Thanks to Moschino for this picture of its wIndow display
News today from the esteemed Harvard Business School, which states that us boomers (people born between 1945 -1964) are keen to simplify our lives because we have too much ‘stuff’. Professor John Quelch writes in The Next Marketing Challenge: Selling to Simplifiers, that 45-60 year-old women are getting tired of our over stuffed, product filled lives and crave a simpler (but still comfortable) one..
Apparently we are “increasingly skeptical in the face of a financial meltdown that it was all worth the effort. Out will go luxury purchases, conspicuous consumption, and trophy culture.” Instead we’re going to crave “more ephemeral, less cluttering stuff: fleeting, but expensive, experiences, not heavy goods for the home.”
As I wade through boys bedroom floors a foot deep in abandoned clothes and trainers, I can see his point. I am sure that we have enough T shirts just on the bathroom floor to last from here to Christmas. At least ‘experiences’ wont need tidying away. Or washing.
My own wardrobe is stuffed with clothes that hardly get worn yet I am still tempted by the multitude of sales offers being thrown in my direction by the likes of Marks & Spencer (20% off everything again!) plus countless others. And Gordon Brown, normally an old stinge preaching abstinence, is positively encouraging me to spend and clutter as much as I can.
Normally I would need little prompting to head straight for the nearest high street, but something odd has happened to me in the last weeks, I think I’m turning into a Simplifier. Prof Quelch is right, life has NOT got better with more shoes, in fact it’s got distinctly more annoying trying to tidy them all away.
What I’m craving is more beautiful, cherished items that stick around for longer. I still love clothes but I don’t miss all that effort spent replenishing stocks. I want one gorgeous thing, not piles of average-ness. It’s official then, simplifying is for me.
And think of the time I will save tidying bedrooms
Find the full article here John A Quelch: Selling to Simplifiers