Image source @ Korean illustrator Kim Hyeon Ju
Wen Shu Uma Xiaoman
Whether they like it or not, contemporary young people have been pushed onto the "altar" of the business world.
A strong spotlight hit their faces all the time, and their gestures and feet touched the nerves of the merchants. In the consumer world, this group of people has a fresh appetite, a rapidly changing need, and a money bag that is not stingy.
Regarding the concept of consumption, young people are always labeled with various labels and always over-interpreted. On the matter of spending money, this time we want to hear what they have to say.
To this end, we chatted with 20 post-95 young people and found that they have a strange consumption "addiction", they are good at self-analysis, and they can deeply understand the desire behind their consumption behavior. They are sober decision-makers and players who swim in the world.
For them, experience is more important than matter, and the sense of experience of "once owned" is more exciting to them than the permanent ownership of an object. They love themselves the most, but they are also willing to spend money for others, whether they are family, friends or pets, for a straightforward reason, because they can spend a penny to enjoy two pleasures: the joy of spending their own money, and the happiness of others receiving gifts.
They are sometimes generous, sometimes slamming the door, and they are aware of the existence of "psychological accounts" but they will indulge their irrationality. They have no obsession with big-name consumer goods, but they have a green eye for a wide variety of new consumer brands.
They are very wary of "consumerism" rhetoric, and advertising slogans such as "there must be a bag to support the scene" and "the neck is a woman's second face" are difficult to brainwash them. They are a generation of high-money merchants, who know the different meanings of saving and spending, and who value their present selves as much as their future selves.
The post-95 generation may be the most complex, versatile and intelligent group of consumers facing brands. Their personalities are more independent and determined, maintaining a natural resistance to routine marketing. In order to capture the hearts of the post-95s, it is difficult for marketers to be lazy and self-contained, but they must face their work with a more sincere, frank and diligent attitude.
Next, let's straighten the seat backrest, put away the pedals, and dive into the real and interesting consumer psychology world of the post-95s.
<h2>1, Chinese massage, supermarket visits, wool after 95 those strange addictions</h2>
In this in-depth interview, we found that the addictive consumption habits of the post-95s are not as fancy and gorgeous as imagined, and the situation of "following the trend" rarely happens to them. Their consumption preferences are unusually diverse and private, and "popular" alone is not enough to impress them.
In the American drama "Sex and the City", the four heroines discuss their "SSB", the Secret Single Behavior (private, solitary habits), such as "like to fold soda cookies into a pile, coated with grape jam, standing in the kitchen while reading fashion magazines and eating", "like to paint vaseline on your hands, and then put on maintenance gloves to watch shopping ads".
Image source: Sex and the City
In the post-95s, we also found similar preferences. They consume according to their own unique, tiny needs, whether they come from a material or spiritual level. They are easily addicted to a certain consumer behavior, and they find a healing and joyful share in the less comfortable real world.
The most addictive consumption habit of the 26-year-old young woman "cookies" will make people think that she is not post-95, but post-65. "Biscuits" have been drifting north for five years, and she has a consumption habit that she has maintained for five years- Chinese medicine massage, which is arranged almost once a week. The massage master has gone from talking to her hometown and health to introducing her to her acquaintances.
When it comes to why she is addicted to Tuina, "Cookies" believes that it is purely because society has never stopped "beating" her. At that time of internship, she could still sleep without removing makeup and turning her head, waking up to be a good man, and after really stepping into the workplace, she felt that there was always a string in her head that had been stretched, and only by relying on the ancient oriental power of tuina could she dissolve one or two.
While some young people use the "external forces" of the physical world to heal themselves, others are relieving anxiety through some kind of low-cost "competitive" consumption.
"Nanzi" is a 21-year-old polymer materials college student, she recently liked to buy goods with a unit price of no more than 10 yuan on the e-commerce platform, and buy enough for a year at a time. Nanzi said: "Grabbing cheaper things at a lower price has a feeling of overcoming others and challenging yourself, thus generating a sense of accomplishment in fighting monsters and upgrading." For her, shopping is more like a competitive game, both addictive and decompressing.
As a straight man, the 27-year-old Internet operator "Cold Lou Lan Zhang Xiaojing" living in Hangzhou is his most addictive consumer behavior - hoarding soda.
Because he left work late every day and the weather was sweltering, whenever he opened the refrigerator and could see the neat rows of soda, it was as if he felt the bubbles turn into vitality and drill into his blood. For him, the most enjoyable moment of the day is to open the refrigerator door, pick up a bottle of soda "tons and tons" and drink it, and let the high-sugar drink inject a little sweetness into his day.
The 25-year-old Cancer boy "Bai Bai" lives in Changsha, and his most addictive consumption habit is to visit the market to buy steaks. He thoroughly enjoys the process of marinating and frying steaks in his own kitchen, and the results are satisfactory to him – high-protein foods make it easier for him to build muscle.
For the post-95s, a lot of consumption revolves around self-pleasing in the solitude scenario, and consumption is a way for them to gain control over their lives.
Some young people are keen to arrange the home environment, so that the home is full of green plants and coffee aromas, because creating a living environment according to their own will will make them feel a sense of control and security in life. Some young people are keen on badminton court rental, because the working day is too busy, and they need to exercise and socialize on the weekend to avoid becoming an "island". Some young people are keen on script killing and offline talk shows, because immersive experiences can temporarily "isolate" them from the real world; some young people are keen to buy yoga clothes, thinking that some brands of yoga clothes are like a kind of "body language", passing on to the people around them "Look, I'm a yogar".
<h2>2, those weird consumption behaviors after 95 Unlimited repurchase, love "gui ti", cut the cut</h2>
In interviews, some post-95s admitted that they had some weird consumer behavior.
Do you think that the kind of middle-aged man who hangs in the closet with the same shirt of black, white and gray is not smiling? That's not necessarily true, because the post-95s will really "buy back indefinitely" for their favorite goods.
The 26-year-old "cookie" said that because his clothes are difficult to buy, he often buys two identical dresses at a time when he encounters them, and if his favorite shoes are broken, he must continue to buy a pair of the same and continue to wear them.
The 23-year-old "unnamed two" said that once their favorite lipstick brand launched a new color number, even if they already have a similar color, they will not hesitate to buy it again, and many times these lipsticks are piled up at home and have not been used.
"Cecile", a 26-year-old marketing consulting company manager, buys back his favorite items indefinitely and is reluctant to try other brands and items.
In addition, the existence of the "psychological account" in economics has been vaguely perceived by the post-95s. "lea", a 27-year-old game industry practitioner, said he would shop around for cheap goods, even using rebate software, but did not care how much he could offer for expensive goods. Haihai, 22, said he would "think that an unknown brand of 500 yuan is expensive, but a big brand of 1,000 yuan is cheap." "Wei Ming" can accept spending hundreds of dollars to buy a lipstick, but the seller will be unhappy if she wants to charge a courier fee of 9 yuan, and she laughs at herself for "picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelon".
"Mental Accounting" is a theory proposed by 2017 Nobel Laureate in Economics Richard Thaler, which refers to the idea that consumers will put different amounts of money into virtual "accounts" in their own cognition. In psychological accounts, people don't treat every dollar equally. People tend to take different attitudes towards money from different sources and for different uses.
For example, people will put their hard-earned wages and unexpected windfalls into different psychological accounts: if it is their hard-earned 100,000 yuan, most people will choose to go to the bank to save, but if it is the 100,000 won by betting on horses, people will be more likely to squander it. Due to the existence of "psychological accounts", people often violate some simple economic algorithms when making decisions, and the post-95 group is no exception.
Many people are not unfamiliar with the term "flat replacement", it refers to "cheap alternatives", some goods can use similar functions to replace those expensive goods, such as some people especially like a 500 pieces of lipstick color number, find a 50 yuan similar color number of lipstick, the latter is the former 'flat substitution'.
However, in the post-95s, the anomaly of looking for "Gui ti" is happening. For some commonly used items, the post-95 generation will choose the latter more often in the face of affordable products and more expensive products, and it is not because they pursue famous brands, "Haihai" mentioned that for her a lot of times
"Gui ti" products can bring a better experience, and the product is more durable, and it will feel safer in society.
On the one hand, looking for "gui ti", on the other hand, he is keen to be a "cutter", and the consumption concept of contemporary young people is so contradictory.
The word "cutter" comes from the Douban community, those who are active in the "Cut Door Women's Federation" and "Cut The Door Men's Federation" and other Douban groups hundreds of thousands of money-saving troops, affectionately call themselves "Cutters", they enthusiastically share and exchange their own money-saving experience in the group: how to use toothpaste to a drop, how to get cosmetic samples for free, how to smoke the wool of the bald e-commerce platform... Although the "buckles" laugh at themselves as "poor" is the driving force behind the door, most of the time young people are happy to save money.
The 22-year-old student party "Winnie" said that she would look at grams when she bought toothpaste in the supermarket, but she thought that fighting with chicken thieves and saving herself real money and silver on things that were really worth investing in, even if it was to change a bag of imported cat food for her pet cat, it would make her feel happy.
<h2>3, sober decision-makers Consumerist words can not be broken after the 95s</h2>
The significance of skin care products is that they look younger than their peers after 20 years.
Money is just a different way to accompany you.
The workplace is so hard, buy an expensive coat to treat yourself.
The house is rented, life is not.
Putting on this dress and walking with your girlfriend is like raising a dinosaur.
The bag should look at the "usage rate", the bag of 10,000 yuan is used for 3 years, and it only takes 5 yuan per day to calculate.
The above "consumerist" words are believed to be familiar to many people, they are extremely deceptive and inflammatory, and a little attention will take people around. But for many post-95s, they resist these "consumerism" words disguised as "life truths" and "mathematical masters", essentially because they feel that their lives do not need others to point out.
The 25-year-old "Matisse", a choreographer and directing student, is very disgusted with a well-known male cargo blogger today, and feels that his live speech is good at creating anxiety, and even advocates "female competition". "Matisse" believes that live broadcasts such as "paint it, make men addicted, make girls jealous" and "feel that your mouth is fruit, men want to take a bite" add too much illusory value to the lipstick commodity, making people easy to fall into a situation of comparison and unbridled.
"Matisse" said that the first starting point for her and her sisters to buy goods is always to improve their quality of life, not to pursue superficial brilliance, let alone to please others.
"Biscuits" thinks that her own consumption desire is relatively low, and she is not sensitive to "double 11 discount Olympic numbers", "the neck is the second face of a woman", "there must be a bag that supports the scene", and is not addicted to "exquisite poverty", which is the biggest stubbornness of a social animal.
Some post-95s even recognized at a glance that "xue wool" is actually another disguise of consumerism.
"Wei Ming" said that "Xue Wool" is not hanging consumerism, xue wool people will be bound deeper by consumerism, in the process of spelling orders, grabbing orders need to pay a lot of time and energy to find information, repeated attempts, buy things may not be what they need, many times are "to buy and buy", so she has forever blocked a spelling software.
The 26-year-old "future dietitian with a bad stomach" is an Internet operator living in Beijing. He said that marketing likes to bind goods to a good life or feelings, or to sell anxiety, resulting in users' consumption points not starting from their own needs, but out of the pressure of people around them.
He was very disgusted by the rhetoric of consumerism, bluntly saying that "if consumption cannot proceed from its own actual needs, what is the difference between that and kidnapping?"
"lea" said that when he consumes, he will think in advance about whether the price of the product matches the value, and if he feels that it is not worth it, he will not buy it. However, her consideration of value also considers brand value in addition to manufacturing costs, so sometimes she still pays for her vanity.
"Xinxin", a 22-year-old graduate student at the School of Finance, believes that for ordinary wage earners or student parties, "consumerism" is more like a brush to whitewash the peace. Buying a cup of milk tea that costs 5 yuan but sells for 30 yuan, following the so-called "refinement", at least can create a feeling of "life is still beautiful" for yourself
。 On an individual level, life requires this little bourgeois self-sublimation (which can also be understood as a reason for female college students to occasionally pay an "IQ tax" in exchange for happiness).
<h2>4. Players who swim in the world: they are more willing to pay for the "experience" for material goods</h2>
In this interview, we found that the post-95s consumption concept is diverse and even contradictory.
They are very rational, good at but will indulge their addiction to a certain consumption habit; they are not afraid to cut their own doors, but they are extremely generous in some consumption items. To sum up, for the post-95s, experience is more important than material, and the sense of experience of "once owned" is more exciting to them than the permanent ownership of objects.
"Cecile" said that she is very "picky" about flashy consumption and excessive premium consumption, such as the high premium of big brand makeup, overly fashionable clothes are easy to become obsolete, and it is pressed at the bottom of the box once. For electronic products and furniture products, the accounting account is a penny of price, but it will never cut the door for daily life and workplace promotion consumption, and it is also willing to spend money on experiential consumption, such as tourism.
"Bo Bai" said that he is more generous in "eating" (Engel coefficient is high), and will be very picky in luxury consumption.
"Cookies" on electronic consumption is more critical: the computer can check the information, typing is good, the mobile phone can chase the drama, read the novel on the line, the game console does not exist, the watch is not used, the TV set is counted, but bought a projector, because I want to watch a movie while watching a novel. The level of consumption on makeup and clothes is also very general, basically once a year to make up the goods, so that they seem to be fresh. But she will be relatively indulgent in travel, food, knowledge payment, and household consumption.
Traveling is because of the feeling of enjoying the road, such as running the road for 8 consecutive hours, passing through the desert snow mountain cattle and sheep villages, it is very healing.
It is also very simple to spend money for "eating", such as a bag of red oil dough skin for 2 yuan, boxed for 4 yuan, but because you don't want to wash dishes, and don't want to boil water, you can only buy 4 yuan, and then buy a cup of mineral water for 2 yuan, put it in the microwave oven, the cost will change from 3 yuan to 6 yuan - and want to eat and be lazy, spend more money is also willing.
Knowledge payment refers to paying for content in a broad sense, major video websites and reading software have left a "cookie" squandered footprint, every month when she sees the bill, she will be very confused, comforting herself that she is probably immersed in the online world, will relax more thoroughly.
The 23-year-old "Junko" is a food blogger on a certain platform, and for him, "eating" is a relatively large consumption of expenditure. Every month, he would "punch" a new restaurant in the city, with family, friends or colleagues.
In Junko's view, if you just sleep at home for a day on a Saturday, you won't remember this Saturday at all in the days to come, it will "not exist" in disguise because there is no memory, but if you go to a super delicious (or super unpalatable) restaurant with your friends on this Saturday, then many years later you can remember this Saturday, which may be the legendary "sense of ceremony", "ritual" is like the color of life, can distinguish some days from other gray and misty days, It makes sense to become people's precious memories and spend money on the beautiful moments in life.
<h2>5, the most loved their own post-95, but also love to spend money for others because you can "spend one money to enjoy two happiness."</h2>
For the matter of "spending money for others", the post-95 generation does not hide the fact that "who spends money for, in the final analysis, it is to please themselves".
"Burberry" said that he prefers to spend money for others, because spending one money can reap two pleasures - the joy of shopping and the happiness of others receiving gifts. The 26-year-old student party "Sun Xiaojing" has the same psychology, she likes the happiness of others when giving gifts, and also likes the joy of shopping in the process of picking gifts.
"Wei Ming" said that the money is mainly spent on herself, and sometimes she buys gifts for her mother or friends, and when she sees that a product is really cheap but she does not need it, she will buy it and give it to others. "Cecile" spends money on his own money, but is willing to spend money on family and friends because he wants to make the other party feel cared for and cared for.
"Matisse" said that he likes to send some practical and frequently used goods to family and friends, because such goods can make themselves highly remembered by family and friends, and the connection between people will become deeper. "For example, if you give your family a box of mooncakes, they will be gone when they finish eating, but if you give them a thermostatic kettle that can be used for many years, many times when they use this thing, they will remember that this is what I sent, and the gifts sent out are actually a reminder to remind the other party to remember you." 」
The 22-year-old "Fat Rolling" likes to spend money on her pet cat, which she calls "poor to raise herself, rich to raise cats." Imported cat food is already standard, all kinds of cat toys, cat climbing frames, cat houses, cat water dispensers, cat toilets that have won the "Red Dot Award", she will not miss. Unconsciously, cat supplies have filled every corner of the home.
Post-95s are self-candid about how to dispose of their own money, they love themselves the most, and they are willing to spend money for others, whether for family, friends or pets. Spending money for others is also a way for them to please themselves, and they are not stingy at this point.
<h2>6, plant tattoo stickers, temporary food supermarkets, nuclear shops those are loved by the post-95 generation of new consumer brands</h2>
Which brands are the "favorites" of the post-95s? On this issue, we see the bizarre side of the post-95s consumption behavior.
"lea" likes hotmaxx in the temporary food supermarket because it can get the pleasure of "cheap bowl". This supermarket sells goods that are close to the end of their lives at very low prices, and since "lea" discovered the supermarket, he has been shopping for a lot of snacks and drinks every Friday after work, doubling the joy of living at home.
"Bo Bai" recently became obsessed with a plant tattoo sticker brand, and his tattoo sticker pattern is very trendy and works well. "Bo Bo" said that he did not want to get a tattoo, but occasionally felt that it was cool to have a tattoo pattern on his body that could express his personality and emotions – and tattoo stickers became a "high fault tolerance" solution.
The machine core shop is the "cold Lou Lan Zhang Xiaojing" recently liked the brand, he said that the machine core shop is to do game podcasts to start, so there will be a lot of game memes in consumer goods, plus the quality of the goods is also very good, will make game lovers "on the head".
"Wei Ming" said that she likes the group class of the sports and fitness brand "Super Orangutan", because it can be purchased in a single section, without a card, which makes her not have to fall into the embarrassing situation of getting a fitness card but finally not consuming. "Glad" said that he liked a certain sparkling water brand because it "looks like it doesn't look fat to drink" and can occasionally be used to fill it when hungry.
"Cecile" said that he has recently particularly liked some domestic products Clean Beauty. Clean Beauty refers to natural, clean, organic, non-allergenic cosmetic skin care products, because their products are good value and experience, these brands are also very supportive of environmental sustainability, she will have a good feeling for brands with social responsibility and environmental awareness.
For the post-95s, they are not very good at using public popularity to measure the true value of a brand, and the brands they love must have a bright spot that can accurately hit their needs, these highlights look very small or even "unreal", but they can firmly encircle the hearts of the post-95s
<h2>7. The generation of high-money merchants attaches importance to the present self, but also to the future self</h2>
"Cookies" revealed that she had a longer-term "bill" that recorded annual income, monthly category budgets, and actual expenses. She has a relatively clear savings goal and tries to control the completion of the goal to 80% and above.
In her view, saving is to spend more confidently, and "spending money" is more important than "spending money indiscriminately".
In the view of "Cold Lou Lan Zhang Xiaojing", savings are also for the purpose of completing larger consumption, such as saving money to buy a car and a house, saving money to travel to see the bigger world, etc.
"Future nutritionists with bad stomachs" will choose to spend ahead of time on some of the more expensive necessities, even if they don't save enough. But for the most part, he favors spending on the premise that the amount of savings is sufficient to support unemployment for a period of time. Combined with his own life experience, he will be more conservative, and his overall consumption is lower than his savings. He believes that in the current situation of increasingly high cost of living and unstable working environment, consumption needs to be rational and savings need to be sufficient.
"Cecile" said that saving is very important for her because it is the basis for her planning for the next 3-5 years. But she doesn't force her quality of life and consumption to save, arguing that excessively depressed consumption is not a virtuous cycle that could lead to "retaliatory spending." Therefore, she will generally set a reasonable range of consumption according to the goal of saving.
"Burber" believes that both consumption and savings can be regarded as investments in a broad sense: one is to invest in oneself, and the other is to invest in returns. Saving is a good option when the return on savings is higher than investing in yourself, and if investing in consumption leads to a greater return, it would be more appropriate to spend the money on consumption.
In the eyes of "Sun Xiaojing", consumption can bring happiness to people - the happiness of unpacking express delivery is unparalleled. But saving also brings the joy of saving — seeing the numbers on your card gradually increase is another joy.
She believes that spending time and money on something more valuable and meaningful in the long run is another form of investment and saving. Therefore, consumption and saving are not completely opposites, finding the right values and lifestyles for yourself, increasing your self-control, and making life more colorful.
In this interview, we see that the post-95 generation can be called "high-money businessmen", they have a flexible view of consumption, will be because of the future planning and constraints on daily expenses, but will not be too restrained and damage the current happiness. "Squandering" is not a good word in their eyes, they are more concerned with starting from their own needs to consume, whether this demand comes from the present or from the future.
<h2>epilogue</h2>
In Harry S. D. Kaissen's fourteen lectures on consumer psychology mentions: "When discussing consumer psychology, we can borrow a metaphor, that is, the psychological process of consumers is like a babbling stream. This stream that flows in everyone's heart consists of knowing, perceiving, feeling, willing, and acting. "In this post-95 interview, we found that the post-95 consumer consciousness is far richer, more complex and more changeable than a small stream. The 20 post-95s may just be a "small water droplet" in this huge crowd, but they can also reflect the characteristics of the "sea", which is the meaning of this article.