It's time to (un)Learn Marketing As Usual to shift to the Life-Centered Economy?

Don't think, consume!

That was the only Call To Action of last year’s Mother Earth Apple Campaign. They didn't use their creative storytelling magic to empower their gigantic fanbase and worldwide following to consume consciously, repair their products, be critical of apple’s societal & environmental impact. The only call of their “Mother Earth Marketing Campaign” was buy this, slightly more sustainable, watch!

Without unlearning business-as-usual marketing, we can produce all the "sustainable" products we want and still consume ourselves to death. To echo Roger Waters:

“We watched the tragedy unfold

We did as we were told, bought and sold

It was the greatest show on Earth

But then it was over

We oohed and ahhed

We drove our racing cars

We ate our last few jars of caviar

And somewhere out there in the stars

The alien anthropologists

Admitted they were still perplexed

But on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise

They logged the only explanation left

This species has amused itself to death”

Amused Ourselves To Death - Roger Waters

Marketing is one of the main drivers of the rat race. It’s both a product and a driver of our competitive and individualistic society. Transforming the marketing industry has the potential to change our relationship with products, businesses, ourselves, money, happiness, and more. Marketers have enabled the commercialization of almost everything on this planet, from well-being to self-esteem, from birth to death . This huge influence is both a risk and an opportunity. Marketers have the skill set that can unite people, drive movements, and change minds. This skill set can be used to drive the rat race, or it can be used to unite people behind new stories, movements, and potential regenerative futures.

Shifting the Marketing Industry has the potential to Shift Horizons in all consumer-oriented industries and create a ripple effect far and wide. Re-imagining the role of marketers has the potential to lead to a seismic shift in the way we live.

Marketing as-usual truths

As marketers, there are hundreds of things to unlearn that no longer serve life. Do you feel like your marketing toolkit is from an era that no longer fits? You are not alone. Globally, marketers, copywriters, brand agencies, designers, and other creatives are questioning the existence of Marketing-as-usual.

In the shadow of marketing's dodgy past lies an urgent call for transformation. The Marketing industry, once the main driver behind unchecked consumption and growth, now stands at the crossroads, bearing the weight of social, economic, and environmental imbalances it helped to create and accelerate. The realization dawns that the path to a sustainable future requires a bold departure from the 'business as usual' mentality.

Ever pondered how our beliefs in Marketing shape the world around us? From flat earth theories to outdated medical practices, history is peppered with misconceptions that, once challenged, paved the way for progress. Now, it's our turn to question the marketing paradigms that define our era.

• Scarcity Sells
• Growth at all costs
• Insecurities are exploitable
• Humans are deeply competitive
• Consumer first, human second
• Belonging is product-based
• Wellbeing is a limited commercial good
• Individual worth can be elevated by products
• Happiness is a commodity that can be bought
• Planned obsolescence boosts frequent purchases
• Targeted advertising through big data is the norm
• Showing gratefulness and love requires commercial gifts
• Happiness is based on quick solutions & instant gratifications
• Encourage overconsumption and drive debts through payment schemes
• Success = Vanity Metrics (Career, Followers, Bank Balance, Number of Cars)

What marketing as-usual truths do you want to (un)learn? Please share your thoughts in the comments; we can all (un)learn from each other on this journey!

How did allow this to be considered normal?

In a recent Hive Mind session , we discussed a widespread marketing-as-usual truth, the belief that Happiness is a limited commercial good. We shared what this "truth" stirred in us: pain, despair, programmed, fake prison of restrictions, numb, controlled, frustrated, and at some point, we couldn’t help but wonder. How did we allow this to be considered normal? The explanation seems painfully simple: “Easy (Fast & Undemanding) Happiness still brings us hope, even though we deep down know this isn't the way forward.”

Happiness - A short movie by Steve Cutts

I have the tendency to see the best in people. Therefore, I don’t accept the notion that marketers who manipulated the masses to buy products they don’t need are evil. Instead, I believe we should recognize that we collectively, as human beings, have been on a shared path that resulted in this unchecked industry of overconsumption, overproduction, and manipulation. This doesn’t make people evil; it shows that people who are brought up in a certain narrative need the headspace and opportunity to question this narrative and step out of it.

Consumption as a coping mechanism

After the Second World War, consumption was a collective coping mechanism. We consumed and traded in the hope that this would prevent us from entering another war. We started producing enormous pesticide-driven amounts of food out of fear of experiencing another famine. Increases in production led to high levels of employment, needed to rebuild many countries and lives across the world. There was a strong focus on rebuilding, feeding, and producing. The developments that led us to marketing-as-usual are, of course, wider and more complex than just a post-war desire for growth. This said, it is clear that this narrative doesn’t serve life. It doesn’t serve our well-being, society, happiness, health, and most of all, it’s pushing us far beyond the planetary boundaries. We have the potential to reimagine the role of marketers to a form that serves what the world needs in the 21st century.

What if?!

• What if marketers leveraged their skills to unite communities and foster collective action for positive change?
• What if we shifted away from using scarcity as a marketing ploy and instead promoted abundance and shared resources?
• What if marketers created spaces to amplify marginalized voices?
• What if we accepted true happiness cannot be bought?
• What if we valued contentment over happiness?
• What if marketers reimagined their role, changed the narrative, and became a force for regeneration?
• What if marketers helped us to create and unite behind better stories?

What if we (Un)learn Marketing-as-usual, re-imagine our role as marketeers and transform into a force for regeneration?

(Un)Learning Marketing As Usual Program

Do you have want to question and unlearn what we’ve been taught to think around how marketing should function? This June we are starting (Un)Learning Marketing As Usual Program created by The Regenerative Marketing Movement . It is an opportunity for those ready to unlearn and re-imagine the role of marketing.

Are you ready to rewrite the role of marketeers? Find out more here.