Currencies of Change in the Usa

Currencies of Change in an ever-evolving country: the USA

Currencies of Change

Introduction

Currencies of Change (CoC) is a marketing trend that addresses consumers who have a craving for self-improvement and increasing expectations for the brands they adhere to. The trend rewards consumers for their goal-achieving efforts by in turn allowing them the benefit of vouchers, discounts, monetary gains, and much more. In effect, in industrialized societies where basic needs are easily met, human motivation rapidly shifts from “what do I have?” to “who am I?”. This need for self-identity is where the urge for self-improvement stems from. Unfortunately, an array of self-sabotaging influences such as poor time management and loss of focus or motivation tend to hinder the achievement of people’s goals. This is where the trend CoC finds its place. Indeed, since consumers are expecting brands to help them achieve their goals and become the people they want to be, marketing trends such as CoC have emerged and become viable solutions to these answering new consumer needs.

This trend has already surfaced in most material affluent societies around the world and can easily be applied to almost any society, as it does not necessarily demand the use of technology or an industrialized societal situation. However, one society that is particularly goal driven, open to change and growth yet easily affected by self-sabotaging influences that can hinder goal achievement is the United States of America.

In this paper we will discuss the America cultural framework, relevant consumer behavior aspects of the American culture and how to effectively apply CoC to this society; taking into account the necessary implications and actions to undertake in order to be successful in the trend’s application in the market.

Findings

Framework

In today’s material affluent societies, consumers’ expectations for the brands they adhere to are changing and becoming more complex. With the use of technology and content rich medias, the days of “one way” communication between brand and consumer are quickly coming to a halt. Indeed, brands have observed a need for change; we can note that 66% of consumers feel that their relationships with brands are one-sided, with them as the sole contributors and the brands as the sole beneficiaries (Eldman, 2014). Consumers today want the brands they love to help them become the people they want to be. There are several notable reasons for this change in consumer behaviour, such as an over-saturated market readily providing consumers with anything they desire and although the trend CoC can be a viable solution in response to these new consumer needs, there are important cultural aspects