Prioritise community facilitation or corporate innovation?

The mass re-organisation of society that our new sociocultural macrotrend analyses has been building for some time. 

Back in 2015, New Bricolage Living identified how rootless consumers were beginning to relearn collective ways of thinking on a global scale, when borders were removed both digitally and physically. A shift to a borderless mindset built the foundations for globally connected consumers to create their own decentralised models of Community Commerce, prioritising those peers with shared values and aspirations over large conglomerates that had previously dominated the conversation. Fast forward to 2021, and these new models of exchange and connectedness truly came to the fore in Alternet Economies, due in part to the pandemic’s digital acceleration and acceptance, and in line with the formation of a new internet – Web3. 

Events over the past 12 months have been a constant reminder of the interconnectedness of humans across the planet. Right now, rebuilding life post-pandemic and amid the Ukraine conflict – with the internet its own front line, capable of disempowering the enemy or building community and morale – are matters of global concern. As the impact continues to be felt on many levels, this shift from individualism to collectivism is challenging brands, particularly in the West, to prioritise community facilitation over corporate innovation and financial growth. As Greg Sherwin, vice-president of engineering at Singularity University, says: ‘The new normal will include a greater awareness of systemic dependencies and the need for social goods.’

Having seen what positive action can be achieved collectively in response to recent global events, the collaboration between people, private sector and public institutions represents the blueprint for the future relationship between consumers and brands. And, as our existing offline systems continue to fail, consumers will expect businesses to be at the forefront of new digitally integrated systems of solidarity. 

To genuinely place collectivism at the heart of business, brands will need to make the radical move from sellers to coordinators, blurring the boundaries between how we define a company, a community and a collective. Collectivism has historically been integral to many global societies such as Indonesia and China, but the emergence of Web3 and other new technologies is changing the way in which it is assembled. 

Is your brand prepared for Web3, borderless and hyper-local strategies, next-door commerce, and fractionalised and cooperative finance models? Are you aware that niche is your new mainstream?