Interactive Marketing Blog

First up, got this news from Chris Anderson -

A WSJ video about an economics graduate in the UK who’s going to go a year without using money. It sounds like a step up from dumpster diving for food to me, but perhaps he’s got a more subtle plan than this video reveals.

This reminded me Gaurav Mishra’s year long experiment called “Off Consumption“.

I know these fine young gentlemen have their own reasons to find answers, but deep down inside the marketer tells me that if more and more people go “Off Consumerism“, then what will happen? It is an worrisome trend, no doubt. Not because two completely different set of people have started this and we all are going to follow suit but thinking from Global recessionary perspective, what if we all start consuming less. What impact will it have in our daily lives?

How about this fall-out?

We consume less, companies start producing less. Some may say – that doesn’t impact us! But seriously, doesn’t it? It’s us who drives an economy. So the less we buy or consume, the less companies produce which in turn have a rub-off effect on economy and in turn impacts us. It’s a vicious circle. I’m not going into the economic nitty gritty but definitely the supply-demand cycle is easier for everyone to comprehend.

So what do we do in such times? Is FREECONOMY an answer to all this? Surely not since we are all trained to live in a consumerist world where consumption makes us happy and off-consumption deprives us. Then can we follow Seth Godin’s idea of effort. Whatever may be the case, choice is ours. Choose any with utmost care since in case of consumer driven economy, what consumer proposes – economy pursues!