TWO DOWNSIZING TRENDS FOR TUESDAY
Whether it’s keeping up with the Jones or the Kardashians, American society has an affinity for staying current with the latest and greatest trends from fashion, furnishings and white picket fences to television, travel and hot techno gadgets. Of course, brands and advertisers have no problem with this; it’s the social norm that has people camped out in front of stores the night before a huge product release, pre-ordering products before the reviews are even in and getting people to buy the newest, flashiest gadgets even if their old ones work just fine; but some consumers are beginning to push back against mass consumption, moving towards downsizing. And, to be completely American about it, people are starting to keep up with the downsizers. This Two for Tuesday, let’s take a look at two ways people are downsizing… and the news might not be as bad of a thing for brands and advertisers as people might expect.
Tiny/ Small House Movement
Since the 1970s, houses have been growing, but families have been shrinking. The result: huge, pricey homes filled with consumer goods, making it the perfect breeding ground for a culture of clutter. Enter the Tiny House Movement. Sometime between the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the beginning of the economic recession, the Tiny House Movement began to catch momentum. Tiny design can typically cut costs of living with lower taxes, building, heating and maintenance costs for those downsizing from the average American household. The homes also teach people how to maximize their space. While consumers may have to think twice about what they need to purchase (as storage space is tight), it does free up cash so they can spend it on other things, like road trips (sometimes with their Tiny Houses). The Tiny House Movement has gained so much traction that fyi just launched a series, Tiny House Nation, earlier this month all about building and moving families into their tiny dream homes. Check out the first episode on fyi website.
Keeping Life in the Cloud
While Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel’s upcoming comedy may mock cloud storage (or scare adults who make questionable decisions), the cloud has revolutionized storage. From movies and music to books and documents (like photos to word files), clouds remove clutter, not just physically but also from digital storage spaces (like those hard drives). Clouds can store gigabytes and terabytes of data without taking up the mass amounts of physical space that photos, DVDs, books, photos and documents take up on a desk or desktop. Going digital is one way of downsizing without losing out on consuming goods; can you say the best of both worlds?
Take a look at just one of the cloud options consumers have available to them:
Are you doing anything that’s a part of the downsizing movement? Share them with us in the comments!
Cover Photo Source: lassedesignen
