Consumorphosis is a fundamental shift into a new era of identities and consumer behaviours, linked to context and brand ‘borrowing’, and the fracturing of traditional brand loyalty.
It’s driven by unprecedented and recent global events and societal changes. As consumers navigate an increasingly complex and uncertain world, whilst we’ve always known ‘we are what we buy’, identities are becoming extraordinarily more fluid, multifaceted, and central to purchasing decisions.It’s a term I’ve coined to describe the constant evolution of consumer identity and behaviour. (You won’t find it in any dictionary because it’s a blend of “consumer” and “morphosis,” reflecting the ongoing transformation in how people interact with brands).
Consumorphosis is closely tied to what I call the “Butterfly Effect” in consumer behaviour.
Just as a butterfly flits from flower to flower, today’s consumers move fluidly between brands, driven by momentary needs, moods, and shifting identities. This leads to “situationships” with brands – temporary affiliations that reflect the fluid nature of consumer needs and identities.
The key to understanding this Butterfly Effect is context. Consumers are not just driven by traits or emotional states, but by the specific situations they find themselves in (called Situationism in psychology). The world around us is increasingly and constantly interrupting and influencing our actions, including our purchasing decisions.
What Drives Consumorphosis?
The answer is in recent macro environments shaping consumer behaviour and identity. We’ve experienced a confluence of global events and societal shifts that have profoundly impacted how individuals view themselves and their place in the world.
The Existential Wake-Up Call: COVID-19 and Beyond
The COVID pandemic was a watershed moment. For many, the first time they faced their mortality on a global scale. It was (and still is) an existential threat prompting deep reflection and reevaluation of priorities, and significant shifts in identity and aspirations.
Major societal disruptions lead to rapid changes in how consumers view themselves and their consumption choices.
The pandemic, followed by a series of global challenges including wars, climate, economic instability, rapid technological advancements, and increasing polarisation of ideas, has created a perfect storm for today’s identity transformations.
Key impacts of the pandemic on consumer identity include:
Existential Considerations: A 2021 study found that facing questions about mortality and the meaning of life prompted individuals to reconsider their work-life balance, career choices, and personal values.
Shift in Identity Focus: 2023 research indicates a growing emphasis on personal relationships, health, and well-being, altering self-concepts and future aspirations.
Increased Self-Reflection: Lockdowns and social distancing created unprecedented opportunities for introspection, leading many to contemplate their lives, values, and identities.
Changes in Career Aspirations: The “Great Resignation” exemplifies changing identity aspirations, with a 2022 Pew Research Center study finding that many who quit their jobs now seek more meaningful work or better work-life balance.
Digital Identity Exploration: Increased reliance on digital platforms has facilitated the exploration of new aspects of identity online, including engagement with new communities and skill development.
Heightened Health Consciousness: The pandemic sparked an increased focus on physical and mental well-being, changing how individuals view themselves and their life goals.
Collective Identity: The shared experience of the pandemic strengthened collective identities, influencing how individuals perceive their role in society and their desired identity within it.
Generational Differences: A 2021 Deloitte report found that younger generations (Millennials and Gen Z) were more likely to reassess their life goals and career paths, although the impact is still cross-generational.
Long-term Implications: The intense period of self-reflection during the pandemic is likely to shape identity and life choices for years to come.
A World in Flux
While the pandemic has been a significant catalyst, other global events and trends are contributing to the rise of Consumorphosis:
Climate Change and Environmental Concerns: Increasing awareness of climate change and its impacts is prompting many to reevaluate their consumption habits and seek brands that align with their environmental values.
Social and Political Polarisation: Growing political divides and social tensions are leading consumers to seek brands that reflect their social and political identities.
Rapid Technological Advancements: The pace of technological change is creating new opportunities for identity expression and challenging traditional notions of self.
Economic Uncertainty: Financial instability and changing job markets are forcing many to reassess their priorities and identities.
Globalisation and Cultural Exchange: Increased exposure to diverse cultures is broadening identity horizons and challenging fixed notions of self.
The Shift from Brand Loyalty to Identity Affirmation
Traditionally, we’ve thought about consumers in fixed categories: demographics, archetypes, or segments. We’ve assumed behaviour is driven by permanent aspects of identity. Consumorphosis challenges this view.
Today, consumers are loyal to their own evolving identities rather than to specific brands. They use brands as “identity resources,” mixing and matching them to express different aspects of themselves in various contexts. This leads to reduced brand loyalty and a shift towards “in the moment” loyalty based on current needs and emotions.
Consumers are borrowing brands to express their different identities, and to use them in different contexts
The Multifaceted Nature of Identity
Identity isn’t a simple label anymore – it’s a complex, ever-changing construct.
Experts describe it as a group of layers:
Core self: Our experiences and lived history
Narrative self: How we interpret our past, present, and future
Social identity: The personas and roles we adopt – for ourselves, to others, how others see us, for our aspirations.
Digital identity: Our online personas and data
The Impact on Consumer Behavior and Brand Relationships
These shifts are fundamentally changing how consumers interact with brands.
Consumers are increasingly driven by identity aspirations and self-transformation, overriding traditional branding and marketing influences.
Key changes include:
Identity-Driven Consumption: Consumers are increasingly using brand experiences as a means of self-expression and identity reconstruction.
Loyalty to Self, Not Brands: Consumers are now loyal to their own identities rather than to specific brands. This shift reflects a broader societal trend towards individualism and self-actualization, amplified by digital platforms allowing constant identity curation and expression.
‘In the Moment’ Loyalty: Brand loyalty is becoming more fleeting and context-dependent, based on the current needs and emotions of consumers on their individual journeys.
Horizontal Movement: While brands often think vertically (categories, archetypes, segments), consumers move horizontally across these boundaries, defying traditional marketing categorizations.
Implications for CX
Consumorphosis and the Butterfly Effect have profound implications.
We need to move beyond creating experiences that merely save time or provide time well spent. We must align with the consumer’s current identity state.
The concept of “moments that matter” takes on new significance. These are opportunities for brands to validate the consumer’s current identity.
Traditional customer journey models are outdated. Consumers now flutter from touchpoint to touchpoint, constantly changing their preferences and expectations.
Personalization needs to be dynamic, adapting in real time to the consumer’s shifting identity and context.
Brand identity must be viewed as a dynamic, evolving construct that can adapt to changing consumer identities and different situationships.
Supporting Research and Concepts
To better understand and support the concept of Consumorphosis, it helps to look at some related research and ideas in psychology, sociology, and consumer behaviour:
We’ve long known the idea that we are what we buy.
But the difference today is the frequency and speed consumers are increasingly driven by new identity aspirations and self-transformation goals, overriding traditional branding and marketing influences, and fracturing our traditional view that brand identity expression is fairly static.
Situational Influence on Behavior: Psychologist Walter Mischel’s work on personality and situationism suggests that behaviour is often more influenced by situational factors than by stable personality traits. This aligns with our understanding of how consumers engage in “situationships” with brands based on their current context and needs.
Identity-Based Consumer Behavior: Researchers Americus Reed II and Mark Forehand have extensively studied how consumers use products and brands to express their identities. Their work supports the idea that consumers are loyal to their own identities rather than to specific brands, a key aspect of Consumorphosis.
Fluid Consumer-Brand Relationships: Fournier’s seminal work on consumer-brand relationships provides insights into the diverse and dynamic ways consumers interact with brands. Her research supports the idea of “situationships” in brand interactions, showing how relationships can vary in strength, type, and duration. Fournier, S: Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research.
The Postmodern Consumer: Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of “liquid modernity” describes a world of constant change where social forms and institutions no longer have time to solidify. This idea resonates with Consumorphosis, explaining why consumers are engaging in fleeting “situationships” with brands rather than forming long-term loyalties.
Contextual Marketing: The concept of contextual marketing, which aligns closely with the situational aspects of Consumorphosis, has been recognized as a crucial strategy in the digital age. The real power of the internet lies in its ability to match customers with context-specific information, products, and services. This marketing approach supports the importance of situational factors in consumer behaviour, resonating with the Butterfly Effect in consumer interactions. As companies leverage data to provide more contextually relevant offerings, they’re essentially adapting to the fluid nature of consumer needs and identities that Consumorphosis describes.
The Experience Economy: Pine and Gilmore’s work on the Experience Economy aligns with the idea that consumers are seeking experiences to affirm their identities. Their updated thinking on “Progression of Economic Value” with “Transformational experiences” provides a great foundation for understanding how brands can create meaningful interactions in the age of Consumorphosis.
All of these support the ideas of context-dependent behaviour, fluid identities, and the importance of momentary experiences in consumer-brand interactions. Some of the research above misses the most recent major impacts of catalysts like the pandemic and other global events and trends and the accelerating and reinforcment of the fluidity of identity and the impact of context. By incorporating these impacts we can see how Consumorphosis manifests more strongly today.
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