“What’s Your Inspiration?” PSFK Talks to Gaurav Mishra, The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

Gaurav Mishra has given himself a paradoxical moniker “the marketer who went off consumption.” He’s earned it: the young, upwardly-mobile marketing executive became a hardcore ascetic over the past year (no eating out, no going out for movies or music or plays, no television or newspapers, no shopping except for necessities). The now-Georgetown Fellow is keeping a “year-long book-as-a-blog experiment in why we choose to consume, or not,” which he spoke about at Interesting NYC.

His presentation left us with questions: No music? No SHOPPING?? What was it that caused such a drastic life change (besides a potential book deal)? Torn between confusion and admiration, we asked him, as part of our continuing series, “What’s Your Inspiration?”

I was the typical corporate fast-tracker in Mumbai until I realized last year that I was split into two halves. As an individual, I was tired of being targeted by commercial messages from the brands-media-retail triumvirate. As a marketer, I loved the art and science of marketing, adored brands, and was hardwired into the idea of capitalist free markets driven by consumerism.

So, when I observed people wanting to spend less, swap instead of spend, go local, go organic, stop buying things, or generally say no to brands, one part of me (me-as-a-consumer) knew exactly what they are talking about, but the other part of me (me-as-a-marketer) wondered what will happen to our economies when more people go “off consumption” because they are tired of consuming, tired of things.

I was trying to work out how to reconcile these two parts of myself when I re-read this paragraph from ‘What Should I Do with My Life?’ by Po Bronson:

The ruling assumption is that money is the shortest route to freedom. But in truth, the opposite is true. The shortest route to the good life involves building the confidence that you can live happily within your means (whatever the means provided by the choices that are truly acceptable to you turn out to be). It’s scary to imagine living on less. But embracing your dreams is surprisingly liberating. Instilled with a sense of purpose, your spending habits naturally reorganize, because you discover that you need less.

So, in March, I went off consumption for a year to understand this subculture, and I now buy only what’s necessary and nothing else. Later, in August, I took a year-long sabbatical from work to teach (and do research on social media usage in developing countries), moved continents, and gave away almost everything I had, for free.

The funny thing is that even though I have turned my life upside down, my ‘dream’ is still somewhat hazy. I know that it involves using my understanding of marketing to do good (and to change the perception of marketers as snake oil salesmen), but I don’t yet know what shape it will take. One possibility is MobiChange — a project that will use the power of mobile social networks to mobilize social change, especially in developing countries.

Follow Gaurav Mishra’s journey at The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption