the superficial purpose, but in fact what one pursues is to spend time fulfillingly. This is also the final and mature form of consumption - a process of transforming consumption into self-fulfillment.
• For others, what is important is not "what" you consume, but " what" you do with " who "; "what" is not "what", but "something meaningful" . In this process, the connection between people is naturally warm and mutually beneficial.
• For the community, they take out what they think can be shared for the community to use. Many such people form a neighborhood community circle. This new public utility is another kind of altruism. For example, on weekends, you can open your own study room/garden/tea room, community stall area, etc.
• In society, under the awareness of sharing, adopting behaviors such as using one thing for multiple uses, reusing old things, and reusing them will naturally form an environmental awareness. Tom Dixon's "Rethink", Sanpu's "Reorganization", and Brand Ape's "Re-coding" are all recycling and reuse, which is an environmental behavior.
• In addition, due to environmental awareness, there will be a trend of reducing the unnecessary and pursuing a simple lifestyle. The pursuit of traditional culture, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and close to nature has brought about an enhanced sense of returning to the local area.

Going further, altruism under "shared consciousness" is also a kind of " decentralized " consciousness. This kind of local consciousness and circle consciousness will inevitably produce anti-centralization and anti-authoritarian consciousness, which corresponds exactly to Kevin Kelly's point of view - the roadmap for the future: swarm thinking.

In short, consumption has finally shifted from pure material consumption to consumption that focuses more on emotional experience and spiritual values. We have shifted from personal happiness to de-privatized values, spiritual happiness, and social happiness.

4. What comes after the fourth consumer era?

Sanpu Hideki believes that the three characteristics of "sharing", "altruism" and "society" will evolve in depth, and enterprises and governments should assume more responsibilities:

• Transform the entire society (including lifestyle, business, urban construction, etc.) into a sharing society .
• Cultivate the unique charm of the place to attract more young people, enable them to enjoy local life and work in the local area.
• Try to shift from money and human relationships, and from economic principles to life principles .
• Promote consumption of social experiments and gradually blur the boundaries between manufacturers and consumers.
• By opening up the "private" to create the "public", we promote the formation of a new economy of shared environment: new public utilities, social convenience stores, community mobile buses, department stores (markets) created by citizens, travel connecting people, etc.

Finally, Sanpo Miura concluded that in the future, "sharing, social responsibility and social experiment" consumption will become the mainstream of world consumption. People will provide each other with the resources they need, maximize personal interests and maximize social responsibility.

4. The reasons for the emergence of Japan’s fourth consumer era and “sharing consciousness”

In order to prevent the above results from being reduced to a purely simple logical theoretical level, it is necessary to analyze the reasons for the emergence of Japan's shared consciousness.

In addition to the closure of young people's channels for self-realization due to " deteriorating economic environment " , " declining fertility rate " and " accelerated aging " , there are two other important factors in the emergence of Japan's fourth consumer era: "digital society" and "consumption reflection".

1. Informatization and digitalization are the basis for the continuous expansion of sharing awareness

• Information is different from matter. It only has value when it is utilized, disseminated and created. If information is merely monopolized or preserved without being utilized, its meaning and value will be lost.
• Informatization has enabled more people to obtain and share information, making information no longer monopolistic or limited. Through the Internet platform, people can obtain and share information anytime and anywhere, jointly build and expand the information base , and the awareness of information sharing continues to strengthen.
• With the deepening of digitalization, people have more diversified and extensive social networks , and people participate in more extensive communication and sharing. In this process, people not only obtain and provide information, but also establish new social relationships and enhance mutual trust and understanding, which also promotes the continuous expansion of sharing awareness.
• Finally, informatization provides more diverse and convenient consumption choices. People can access goods and services anytime and anywhere, making more personalized and convenient choices, which also promotes a broader and deeper consumer consensus and sharing awareness.

What are the results? More emphasis on knowledge and information acquisition; more emphasis on knowledge and cultural connotations; stronger transmission and co-construction of social awareness...

2. National reflection and consumption guidance

Hideo Miura, Masakazu Yamazaki, Soetsu Yanagi, Hiroyuki Hara, Riken Yamamoto, Chizuko Ueno, Kazuo Inamori, Muneaki Masuda, Nobuhiko Tanaka, Shu Yamaguchi..., whether they were scholars, artists, musicians; or entrepreneurs, design masters, brand people began to reflect on the consumption status of Japan at that time. They dismantled, guided and changed consumption with their expertise and attitude.

• The final, mature form of consumption is a process of transforming consumed goods into self-fulfillment.
• The biggest consumption object of human beings is life, so the final consumption can be said to be the achievement of life. Therefore, for human beings, the biggest problem is how to spend life.
• In order to make "life" and "death" meaningful, even if humans cannot escape the consumer society where new things and information appear one after another, they can choose to keep a certain distance from them. Furthermore, people pursue consumption that can enrich their lives and time, rather than consumption that consumes their lives and time.
• In the life of a marathon, "sharing" and "giving" are the keys to success.

The two most well-known ones are Kenya Hara and Hayao Miyazaki.

Kenya Hara’s practice: “ When our minds cool down from the heat of searching for innovation with eyes wide open, and return to normal body temperature, we will have the leisure time to take a good look at the things around us.”

• Regarding "value" - what we want to achieve is not the lowest price, but substantial low cost and the smartest low price range... This is also the value that our world should need in the future, and it is called "world reasonable value."
• About "design" - in this era, the mission of design is no longer to arouse people's desire to buy things they don't need, but to propose a "common social ethics" .
• About "designing the future" - it is not about how to produce attractive products, but how to re-establish a "life" that allows people to feel the attractiveness of objects; this is not a theory of graphic and product design, but a philosophy of social design - that is, the object of ideal design is not "objects" but "relationships between people."

Hayao Miyazaki clearly pointed out in "Spirited Away" that the alien world that Chihiro broke into is actually the real Japanese society, and in fact, the bathhouse I described is Japan.

• Parents who have become pigs - the consumption concept of enjoying now and paying later is the root cause of the complete loss of direction of Japan's bubble economy.
• Yubaba - an entrepreneur who pursues profit in the real world. Although she comes from the upper class of society, she is still unsatisfied and forgets her roots in pursuit of profit.
• Bailong - young people entering society, driven by workplace rules and social interests, gradually lose their original intentions, and use some means that violate ethical standards in order to get promoted and get higher salaries.

Because of the above guidance, consumers from different classes are also reflecting and even becoming more practical:

• Can consumption really bring happiness?
• Is the personality I show through consumption what I really want? Is it my true self?
• Finally found the joy of eating natural foods again. It seems to bring a sense of relief as well.
• Why can’t clothes be baggy? Why can’t clothes be torn?
• …

Japan's reflection on consumption is shifting from the European and American era that prioritizes material and time axes to the exploration and expansion of Eastern spiritual and spatial axes.

Once you understand the reasons, the result of "shared consciousness" is obvious: it constitutes the ideological core of the fourth consumer era, and there is no more appropriate word to describe it.

By the way, when Miura Hideki and others were reflecting on Japanese consumption, what were Chinese public intellectuals and experts doing: Are they enjoying wine and meat? Are they making shocking remarks? Are they trying to boost morale or to criticize Japan? Are they encouraging consumption? Are they plagiarizing? Are they cursing? Are they gossiping? Are they live-streaming? …

Luo Xiang said it very well in "13 Invitations": "Many arrogant views conflict with the basic common sense of ordinary people. There is nothing wrong with technical arguments, but they conflict with people's conscience."

Author: Brand Yuan, WeChat public account: Brand Yuan (ID: brand-yuan)