Breaking bad habits in 2022

Is shame a good motivator?

Have you seen the recent Rent the Runway campaign that declares Fast Fashion as "garbage"? While I have to acknowledge that the campaign is actually doing some good in society by giving consumers the ability to dispose off of their old garments in a more sustainable manner, it is missing some of the nuance that one would uncover if we asked what "fashion fashion" means today. Here's the problem -

By declaring so-called fast fashion as "garbage" or as something that is "unwearable", the campaign shames the very people it is trying to attract.

If you examine the meanings around "fast fashion" today, you'll find that consumers are attaching meanings around sustainability, ethics, and quality already to the macroculture. This goes to show that the efforts of brands like H&M, Zara and others is paying off - i.e. consumers no longer assume that Fashion Fashion = Unsustainable. Of course, there's a long road ahead, but that kind of blatant assumption is no longer made like it maybe was two or three years ago.

The second thing we also noticed running this quick search was that consumers who are buying from so-called Fast Fashion brands are concerned about "fitting in". So likely, a lot of their motivation to care about sustainability is driven by the desire to avoid shame or embarrassment. In such a scenario, if you have a competitor making you feel shame, it's only going to push you away rather than bring you closer to an alternative solution.

Which reminds me....

We recently published a new episode of our podcast, and it just so happens to be on the future of luxury apparel.

The future of luxury apparel: Season 2, Episode 2 of Why Meaning Matters.

Here's a short snippet of our conversation from episode 2. If you'd like to listen and subscribe to the show, click here.

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Report: Integrity in personal care

What drives believability and the feeling of value and efficacy in personal care?

It's all about integrity.

Integrity has emerged as one of the single most important factors helping consumers in their decision making process. [We discovered integrity and its importance to personal care through our Signals platform where we track the development of early signals of opportunities and threats in the context of various industries and categories.]

In this 12 minute video (with 6 additional minutes of Q&A), we provide a summary of a detailed ethnographic analysis of integrity in the context of personal care. The analysis was conducted by our PhD Concierge over the course of one business week, using our AI Anthropology engine, MotivBase Trends.

The analysis answers the following key questions -

1. What does integrity/believability mean to consumers in the context of personal care?
2. What are consumers' motivations, attitudes, values, and fears in the culture of personal care products and integrity/believability?
3. What are the opportunities in this culture?

You can watch the video below and also explore the full report by subscribing to our blog.

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How Twitter Trends Are Killing Your Innovations

Article published on Forbes.com.

We have all had friends that we know are a bad influence because they turn us into less-than-ideal versions of ourselves. We tend to pick up terrible habits and find ourselves getting into trouble in their presence.

Twitter is one such friend, especially if you work in corporate research, marketing or innovation. Your job depends on your ability to identify trends and study them to determine their applicability and impact on your business. Your organization relies on you to keep your finger on the pulse of what is next in your category or market. It is a stressful job because others expect you to have all the answers. So naturally, when something comes along that offers the promise of a shortcut to identifying trends, you are lured into its sphere of influence.

Read the rest on Forbes.com.