Sharing, an end in itself or a means to success?

Personally, I can relate: I am strongly in favor of seeking the outside world and enjoying each other again. I have therefore agreed with myself to do something 'fun' every month that will make beautiful memories for life. From visiting a festival to taking a city trip or going to a special show.

Slowly my out agenda for the year is beginning to fill up. In doing so, I am struck by how much of an impact the sharing economy is having on how I fill that agenda. "How are we going to go to the festival on King's Day? We'll take a shared scooter" I discussed with my sister. "We still need to book an apartment for the weekend away. Have a look on Airbnb?" E-mailed a friend. It made me think about exactly what need is driving the sharing economy.

The sharing economy responds to a deeper human need: wanting to do something for each other without expecting a great deal in return. I partially recognize this: it is more fun to "rent" an apartment from a person than from a more anonymous organization. I also think there are many other needs that the sharing economy addresses. That share scooter? That's pure convenience for us! And an opportunity to push our limits. The Airbnb apartment? An opportunity to feel at home as a "semi-local" in a foreign city and be part of a community.

In short, the sharing economy fills several needs for me. This makes sense: from our segmentation studies, we know that there is no such thing as one-sided needs. Depending on the situation we are in as consumers, products and services fill different needs. Therefore, the art of segmentation research is to understand in which situation consumers use a product or service most often and which need is most strongly met at that moment.

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Back to the sharing economy. For some companies, going with trends seems to be an end in itself. "That sharing thing, we have to do something with that too!" I could hear "stakeholders" in the "boardroom" saying it that way! I prefer to see the sharing economy, like any other trend, as a means to achieve your goals. By meeting consumer needs in an appropriate way with sharing products and services.