It would be interesting to know the demand in this area you`ve mentioned:
'general consumers of assorted varieties'.
Sorry for the little off top
It's ok,no problem. But firstly,I've to admit -I'm not fully capable of discussing anything in depth apart from trading .I consider any information unrelated to trading unnecessary for myself & try my best to forget it at the earliest chance I get.
If I have to-I would assume the demand in assorted varieties' general consumers currently is anything that has to do with social connection-anything that can give man the access to the facilities that a society can offer from the comfort from his own home,in the fastest & most effective way possible.
To give example-people used to go out in family dinner to enjoy the company of each other in a quality ambiance.Now they simply order pizza,while taking a bite from that-they look into the smartphones at their hand or their laptop on their lap,still looking for the company of each other of the millions of people spread all over the world.We want to go for shopping-Uber comes in handy,while we're shopping -Groupon comes in handy,we finish shopping -we don't forget to leave a review at Yelp.Consumer behavior at any specialty is increasingly influenced by the opinion of others,to be specific-by opinions found online.People eat,people travel-they post pics of them there in Instagram.People feel excited or down-Twitter or Facebook comes in play.People start to do weird things in social medias in the hope of getting a celebrity status.
I would say-most people spend about 2 hours a day everyday in various social media or forums/chatrooms.Where people spend so much time,very naturally they get influenced by that in their everyday decision -including consumer decision .Whenever I decide to buy any trading course,the first thing I do is read every positive & negative reviews available online on that ,then try to make my own mind calculating how many of them sounded genuine & whether they're mostly positive.Truth is,I trust opinions of people I never met in life & almost certainly I'm never going to meet.I don't know-how many of them are real or how many are paid reviews or written by the service vendor himself hiding his identity.
At first,it may appear that it all has to do with virtualization/ digitalization of our life.But what really is play in here is social connection.Man is a social creature-can't ignore that,what we're doing is essentially replicating our real society inside various social medias.From a social science perspective,the phases of human interaction are-seeking/adding value,comfort ,rapport , connection & so on and on.We're still pretty much stuck at the initial value phase,people post pics of their Lamborghini /Paris tour-seeking popularity .Popularity is just a tool of adding value.
Society was born in face of need for evolutionary survival .So,where does that leaves us with popularity? Say a highly popular member & a less popular member of our society fell into some illness at the same time-who would you think will receive more visit/affection & offers to provide help?The person with highest connection have access to more resources that ensures his survival.It's well established that our brain can't distinguish between imaginary & real stimuli,so essentially human beings are trying to build popularity in virtual world-just like they're programmed to do in real world,using internet as just a medium.
Why do we seek reviews/ opinions of others before our purchase? Back in time,say one time I felt ill after consuming some wild berries while I was hungry .Don't you think ,next time I try some other berries I'll ask around my group to find out whether anyone suffered from poisoning from these berries before trying them?If I see someone is going to try the berries I ate earlier -I would stop & offer my advice to not to eat those.So,after being exposed to this process for thousands of years-our Amygdala/emotional brain still seeks opinions of others before trying anything new to ensure our safety,despite the overwhelming counter signals we receive from our prefrontal cortex/logical brain that is well aware that things aren't the same in virtual world.In the end,it's more comforting for our brain.
I often like to say-price action haven't changed & will always remain essentially the same.Similar thing here-human behavior haven't changed & will always remain essentially the same.We just found & will continue to find new channels of expressing the same behavior in a million different ways.
I suspect we're just wetting our feet in the initial phase of social connection .In coming days,we'll progress to later phases.Anything that has to do with later phases or increases efficacy in there is probably going to rule in future.I suggest you take a look at the anthology series "Black Mirror".Virtual reality & 3D printing are going to be a thing.
Things that have to do with our basal instincts such as-food,home,society ,livelihood will always have demand.Then there are some disruptive demands that we don't know we need them until they're offered to us.Think iPod,until it's launched-no one was craving for such product .After it's launched ,everyone wants to get a piece of his own.For an understanding of such disruptive events-take a look at the books "Blue Ocean Strategy","Thinkertoys" & "Brainsteering".
