In modern society, loneliness has become a common phenomenon, which not only affects people's emotional state, but also subtly reshapes the face of the consumer market.
As the experience of loneliness increases around the world, an emerging consumer trend, the "loneliness economy", is gradually emerging.
From the rise of bachelor apartments to the popularity of one-person meals, from the boom of online social networks to the development of companion robots, loneliness is driving new business models and service innovations.
The core of the loneliness economy is to understand and meet the needs of lonely consumers, which is not only to cater to loneliness, but also to respond to the deep social needs behind loneliness.
Lonely consumers, especially the growing number of single and solo people living in an increasingly urbanized world, are looking for consumer experiences that provide emotional comfort, social interaction, and personalized service.
By recognizing this trend, companies can develop more attractive products and services to gain a foothold in a highly competitive market.
1. Loneliness is an epidemic of modern people
Whether from a psychological or sociological point of view, loneliness is a negative emotion, mainly because the individual's expectations are not met in the real social connection. From this definition, we can see 3 main characteristics of loneliness:
- First, loneliness is an emotion that people want to avoid. Because of the desire to avoid, there is an incentive to avoid this negative emotion, and consumption becomes a way to alleviate loneliness.
- Second, loneliness is a negative emotion, and those who enjoy being alone and get pleasure in being alone do not fall into the category of "loneliness". Therefore, the introverted "I people" who don't like to be lively are not necessarily people with a strong sense of loneliness.
- Third, loneliness is not a literal sense of "alone". Loneliness is a subjective feeling that emphasizes the quality of social relationships rather than the quantity. Therefore, it is still possible for a person to feel lonely when they are with a lot of people, and it is also possible for a person not to feel lonely when they are alone.
How can you be sure that you are lonely?
In 1978, three researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles developed the UCLA Loneliness Scale. The 20-question questionnaire was designed to identify both the perceived connection, support and care of respondents, as well as the extent to which they were excluded, isolated and misunderstood. To this day, it remains the gold standard for studying loneliness. Higher scores on the scale indicate greater loneliness, where >=45 is a high level of loneliness.
Nowadays, loneliness has become a common symptom in society from a private psychological state of individuals, and has even risen to a national problem at the national level.
In 2018, the British government set up a "Minister for Loneliness" to address the problem of loneliness in society, especially among the elderly. In 2021, Japan, which was plagued by the coronavirus, followed in the footsteps of the United Kingdom by establishing the Office for Responding to Loneliness and Isolation and appointing a Minister for Loneliness.
It is also quite interesting to say that Britain and Japan are both island countries, Japan is isolated in the Pacific Ocean on the east side of Asia, and Britain is independent of the Atlantic Ocean in the west of Europe.
According to a report by the Global Network, Japan's National Institute of Social Security and Population Research estimates that by 2040, people over 65 years old living alone in Japan will account for more than 40% of the elderly population, and there will be no less than 30,000 "lonely deaths" in Japan every year.
2. How does loneliness affect future consumption?
The problem of loneliness is not only a social phenomenon, but also an evolution of a unique consumption landscape in postmodern society - lonely consumption.
Japan has transformed into a single society, a low-desire society at the bottom, an aging society, and a virtual society. Starting from these specific aspects, Miura Zhan, a Japanese social consumption researcher, defines the current Japanese society as a "lonely society".
In Miura's view, the core concept of the current Japanese consumer society is "loneliness", and the society that mainly uses loneliness as the motivation for consumption is the "lonely society", which has given birth to a huge number of lonely consumption forms.
1. Blind box consumption
This is mainly manifested in "experiential consumption" and "paying for your own hobbies". For example, if you want to go on a trip, the world is so big, I want to see it...... Behind these social hot searches is not blind impulsive consumption, but a kind of disappointment of modern people in the current social interaction relationship, wanting to temporarily de-embed the relationship with society and please themselves.
As an emerging consumption model, blind boxes may be attractive to lonely consumers because it provides a novel and uncertain shopping experience, which is related to the psychology of seeking novel experiences to alleviate loneliness. This partly explains the psychosocial basis of Bubble Mart's rise: a large part of its reason is that it hits the spiritual comfort needs of lonely people. After all, trendy toy products have certain social attributes, and consumers can establish social connections with like-minded people and form communities by collecting and exchanging trendy toys, thereby alleviating loneliness to a certain extent.
2. Intelligent pension robots
Intelligent pension robots are a kind of intelligent equipment designed for elderly care services, which can provide various forms of assistance and companionship to meet the needs of the elderly in physiological, psychological and social interactions, and currently have good development prospects.
In terms of social communication, intelligent elderly care robots can conduct daily conversations with the elderly through voice interaction technology, provide emotional support and companionship, and reduce loneliness.
Physiologically: For the elderly who need rehabilitation training, rehabilitation robots can assist with physical therapy and daily rehabilitation exercises. In an emergency, such as an elderly fall, the intelligent elderly care robot can trigger an alarm system to notify family members or caregivers.
Psychologically: Some intelligent pension robots have functions such as playing movies and video calls, which can provide entertainment for the elderly, increase the joy of life, and even assist the elderly to continue to learn new knowledge, such as language learning, history and geography, etc., to enrich their spiritual life.
3. The revival of offline experiences
The more often consumers feel lonely, the more inclined they are to choose offline shopping. Some consumers go to the mall to chat with salespeople, while lonely consumers see shopping as a social experience to build social connections.
This has further promoted the revival of the offline experience economy, from Zibo barbecue to Gansu Tianshui Malatang, from Beijing's Nanluoguxiang to Changsha's Wenheyou, immersive consumption in physical stores, and the intimate space of one-person restaurants. These experiences can satisfy people's quest for a sense of belonging and social needs, thereby alleviating loneliness to some extent.
4. The miniaturization trend of products
With the rise of the single economy, young consumers are more inclined to impulse consumption and experience consumption, and mini-packaged products reduce the decision-making cost of consumption, while satisfying their pursuit of fresh experience.
At the same time, the Mini version of the product is usually beautifully packaged and designed, with high sunshine and social currency attributes, which satisfies young people's needs for beauty and social identity and alleviates consumers' loneliness to a certain extent, especially when these products are combined with social activities or personal interests.
In addition, with the increase in the number of single and single people, the "single economy" for this group is emerging. Miniaturized products, such as small packaged food, mini refrigerators, etc., meet the needs of single people for small-scale consumption units.
iResearch data shows that the market size of smart small household appliances continues to grow, reaching 192.4 billion yuan in 2023, reflecting the broad prospects of the mini home appliance market and the high acceptance of consumers for such products.
This article was originally published by @刀客 on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without the permission of the author is prohibited
The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0
The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services