Will the changing consumer redefine capitalism?

Kotler believes that the current pandemic will usher in an anti-consuming movement. He points to the emergence of at least five types of anti-consumerists

Philip Kotler was God for us in business school, back in the mid-80s. Marketing was still kind of evolving, and Kotler’s postulation of fundamentals was lucid and engaging. But as marketing started to become more complex, and silo-ed, and kind of simplistically listicle, one heard less and less of the guru.

Which is why my interest was piqued when “the father of modern marketing” recently predicted that this current pandemic — a period of deprivation and anxiety — will usher new consumer attitudes and behaviours that will change the very nature of today’s capitalism. Citizens, he said, will re-examine what they