Creating Tomorrow: are you a Compressionalist?
How are you feeling this morning? Tired? Rushed off your feet? Under pressure? All three, perhaps? (Exasperated you’re being asked so many questions when you just want me to get to the point?)
When we look at consumer sentiment today, no matter where people sit on the generational spectrum, the feeling of overwhelming pressure has become a demographic unifier.
Whether it’s hitting your KPIs at work, attempting to garner more likes on Instagram or just keeping up with the latest wellness trend (tried the celery-juice-for-breakfast fad? Just me?), we’re all under increasing pressure, and it’s starting to show.
Introducing The Compressionalists. A time-pressured, decision-averse cohort, who want you to make life easier for them.
If you’ve bought something online recently that wasn’t perfect, but would arrive “in time”, then I’m afraid you’ve just identified yourself as a Compressionalist.
If you’re trying to achieve it all – work/life balance, career progression, financial security, enviable relationship – but feel like you’re constantly failing and there’s more you could or should do, then you’re suffering from “Superhuman syndrome” and you are definitely a Compressionalist.
This isn’t a piece about what you as an individual can do to shrug off your Compressionalist tendencies, but about what businesses can do to help and, in turn, benefit from this growing demographic, first identified in WGSN’s Future Consumer 2021 white paper.
In a nutshell, it’s about doing the thinking for people, and once you’ve done that, giving them immediate access.
Make it easy!
The Compressionalist is less concerned with price discounts and far more about ease of purchase. Declutter your website/store/comms strategy and streamline the shopper journey.
Copy D2C brands
Less is more has never been more important. Just as those clever direct to consumer brands worked out the ‘infinite shelf’ was delivering stress over choice, and crafted tight, targeted edits of their offering, so big brands should follow suit. I don’t want 4,385 types of jeans to choose from. I really just want one.
Take the strain
AI is this cohort’s friend. The nudge of ‘you bought this last time, do you want it again?’ in an online grocery shop; the ability to plan a journey across multiple travel systems irrespective of network ownership; the one-stop essentials shop with single online basket, all make for a happier Compressionalist.
Smart options; smart choices
This demographic, in the main, commutes and want to maximise its time while getting to and from work. Smart clothing, like adidas trainers’ built-in Berlin metro pass, are a win.
For more insight, and to discover more about the other consumer profiles we’re tracking, download a copy of our full Future Consumer 2021 white paper here.
(Compressionalist) Product of the Week
As a self-diagnosed Compressionalist, I am all about the multitasking product, especially if I’m travelling and need everything to fit into the dinky little plastic bag at security. It Cosmetics’ hero product, Your Skin But Better, is an all-in-one, wait for it: foundation, moisturiser, SPF50 and anti-ageing serum that deserves its cult status. I flirt with other foundations, but invariably come back to this one time and time again.
(Compressionalist) Treatment of the Week
I gave up on facials sometime ago, frankly enraged that someone slapping a mask on my face and then disappearing for 20 minutes while it “works its magic”, counted as a spa treatment – when I could achieve the same thing at home at a fraction of the price. Compressionalists want treatments that work, which is where Skinwork comes in. I’ve had two treatments here to date and on both occasions have had people comment, unprovoked, how great my skin looked afterwards. The first time it was my other-half, who had never before and has never since been prompted to mention how my skin looks, unless it’s to remark that I look tired. The second time, appropriately, it was the woman on the It Cosmetics counter at Boots in Covent Garden. If that’s not a result, I quite frankly don’t know what is.
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