7 ideas to profit from the experience economy
30th June, 2017
Sadly, ‘stuff’ is no longer trending.
Apparently a whopping 75 percent of millennials prefer to spend their skrilla on a “desirable experience, education or a shared good.”
That’s not great news for purveyors of ‘stuff’, but it is great news for people like avocado farmers who are already in somewhat of a Golden Age.
The theory goes that those smashed-avo-loving folk desire having experiences rather than buying more stuff (which collects dust in the massive homes they can’t afford).
They’re also showing a trend towards digital products, sustainable or organic products (is this chai fair trade?), and services such as entertainment and travel.
Armed with this information, here are some ways you ride the wave of the experience economy – all the way to profit.
1. Craftourism?
Millennials love making stuff and they love to travel.
Why not smoosh them together into an unholy alliance?
Trips to destinations that enable them to experience culture through craft!
It’s like Etsy and Contiki had a niche-baby.
2. Uber, but for tattoos?
Millennials yearn for experience, but they’d also rather stay home: it’s weird.
However, they also love a good tattoo or piercing.
You could create a bespoke (they love the word “bespoke”) home tattoo delivery service.
Combine with alcohol delivery and double your profit!
3. Cronut-scented Banksy?
Imagine you’re the smooth operator who starts to offer custom-scented 3D printing.
Millennials may not like ‘stuff’, but if you give them the option to print a Big Mac-scented Che Guevara head for the lolz they’ll be all over it.
Add a same-day delivery option to really capture that impulse-buy market.
4. Active wear truck?
Active wear, active wear, millennials love doing not much in their activewear.
However, since you can’t expect millennials to turn up to a physical place to buy a physical thing, why not adopt the formula which has made the food truck fad such a force?
Truck + thing = profit. Yolo.
5. That’s one spicy party?
If there’s one condiment that can define an entire generation, it’s Siracha.
The kids just can’t get enough of the stuff.
You know it’s a trend which could potentially be exploited for commercial gain when McDonald’s gets involved!
Why can’t you jump on the Siracha bandwagon and become a Siracha caterer who specialises in bringing Siracha creations to parties?
If you can find a way to combine Siracha and smashed avocado you’ll be onto a winner.
6. Selfie-sorting software?
Did you take too many selfies outside that Seinfeld diner when you were last in New York? There’s an app for that.
Imagine coming up with an algorithm (algorithms are the duck’s nuts right now) which can sort your selfies into different categories?
Duckface, thoughtful, happy, flexing, cleavage…the number of categories is only limited by the user’s imagination.
7. Kombucha contouring makeup?
Contouring is officially Kim Kardashian approved, but imagine you could add another layer to the beauty fad to make profits that aren’t just skin deep!
Why not offer beauty-conscious experience-seekers the opportunity to do this with kombucha-infused products that will aid digestion and improve gut health.
Look, we’re not sure it will work like that – we’re just here to come up with ideas.
You can also bet your bottom dollar that somebody’s already working on it, so you’d better get on board the Kombucha-choo-choo-train.