Hiding Excessive Consumption: A Sign of the Times
November 26th, 2008 by Nubby
With hard economic times now resonating worldwide, it was only a matter of time before online luxury retailers like Net-a-Porter had to adjust their marketing strategy. Before the recession, the goal was to sell unapologetically expensive designer clothing shipped in glamorous black boxes. Now, a new mass email features a photo of two 50’s era women sharing a secret with the headline of “You’ve Been Shopping – We Won’t Tell…” The subtext cheekily reads “Your items will arrive in an unbranded recycled brown paper bag and we’ll be the only ones who know.”
This newfound move towards more discretional shopping is in part due to the guilt complex with buying a piece of designer apparel that easily runs upwards of a few thousand dollars while many people are struggling to make ends meet. Conspicuous consumption is now a dirty word.
Even though consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in 40 years, a small percentage of the population wants to keep on shopping. They just don’t want family, neighbors and coworkers to know about it.
Tags: consumption, economic doom, luxury
