The 60 Day Identity: Rapid Iteration
A few days ago I was sitting in a cafe, ensconced in a booth with my coffee and a giant piece of cheesecake, staring out the window contemplating the fact I am now in my early 40's. Mentally replaying the past two decades and the changes I had gone through both as a person and in relation to my identity to the outside world. As I fondly recalled my first attempt at going blonde (big mistake) or embracing a more androgynous look (attempting to copy Ines of Chanel chic) my reminiscing was interrupted by a shriek of laughter from the booth behind me.
I would love to say that I did the mature and respectful thing and tuned them out, but amongst the laughter I heard a female voice utter the following line which made the inherent behaviourist in me sit up and prick up my ears: "that's it, that's the new me".
As I surreptitiously glanced over the booth divider I saw a group of 6 girls, approximately 18-21 in age. Unlike the groups of my youth where we all seemed to look like carbon copies of each other both in look and style, these girls were all individuals. Each had a particular look they were channelling, some a little too styled for it to be genuinely home grown but there was not a homogenous element amongst them. Well, except for the laughter.
Listening to these girls changed my world. I would like to say that the further reading and research I have conducted since my cold coffee and half eaten cheesecake moment have disproved what I uncovered, but so far it’s proving consistent..
So is it fair to say that this might be the new world we live in?
Are GenX truly currently managing to create a new self-identity every 60 days: the old ones benched either for non-performance or through boredom?
Are GenZ creating a sense of accelerated and instant normalisation with everything around them because of their childhood exposure to all aspects of life in a nano-instant thanks to technology and social media?
Are GenZ seeing instant normalisation as "just life" reaching a state of mental boredom at an accelerated pace and so looking to self-innovate with an astonishing rapidity?
Are GenZ reacting and responding in accelerated terms, seeing the change in the world around them reflected in the world within them
Are GenZ spending more time curating their external identity, seeing their inner identity as a shop mannequin, something that they dress and attribute character traits to that fit in the moment but can be stripped and re-dressed as the moment suits?
And are GenZ now trending heavily towards having multiple-personas. The Actual Self and the Desired Self of my (yes I know, old..) generation has now been joined by the Social Media Self and a few others who are attempting to join the party.
Aside from the sheer mind-boggling nature of young people curating and cold-storing all of these multiple personalities and seeing it as perfectly normal, aside from the rather fearful fact that they are changing not just their external profile but also their inner values and who they are fundamentally as people at a pace reserved for rockets: what intrigues me the most is trying to understand which version of them is the one that forms real connections.
Because (and back to business) there has always been a role for brands to appeal to one's Desired Self (aspirational), whilst connecting to the emotion of the Actual Self and it has worked.
Think beauty products, the clever ones recognised the problem of the Actual but promoted the benefits of looking like the Desired - instant win. And it was a case of rinse and repeat across categories.
But now, in a world where identities are being reshaped every 60 days, where the mental house party now has a few more permanent guests, how are brands going to keep up?
How can brands determine the real sustainable needs of their consumer base to communicate and innovate against when that consumer is self-innovating every 60 days?
And how can brands create target consumer groups when these consumers are chameleonic across group types (both standard and attitudinal)?
These are just some of the issues I’m exploring right now.