Cultural force 1
Commoditisation
BRIEFING
CULTU RAL FOR C E 1 / COM M OD I TI SATI O N
What is it? Commoditisation relates
to the increasingly disposable nature
of the way we live our lives. Things are
more available, more often and more
easily, than ever before.
To an extent, this force has been ever
present, but our work is showing us
that it is speeding up and its influence
is reaching areas of life we wouldn’t
have anticipated. It isn’t just about
prices of products decreasing. It
involves the way we as people think
about things in life.
From the products and services we
buy, all the way through to how we
think about and treat people, it is all
about more, for more people and
faster. This force is about a resulting
lack of meaning creeping into the
different facets of life.
CULTU RAL FOR C E 1 / COM M OD I TI SATI O N
Commoditisation in Action
Commoditisation has influenced many dimensions of our lives, it
has even impacted the great Australian dream. Nothing has defined
the notion of success in Australia quite like owning your own home.
Australian home owners have enjoyed increasing property values
for over a decade. Over the same time frame, the prices of building
a home with volume builders has been decreasing, and now it’s
possible to build a home for under $100,000.
The fact that building a property is now
child or 2 is being viewed as a success.
more attainable has an evident up side,
Not really till death do us part!
allowing people to buy into the dream
of owning their home who previously
might have been excluded. However it
is also reducing a once significant purchase to simple commodity, something
that can be bought with less emotional
investment and therein decreasing its
meaning and value to us. The days when
a man’s home was his castle may be
rapidly fading into the history books.
It’s not only houses. We can see
commoditisation extend well beyond
the material. Into objects, experiences,
concepts and even people. Its
impact can be seen in other
Measurement
tools are all
geared around
delivering more,
more and more.
We are becoming
desensitised.
facets of life from relationships to work, health
and travel.
are many examples, but
the prevailing attitudes
to marriage are a huge
indicator. Whilst marriage
frequency has stabilised of late,
the notion of what constitutes a
marriage
experiencing less depth in relationships.
The situation fuelled by social media
sites such as Facebook, which (whilst it
has its benefits) decreases intimacy and
connection by making superficial contact
simple and convenient.
Furthermore, this notion of technology encroaching on how we interact with
our environment is also contributing to
a loss of significance in other areas of
life. Smartphone application Instagram
makes it possible for anyone to take an
‘artistic’ photo, but arguably simultaneously numbs our sensitivity to ‘genuine’
artful photography. Meanwhile lowquality, short-form citizen journalism via
Twitter contributes to an abundance of
In relationships there
successful
Universally, there is a trend toward
has
‘eroded’.
Increasingly the idea of reaching 10+
years, or of just being able to raise a
information, diminishing the value we
place on content.
In social media circles for example, it
appears the metric of value is the topline
number of likes or hits or amount of friends.
Not the quality of them, but rather how
many. Measurement tools are all geared
around delivering more, more and more.
We are becoming desensitised.
CULTU RAL FOR C E 1 / COM M OD I TI SATI O N
Many Australians feel like so much is
Finally, in the workplace, it seems even
becoming normalised that in the past
a job may have lost its meaning. Mining
had been viewed as being of significance.
companies are looking to replace man
Take the international flight for example
power with drone power. They are already
It used to be ‘an event’ that someone was
‘remote controlling’ trucks on mine sites.
heading on a ‘bird’ and flying to another
In the USA it feels like so long as a job
continent. Now it is common place.
is created that’s all that matters. At least
While on a more personal level, procedures like botox and other ‘quasi cosmetic
politically. Not the quality, or ability for it to
be able to sustain the employee’s lifestyle.
surgery’ have become much more routine.
In a cross between health & travel, the
rise in popularity of low-cost cosmetic
surgery in countries like Thailand is also
growing partly on the back of complimentary free international holidays complete
with flights, accommodation and food
being included. Healthcare with the steak
knives thrown in!
FACEBOOK AND
OTHER SOCIAL
MEDIA DRIVING
CHANGE IN THE
NATURE OF OUR
RELATIONSHIPS
‘OUR CASTLES’
BEING BUILT FOR
UNDER $100K
30%
OF ALL BREAST
AUGMENTATIONS
ARE PERFORMED
OVERSEAS
CULTU RAL FOR C E 1 / COM M OD I TI SATI O N
Commoditisation in Marketing
Given its close relationship to money, spending and material
gain, commoditisation perhaps has its roots in consumption, and
consequently is pervading most spaces.
Look at the car category for the moment.
In the furniture and electronics
The Chinese, via great wall, are making
category, brands like Matt Blatt,
Toyota appear expensive. For example a
Replica furniture & Milan
Toyota Hilux retails at c.$50,000. The
Direct have stripped bare the
same type of product in the great wall
value in the authentic design
range is $19,000. Roughly 60% less. The
pieces of the past 100 years
symbology of the brands is different, but
by removing its exclusivity.
functionally they perform a similar role.
They have made design values
In retail, the growth of the private label
is a perfect example of commoditisation.
An increasing array of products, available
to people at cheaper and cheaper
price points.
For many, this is a positive, as we see
rising costs of living across Australia.
However it can also be seen as stripping
the meaning out of categories. It is true,
the private label brand carries a meaning
with it, but at point of purchase, our
shopper studies demonstrate that the
choice of private label is one based on
Almost
60% less
than the
equivalent
Hilux.
disengagement with the category.
Only seeing it for the product &
functionality that it offers.
RELATIONSHIPS WITH
PRIVATE LABEL BRANDS
ARE MOSTLY ON A
RATIONAL LEVEL
available to all, creating a new
definition of ‘taste’ where once it was
about ‘spending-power’.
Across fashion and almost
A GENUINE FAKE!
every other category we see
a shift to faster purchase
and development cycles
and an erosion of what we
care about in what we acquire.
The notion that if I get a season
out of it, that’s fine. Subsequently,
fuelling the growth of products
like those sold through discount
department stores. Retailers
push to get to the lowest
cost model possible. The
advertising line of K Mart
– ‘OK’, whilst phonetically
cute, says it all.
CONSIGNED
TO MEDIOCRITY
CULTU RAL FOR C E 1 / COM M OD I TI SATI O N
The Opportunity
Commoditisation isn’t all bad, it
has helped make a lot of things that
were previously unattainable, within
reach for many. It does rouse two
major tensions in people’s lives.
Firstly, people increasingly feel
as though the goods and services
they consume lack authenticity.
There is a distinct absence of
meaning, of care, of craft in
products which consequently
leads into a disconnect between
the association with the product
and the reflection of who that
person is.
Secondly, it reaffirms to people
that a lot of the world they are
surrounded by is automated and
mechanical. Once again, clashing
with the natural inclination
we have as people towards
connection.
Essentially, the creation of
meaning is central to resolving
the tension of commoditisation,
of which two methods of
reaction exist - to embrace
or to resist.
The opportunity for brands,
then, lies in three spheres of
conversation:
Participation in
Commoditisation
Creation of a
new articulation of
meaning contrary
to the material
Reinvention
of a materialist
construct
CULTU RAL FOR C E 1 / COM M OD I TI SATI O N
Participation in commoditisation
Involves embracing the trend and allowing
BIG W
CELEBRATE
THE
POSITIVE
users to embrace it in the form of
creature comforts, making tasks easier.
Brands can help people feel positive
about participating in commoditisation.
The recent Woolies advert which
got pulled off air was an example of
highlighting the negative.
Whereas Big W take a different tack.
One full of promise and anticipation. They
WOOLIES
FOCUSED ON
THE NEGATIVE
celebrate the flippancy of a purchase and
how it can be attained so readily.
Creation of a new articulation of meaning
The creation of a new articulation of
commitment and intensity within the
meaning involves the brand’s own notion
burgeoning compression sportswear arena.
of where meaning might exist, and allowing
the consumer to buy into it.
As is James Squire in generating
meaning based on craft, discernment,
Under Armour is a primary example of
fostering a new movement of aggression,
skill, rogueness and standing on your
own two feet.
Reinvention of a materialist construct
Finally, reinvention of materialist construct
level and as an equal, potentially opening
is all about placing a brand on a new level
themselves up to new meanings. One of
and becoming a vehicle for consumer
the ways brands have elected to do this is
meaning, a space to nurture a consumer’s
via consumer-participation, for example
own sense of what life is about. For this
Converse permitting consumers to upload
to be possible, the brand must be able
their own designs to their shoes, letting
to speak to the consumer on one’s own
them own ‘their own piece’ of the brand.
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