Once upon a time, there was a Big Plan. This Big Plan told us that good things would happen if we followed its instructions. All we had to do grow up, go to school, get married, have kids, and climb the corporate ladder. Sadly, the Big Plan died. It was mourned by educated men standing in the unemployment line. Oh well. It was a good run.
2. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
The
Transformation
of Aspiration
A Big Life Of Small Plans
Once upon a time, there was a Big Plan. This
Big Plan told us that good things would
happen if we followed its instructions. All we
had to do grow up, go to school, get married,
have kids, and climb the corporate ladder.
Sadly, the Big Plan died. It was mourned by
educated men standing in the unemployment
line. Oh well. It was a good run.
The end of the Big Plan means that we can’t plan our lives like we used to.
There’s no more taking the pain in the short term so we can do fancy things
later, like shopping at Whole Foods while wearing white pants. There’s no
working hard now to reap rewards in the scheduled future—the bar bands
don’t want to play “everybody’s working for the weekend” anymore. Because
life isn’t too unpredictable anymore. So we transformed our lives.
Our transformations are a reaction—an adaptation—to our environment.
And they sound like a bad movie trailer: Imagine a world in which the rich
and the poor are suspicious of each other. Where no one is married and no
one has a family as we know it. A world where women go to work and men
stay home to raise children.
Such is America in 2012. We make our own Big Plan to fit our own needs,
and damn what anyone else thinks. We enrich our lives from custom-made
plans because we know that the good times are not something to look
foward to. We recognize opportunities as they pop up and pounce. Now,
absent the Big Plan, we don’t want like we used to want. It’s the
transformation of aspiration. With our new expectations bolted to the
horizon, we make a big life of small plans.
01
3. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
Why
probably best to file that question under “where to begin.”
But the real surprise isn’t that we’re sad but the fact that
we were happy a few short years ago. Traditionally, Americans
So
have been optimistic people—even our poor. Not any more.
Not since the recession.
Sad,
Not since income inequality spawned the “Occupy” movement. No matter how
Occupy’s founding intentions buckle under the professional protesters who
hijacked its cause, the fall-out is a huge catch phrase. “We are the 99 percent”
America?
is raking its fingernails across the chalkboard of the mind, and it’s not going to
die for a while. That’s why our poor don’t just suspect the system isn’t fair:
They’ve confirmed it. They know they are powerless to change the system. All
they can do is find out who will treat them as well as anyone else. The people
and companies that make everyone feel at home will get somewhere.
02 03
4. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
We Live With
Who We Love. We make a family in our own image:
Forty percent of all kids today are born to
an unwed mother. And it’s no big deal.
But make no mistake, the idea of the 2.2 kids and the white picket
fence isn’t extinct. It’s not even on the endangered species list.
What’s changed is that traditional vision of the family no longer
serves as a blueprint for us. It’s not an ideal. There is no ideal.
60% It’s open season on defining what our family should look like.
of married And yet most of the media has been slow to catch up to the
couples reality. We’re force-fed a steady diet of traditional family images
live together when we could be bi-racial, single parents, gay, unmarried, or
first some combination. The companies that hold up a mirror to real
family life can find affinity from us. Even if we’re the single gay
parent of an adopted kid of a different race.
04 05
5. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
40%
of kids today
are born
to unmarried
moms
06 07
6. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
Men Aren’t
What
They Used
Men account
for 2/3 of
recessionary
job losses
T Be.
o
of all different kinds. while a lot of
america’s men worship at the temple
of steve mcqueen and peyton manning,
lots of guys are too busy chasing
toddlers with a wet wipe and chiseling
macaroni off the couch.
Sure, there are plenty of our men butchering the
corporate pig to carry home the bacon parts.
But we’re increasingly surrendering that role to
the women in our lives. Women outnumber us in
many professional college degree programs.
They are catching up in earning potential. And we’re
fine with that. If our women are better hunters,
let ’em hunt. Most of us are OK spending our days
at play dates and storytimes. The companies that
implore us to “man up” don’t understand that
masculinity is what we say it is. The companies are
better off showing that men are ever-changing beings
with a variety of identities. We’re sensitive like that.
08 09
7. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
78%
of men don’t
care about
traditional
gender roles
10 11
8. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
Healthy is what we say it is
Americans eat big, bad, and often. lunch. It’s an affordable luxury—
That’s not news. What’s news something that gives us five
is that almost half of us want minutes of happiness amid the
healthy choices on every menu— new uncertainty and unhappiness
but only 23 percent actually the that surrounds us. We can’t afford
healthy stuff. the big luxuries any more. So we’ll
According to our studies of settle for smaller ones—whether
American culture, people are it’s food or something else.
increasingly telling us that The people who bring us pocket
cheeseburgers taste better than size luxuries are going to get some
salad. But choosing to eat poorly business from us. Which is why
is a bigger issue, because a there’s a “value menu” plastered to
cheeseburger is much more than every drive through in the nation.
12 13
9. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
47%
want healthy
food on menus
but only 23%
actually
order the
healthy stuff
14 15
10. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
16 17
11. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
Every
Consumer
Is A Shark.
We don’t pay retail anymore.
DIGITAL COUPONS
We used to know a guy who
knows a guy who knows OUTPACED
a guy. But we don’t need NEWSPAPER COUPONS
to endure the polyester shirts
6:1
and and fresh-off-the-truck
deals anymore.
We have the daily deal in our inbox. There’s a few
every day. So we’ll pass on the laser hair removal
and wait for the next one. We’re smarter now.
We know to be patient and wait for what we
want. We know how to sniff out a deal with flash
buying, social shopping, and online shopping
clubs. So we know how much our business
matters. No longer does the cable company
doesn’t threaten to cut us off: We threaten to cut
them off. The companies that integrate special
incentives and deals and loyalty programs to
heavy users are going to thrive. And if they don’t,
we’ll show no mercy: by ignoring them.
18 19
12. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
58% follow
brands
for deals
20 21
13. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
Everyone Twenty
million more
That giant number adds up to the populations of New York and Los
Angeles combined. And 20 million new smartphones means more of us
Knows
of us are checking the scores while sitting at the table — or worse. But it also
going to be means video chatting in the back of a cab, Facebook updates while the
smartphone
plane is on the runway, watching movies in class, and working on our own
There’s An
users
terms. Lots of us have already got a fancy phone and demand a lot from
in 2012.
it. So the people who don’t yet have a smartphone expect a lot. Anything
App For That.
that comes to our phone had better be useful. We want to deal with
companies that bring practical stuff to our phones. If something hits our
phone, and it doesn’t make life easier or fun, it’s garbage.
22 23
14. HumanKind 2012 The Transformation of Aspiration january 2012 HumanKind 2012
HumanKind 2012
contact:
stephen.hahn-griffiths@leoburnett.com
tel 312.220.5959
24 25