What some people still don’t want to believe and still don’t think it might happen is already reality: Prices for basic needs of people, meaning basic foods, basic clothing, services provided by the government and most of all energy prices are exploding. Globally.

Drinking water in many parts of the world has turned into luxury goods. Bread, rice and corn are becoming a scarce commodity. The consequences of this development are clear cut: For the overwhelming majority of the people with low and medium income, the satisfaction of needs has receded into the distance. This causes an ever increasing gap between those few who can afford everything and the vast majority of the people for whom the price has become the all decisive purchase criterion. This is not about rich and poor but about the structure of supply and demand being subjected to an increasing polarization that should cause those, who still talk about their business opportunities in the “center of the market”, to stop and think.

Discounters are doing the business of the future.

Consumption is in the midst of a process of change which many market participants still do not want to adjust to.

What does really matter? It is my firm conviction, as a consequence of what I have experienced over and over again, that it is imperative to lower the marketing, sales, distribution and logistical costs on the manufacturer side. Of course it is not possible to do this without expenditures to stimulate the market. Of course we need investments into the brand. Of course, new products have to be developed. And of course there is need for market communication, but all of this has to be affordable for the consumer.

It is imperative to achieve an affordable balance between need and want. We have to make sure that the satisfaction of wants for the majority of the people isn’t going to go under. Only if this is achieved, Premium and Luxury goods can continue to stimulate and move the market in the future.

Is my point of view realistic or are we steering inexorably towards a consumption crisis where relinquishment dominates the picture? If we understand that the majority of the people are going to consume less in the near future, that they are going to buy selectively and pay close attention to a comprehensible price/performance ratio and that they are going to count every Euro, Crown or Dollar, before they spend it, then an honest and realistic sense of the market is going to develop as a matter of course. Then we also do not need to spend so much time figuring out which price is right in order to achieve turnover. Then there is also not going to be a need for these artists who claim to be able to create markets with their reputed art of seduction. This is going to lead us to a different perception of the consumer. And it is also going to lead to more honesty.

No matter how we view the world and how we judge it, new strategies that are not oriented on what was yesterday but on what currently is and what is going to come, are required in order to tackle the phenomenon of inflation and all areas of life.