Marketing

Should brands fear the ‘underconsumption core’ trend, or lean into it?

Emphasizing durability and versatility over fast-fashion may strike a chord with those buying less.
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Francis Scialabba

4 min read

TikTok Shop may be all the rage with marketers, but it’s also inciting rage among some users whose feeds are filled with influencers hyping Shein hauls. Backlash to TikTok’s shopping tsunami spurred buy-less preaching deinfluencers in 2023, and a related trend has emerged recently: “underconsumption core.”

Antithetical to haul videos, underconsumption videos highlight not new purchases but rather long-owned possessions. Videos also show Spartan collections of personal care and beauty products in uncluttered medicine cabinets and shower caddies.

“While having a heavily adorned Stanley cup, Lululemon leggings, and the newest iPhone makes you cooler, it makes our planet warmer,” Kasturi Tale, a sophomore at Arizona State University, wrote about underconsumption in student newspaper The State Press.

Rather than “feed you to FOMO for not buying a mass-produced product that will last just as long as the TikTok trend,” Tale continued, underconsumption core “encourages buyers to…use what they already own to its full potential and buy things that are made to last.”

Brands strive to stay on top of TikTok trends, so when #tinnedfish goes viral, they can sell more sardines and when an unlikely #cottagecheesecookiedough recipe goes viral, they can sell more cottage cheese.

But what’s a marketer to do when the hot new thing is to stop buying hot new things?

Tok to the hand: In one video, TikTok user @shelbizleee shows off her iPhone 12 (released in 2020), a broken mirror she found in the trash seven years ago, and her only beach towel, which she received as a graduation gift—from kindergarten. The video had been viewed 1.8 million times at the time of publication.

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The #underconsumption hashtag has been used in 15,800 videos on TikTok; searches for underconsumption on Google peaked on July 30, according to Google Trends.

Andrew Roth, CEO and founder of Gen Z research and strategy firm Dcdx, told Retail Brew that the trend reflects “influencer fatigue” among Gen Zers.

“It’s like, ‘I just don’t want to be sold to as much as I’m being sold to, and I want to just close my eyes to some of that and consume less,” Roth said.

As for whether brands should hop on the underconsumption bandwagon, “we’re not going to the brands we’re working with and recommending them to make a TikTok” about it, Roth said.

On Substack, Dcdx recently cautioned that “not all brands should try and hop on new trends.” Pointing to companies recently posting to social media about “brat summer” and “demure,” it warned that “the hunt for momentary relevance” lands them in “the Great Brand Soup,” defined as “the indistinguishable blending of brands all playing off of the same trends, language, and cultural moments.”

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A brand like Patagonia, well-known for its commitment to sustainability, including its branded resale program, could legitimately post about underconsumption, but still probably shouldn’t lest they end up in the “brand soup,” Roth said.

“If you’re Patagonia, what do you gain from adding #underconsumption to the next five TikTok posts?” Roth asked. “You’re just adding yourself to the mix of brands that have labeled themselves as part of the trend and the hashtag, and now there’s no distinction between you and the other ones.”

Of the 5,350 #underconsumption videos posted to TikTok in the 90 days ending September 24, only 145 (2.7%) were posted by brands, according to data from Tubular Labs via Dcdx.

Terms of endure-ment: Roth said it does make strategic sense for some brands to cite underconsumption. He noted that Samonsite posted an #underconsumption video to TikTok that featured a blemished but intact suitcase that had survived hundreds of flights.

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“It’s built to last YEARS,” stated text in the video, which garnered more than 73,100 views at the time of this publication. “Choose quality to consume less.”

Why it may make more sense for Samsonite than for Patagonia to beat the drum: the luggage brand, while well-known generally, might be less trendy with Gen Z.

“Samsonite—as an older, more legacy brand—might need that to join into the Gen Z conversation as Gen Zers are maybe looking to purchase their luggage,” Roth said.

A GlobalData Retail post on the Retail Insight Network pointed to Stanley as a brand that’s “particularly exposed” to backlash from the trend, since its “model is entirely based on one type of product, reinvented in different colors or styles, in order to attract multiple purchases.”

On the other hand, fashion consumers “looking to underconsume will focus on styles and colors that go with all outfits, reducing their purchase frequency,” the post continued.

And how to market to those consumers?

“Through campaigns that focus on messaging such as how to style one item for a multitude of occasions,” GlobalData Retail said.

Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know

Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

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