Saturday, October 20, 2012

Fashion versus Function


An interesting observation: a decade ago, people took a great deal of pride in owning a new gadget as an object of conspicuous consumption.   They wanted other people to see them using it, to ask them questions about it, as if merely having the gadget made them (seem to be) a person of some importance and esteem.    But the value people take from being a thing-owner has waned, such that the gadgets that have longevity and were not abandoned have had to deliver actual value to the user other than a token that could be flashed to get attention.

I'm of two minds about this observation: there's something about it that rings true, but at the same time I have the sense it's not quite right ... and what follows is some meditation on that conflict.


Primarily, I have a sense that the implication that this is a cultural change may be wrong, or is at least an idiosyncrasy of the present environment.   That is, I have the strong sense that America is a consumer culture and that distressingly many American consumers can be justly characterized as shallow narcissists - and I don't have a sense that this has changed much over the past few decades.  The advertising message of "be the first kid on your block to own one" is nothing new, and I don't think the (rather contemptible) psychology to which it appeals has changed or diminished over the last decade ... but instead there hasn't really been any "shiny new thing" that can be shown off.  That is, the next truly different gadget that comes along (something physical, that can be seen by other people) will cause a resurgence of conspicuous consumption.

That considered, the core of the statement rings true: for any new product that is capable of being conspicuously consumed, there will be a period during which conspicuous consumption is a driving force in its adoption by the market: people will want to have one for the sake of the attention they get merely by being an object-owner in the presence of non-owners.   But after the product is in wider circulation, to the point at which enough people have one that the mere possession does not confer esteem, there is the reconsideration of whether the product offers any other benefit.

Consider the example of cell phones: in the nineties they were rare enough that anyone seen to be using one was considered (or hoped to be considered) a person of some importance.   Ten years later, they were so widespread that even children and poor people carried cell phones, and its value as an object of fashion diminished.  Granted, for those who joined the owners' club late still expected esteem. And speaking loudly on a cell phone in a public place was a desperate and annoying attempt to get other people to pay attention to them and acknowledge their importance in spite of the fact that cell phone ownership no longer garnered any esteem.

About the time that the cell phone had lost its cachet, smart phones came along, and the attention-starved individuals turned to those devices - but that fashion has also run its course.  To my earlier point, nothing else seems to have come along to become the next badge of esteem for owners ... but as soon as it does, I'm confident we'll see the cycle repeat, because the culture has not changed, we just lack a prop to put our collective insecurity on public display.


Thus far, I have been overly focused on the "fashion" and haven't had much to say about "function."   It's much more difficult to assess the value of a device to a user from an outsider's perspective.  That is, I can plainly observe a person using a smart phone in a public place, and the furtive way in which they periodically look about to see if anyone has noticed them using it ... but I can't very well observe whether they are getting any genuine value from whatever it is they happen to be doing at the time.

In retrospect, it was likely possible to make such an observation of the last-generation technology of cell phones because at least one side of the conversation was audible.  It seems to me that a decade ago, whenever you heard someone using a cell phone, there was some substance to the conversation and they were calling someone else for a specific purpose, whereas nowadays, the laggards who still think that owning one makes them seem important are engaged in banal and vapid conversations that, ironically enough, loudly demonstrate how unimportant they are - but that may just be a function of my own selective memory, picking recollections that support my present assessment.

But more to the point, a device must deliver functional value even after its fashion value has worn off, and that producers should be highly effective to the transition from the fashion phase to the function phase.   That seems to be the critical difference between products that are fads and novelties and those that have real staying power in the market.

It's likely also important to have a clear conception of exactly what that value is.  Mobile computing was originally sold on the notion that it had a functional value - it was for relatively important business-like activities such as checking your flight status, trading stocks, transferring money among accounts, and that sort of thing.  But if you consider the top applications of all times, it's all games and social networking, meaning that the majority of device users aren't using the devices as intended.

That's not to say they're not using them at all, as there likely is some genuine value to being able to distract yourself with a game and chitchat with friends, and given the amount of money people will pay to be able to do those things (device cost plus software costs plus monthly service fee over a five-year period), it shouldn't be taken lightly.  

But at that, I may be straying into yet a different topic - for now, the crux of this meditation is that many products begin as a fashion, and peter out if they fail to deliver functional value, and that serious mistakes can be avoided if you are careful to recognize when consumers are trending from the former to the latter.

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