Are consumers changing?

Art Director Shoko Kudo, aiming for a future dual-base lifestyle, owns a home at the foot of Mount Yatsugatake and thoroughly enjoys life in the forest. I was so envious, so envious, that I visited her this summer. We brought fresh vegetables bought at the "Sunflower Market" (previously featured in this column), cooked together, and enjoyed local craft beer and Koshu wine with our meal. It was utterly blissful.

Now then. When it comes to Shoko, I can't forget her remark: "Honestly, even when I watched 'Typhoon Club,' it just didn't click for me."

"Typhoon Club" is a film directed by Shinji Sōmei (1985). As a long-time fan of Yuki Kudō, I remember feeling anxious after hearing it was completed, as the release date kept getting pushed back. Some time later, it won the Young Cinema Grand Prix at the 1st Tokyo International Film Festival. Its theme – "the pent-up frustration from adult oppression exploding out with the typhoon as the trigger" – not only captured my teenage heart back then, but I firmly believed it transcended time as a universal theme, widely loved around the world...

But according to Ms. Shoko, "Honestly, I don't really get that 'oppression from adults' thing. For me, it's more like 'Kiri-shima, Quit the Club!' (2010)." Ah, right. "Kiri-shima" depicts the school caste system and peer pressure among students. The presence of adults—both as absolute authorities and targets of rebellion—is faint there. Hmm.

I believe "people don't change that easily." Genji would still be popular today as he was in the past, and Shylock the moneylender from The Merchant of Venice would be despised anywhere in the world. Or take the masterful campaigns created by the American ad agency DDB in the 1960s (like Volkswagen's "Lemon" and "Think small") – they'd still work perfectly well today.

Even as the media environment evolves with technology, I think the essence of humanity—the mechanisms that move people's hearts—remains unchanged. So when I see phrases like "the emergence of an entirely new consumer demographic" in research institute reports (while I find the content highly valuable), I can't help but think, "Isn't that title a bit over the top?"

At the same time, I must acknowledge that "people" do change over time. Just as I personally enjoyed "Kirishima," this change isn't as dramatic as "a sensation that existed yesterday vanishing one day" or "an emotion that never existed suddenly emerging." But a certain balance definitely shifts.

What's needed in the first half of concept creation (the "feeling mode" and "scattering mode" in circular thinking) is physical thinking. Here, the key isn't just objective logic, but how to incorporate those fuzzy things like sensations and experiences.

In my book How to Create Concepts, I likened this process to "dialogue with the 'little people' residing in your heart." The "little people" represent the collective intuition of reactions like, "This target audience would probably react like this!" For the "little people" inside me to remain a vivid mirror of reality, preserving its raw subtleties, I must constantly expose myself to diverse values. I must have the capacity to accept them whole, without judging them as "good" or "bad."

Shoko Kudo's charm lies in her constant frankness. She'll tell me, "Yamada-san, you're so old-fashioned!" (which can be deeply discouraging at times), but she's an incredibly valuable colleague. She also gave birth to a lovely baby girl in September and became a mom. She's currently on maternity leave, but I'm itching to head out to that forest where the autumn leaves should be beautiful by now for a good chat!

Please, help yourself!