Description of Activity
Chair of the 'One Young World' track at the Macromarketing Conference.In this track, in line with the aim of the Macromarketing Conference, the aim was to understand and reinforce the importance of the societal changes. In our current world we are dealing with a generation who are raised by the Internet (see Dagostino 2021) and have different ways of thinking and living to the extent they prefer metaverse over reality (Brassell 2022; Freeman 2022). This generation called zoomers are very connected (Francis and Hoefel 2018) and cannot accept force or misconduct (Clark 2021). In addition, they are concerned
about all aspects of sustainability, from environmental issues to social inclusiveness (see Dabija et al., 2019; Su et al. 2019 and McCormick and Ram
2022). They have produced a hypercognitive system where they collect and
cross reference different sources of information through combining online and
offline experiences (Francis and Hoefel 2018). Despite being digital savvies, this
generation prefers in person communications (Katz et al. 2021). Having described the characteristics of this generation, one can clearly see the
implications for the world we are living in from business practices to prosocial
and environmental actions and political movements.
As Kotler et al. (2019) stated, marketers should engage with consumers and
collaborate with them, instead of treating them as passive recipients of
information. Although consumers need to be treated as active agents, this now
needs to be considered differently since the nature of consumers have
changed (Kartajaya et al., 2016). This idea stems from the need to have
different marketing principles in the digital era but more importantly for
consumers who are, in a sense, digital beings (e.g., Belei et al. 2011; Shen et al.,
2021) who have changed the nature of ownership and possession which in turn
have changed marketing practices (Belk et al., 2022).
Hence, it is important to, instead of reinforcing marketing practices, try to
understand the new generation of consumers and explore ways they shape and
reshape consumption and production practices. This endeavour stems from the
importance of micro practices in initiating change in a more broader level. This
can be seen in institutional work literature (see Lawrence, Suddaby, and Leca
2009), where instead of previous belief that individuals are the dupe agents of
the discipline or structure they are living in, we need to see individuals as active
and creative consumers, and the agent of change, and consider their everyday
practices to form and reform the structures they are operating in.
Thus, the aim here is to show the recursive nature of consumption and market
and ways this generation can contribute to the discussion regarding the dyadic
view of consumption and production (see Cova and Cova 2012).
| Period | 19 Jun 2023 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Seattle, United StatesShow on map |