Why Brands Must Reclaim Decision-Making 

Digital anthropologist and creator of ZINE, Matt Klein has made a name for himself as an observer and theorist of online behaviours who is refusing to simply bow to the viral trends everyone is talking about and instead is asking the question no one else is: ‘Why?’  

When he sat down with LS:N Global at Paradigms 2024, he placed his anthropological lens on a problem that people around the world appear to be facing en masse: the paradox of decision-making.  

Here, Klein asks whether the concepts created to make life easier for us – the curator economy, the endless swipes of dating apps or even the concept of co-created brand communities – could be holding us back from making choices that bring us joy and surprise. 

Beware the curators

Since we first identified the Curator Kids in 2021– a largely Gen Z collective push-back against information overload by sharing gems of niche knowledge – curation appears to have taken over our digital world. Leveraged as a human-generated way to fight algorithms, we saw influencers become skincare experts, cultural hotspots driven by word of mouth and apps such as PI.FYI built on the art of taste-making. 

Klein is sceptical about this and stresses that people mustn’t be so quick to hand over decision-making, even to those who may be posited as a more responsible alternative to artificial intelligence. ‘There’s a sense that we must ingest all of our content recommendations from a source,’ he says, whether that’s an algorithm or ‘a stranger on the internet who’s going to tell us what to watch’.  

It’s no coincidence that this comes at a time when many of us have access to everything, everywhere, all of the time, meaning choice paralysis is at an all-time high. A recent study by HSBC found that 53% of Gen Z feel ill-equipped to manage decisions. It’s no wonder then that people are turning to so-called ‘experts’ for recommendations in a wide range of sectors, from television shows to fashion. ‘I feel like we’re experiencing some atrophied muscles, outsourcing decision-making when we should be dialling up our perceptivity and criticism,’ he explains. 

Happy accidents

Even in our Synthocene Era of algorithmic ease, one industry that continues to rely on human recommendations is travel. As revealed in TikTok Travel Agents, the social media app has become a thriving place for curators to share their tips, tricks and hidden gems with their millions of followers, who are hungry to experience their ‘perfect’ trip without having to spend time researching or understanding their own tastes. 

But it’s this expectation of perfection that is in danger of creating an epidemic of disappointment for those who are travelling, and in many cases living, based on the subjective opinions and biases of others. ‘It’s insane that I can plan the perfect trip to Rome by crowdsourcing the world’s intelligence to have the best three meals every day for a week,’ remarks Klein. ‘But at the same time, there’s something to be said about the human experience of getting lost, of stumbling upon something without having an itinerary.’ 

It’s not only the travel sector that could benefit from ripping up the metaphorical guidebook in favour of serendipity. Dating apps, which are seeing a dwindling userbase, are paying the price for a culture that has high expectations and seeks idealism and infinite options. ‘As a generation, we have more choices than ever. We’ve never before had a thousand potential dates lined up, or access to ratings for every single restaurant on the block. It’s chance or choice: the more options you have, the less satisfied you are.’ 

The radical act of letting go

Learning to identify our own tastes and make decisions that are not just our own, but that surprise us, will be an increasingly important part of being a human in the coming years. But it’s also important to understand what has led us to this point. 

Klein has a thesis that this came from a fear of ‘What if it’s not perfect?’ He ties this back to travel and dating apps: the fear of a bad first date or a bad meal at a restaurant. ‘It’s all connected: the accidents, serendipity, lack of expectations. And it’s indicative of a culture that is petrified.’ 

So, how do we move forward from this? ‘We need to learn to let go,’ he explains. ‘You’ll be surprised what happens when you learn to let go. It’s not that scary.’ This idea of relinquishing control doesn’t necessarily need to come from risk-taking consumers. Klein believes it can also come from brands in the form of one-off experiences, surprise boxes, or ephemeral products and menus. Although the pop-up format is well-established, there’s more opportunity to double down on brand surprise, whether that means banning photographs at events or embracing IYKYK marketing. 

The customer isn’t always right

In Klein’s Paradigms presentation, he spoke about the phenomenon of ‘audience capture’, and how creators have allowed their output to be shaped by inconsistent audience metrics such as clicks, likes and subscribers. But could the same be said for businesses?  

Yes, with a caveat. Klein argued that the most successful brands are the ones that fall somewhere between artists – who should be rejecting the opinions of their audiences – and politicians – who should be speaking on behalf of them. ‘Brands are artists, they operate within culture, but they’re also acting as civil servants on behalf of stakeholders and consumers.’ 

There’s also an argument that our creative economy – particularly the film and tv industries – has fallen victim to audience capture. In recent years, audiences have flocked to the box office for repetitive superhero and animation franchises, driving executives to continue to greenlight the same IP again and again. ‘Too much relinquishing of decision-making gets us Fast & Furious 30 and Despicable Me 7,’ Klein says. ‘That outsourcing of thinking and choosing is a risk to our creative economy and that’s the utmost of concern.’