30 / 84
surveyed by PwC agreed that “owning
today feels like a burden.” Among the
44 percent of adults who are familiar
with the sharing economy, 83 percent
agree sharing “makes life more conve-
nient and efficient,” while 86 percent
agree “it makes like more affordable,”
show PwC figures. A full three-quarters
of respondents agreed that the
sharing economy reduces clutter
and waste, with millennials and
households with kids agreeing
most strongly. All told, more than
half (57 percent) of those sur-
veyed believe “access is the new
ownership.”
As Harvard marketing Profes-
sor Theodore Levitt reportedly
used to tell his students: “People
don’t want to buy a quarter-inch
drill. They want a quarter-inch
hole.” Put another way, sharing
allows people to use resources
without necessarily consuming
them. Things get even more in-
teresting when a community of
individuals pulls together and de-
cides they want to share the drill
but all have their own respective
holes, at which point sharing or
peer-to-peer economics come
into play.
“Everyone on the block doesn’t have
to have their own snow blower or lawn
mower,” says Daryl Weber, director of
creative strategy at the Coca-Cola Com-
pany, rephrasing Levitt’s sentiments.
The larger the community of users, the
greater the disruption.
“Collectively, these business models
are changing the way consumers think
about value – assessing the impact
of goods and services on their wallet,
their time and the planet,” say PwC
researchers.
Sure, renting someone else’s stuff
may seem odd to many American’s
raised on ad agency slogans, super
stores and home shopping networks.
Yet four in five consumers agree that
there are real advantages to renting
over owning, show PwC surveys, and
adults ages 18 to 24 are nearly twice
as likely as those ages 25 and older
to say that access is the new owner-
ship. Conversely, just one in two con-
sumers agree with the statement that
“owning things is a good way to show
my status in society.”
This apparent shift toward access
over ownership, experience over
possession, is being encouraged by
some emerging and very influential
trends. For the past several decades,
for instance, the path through subur-
ban American adulthood was rather
straightforward: get out of school, find
a job, have some kids, move up the ca-
reer path and along the way purchase
cars, a nice house and lots of material
possessions to fill it. “Shop ‘til you
drop” and credit card debt exploded in
the 1980s into “galleria” shopping malls,
and consumerism has largely flourished
up until the downturn of 2008.
As of those late 2000s, however,
the digital generation faces somewhat
different circumstances.
“When kids get out of
school now, debt levels are
higher than ever before, and
even though the economy
is strengthening, working
your way into the workforce
in a meaningful way is much
more difficult,” says Eric
Greene, general manager
and vice president of brand
+ innovation at Kelty, which
recently launched a camping
gear rental program through
sharing site GetOutfitted.
At the same time, younger
populations continue to lead
the migration back to urban
and near-urban neighbor-
hoods and their smaller living
spaces. All the while a higher
value is being placed on sus-
tainability and conscientious
consumption.
“Some of the larger luxury
items that were very much a part of the
last generations’ priorities can’t be a
priority anymore,” says Greene. “Part of
it may be backlash, and part may be by
practicality, but [the millennial genera-
tion] views things differently, and I think
that is where you are seeing the sharing
economy start to take off in other cat-
egories.”
Whereas past generations may have
measured success by material currency,
younger generations are more concerned
with their social currency, argues Mike
Brown, co-owner of peer-to-peer outdoor
gear rental company GearCommons.
“That eventually will evolve into expe-
riential currency, in that you are the sum
of your experience,” he says. “A bunch of
services now exists to enable this. Face-
book, after all, is the sum of all your best
experiences – the best version of your-
self that you want people to see.”
In other words, as Brown, summa-
rizes, “I haven’t once Instagramed my
winter tent. But I Instagram the experi-
ences around it.”
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Entertainment
and Media
ages 65
and older
ages 18
to 24
ages 25
to 34
ages 55
to 64
ages 45
to 54
ages 35
to 44
Automotive
and
Transportation
Hospitality
and Dining
Retail
-2019
GR
.5%
.1%
.6%
2%
Age Breakdown of Providers in Sharing Economy
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers
16%
14%
24%
24%
14%
8%
Perceived Benefits Among U.S. Adults Familiar with Sharing
Economy (44%)
Agree it makes life more affordable
86%
Agree it makes life more convenient and efficient
83%
Agree it is less expensive to share good than to own them individually
81%
Agree it’s better for the environment
76%
Agree it builds a stronger community
78%
Agree it is more fun than engaging with traditional companies
63%
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Inside
Outdoor
|
Summer
2015
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