The transition from a “solid” to a “liquid” age, as sociologist Zyga Bauman explains, means a change in society where values and relations flow and adapt and by which breaking with institutions have resulted in everything being ephemeral and changing, and relations, environment and values.
That new model of values translates into an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world (VUCA) that has resulted in the invention of new disruptive technologies.
We are in a digital and technological age that we can also describe as liquid, where the speed at which new technologies appear is overwhelming and the success of companies depends their versatility to these new models.
The change in the conception of happiness has given rise to a culture of experiences, where the feelings and perceptions of consumer experiences are what prevails and thus what forms the expectations that consumers will have in their next consumer act.
Thus, every outstanding experience becomes the new standard, regardless of how far we are headed, as companies compete to set these standards, representing an increased threat of new competition in these terms.
The use of new technologies has allowed this increased competition at the level of experience among companies. If the user can now see a chapter of Netflix’s form, at his place and at his or her best, will he or she not have the same expectations about digital television?
The challenges for companies are to adapt their offer to the challenges their customers demand and offer their competitor as a user experience can represent the trigger of the purchase decision and its loyalty to the brand.
Liquid modernity makes it necessary to adapt to new consumption patterns, where what’s more necessary isn’t to create products that they love but to remember experiences.
“Fashions are born to get old” Coco Chanel
Department of Marketing