Do-It-Yourself World

What comes to mind when you think of

Do-It-Yourself ?

DIYhas been around as long as humans

• a fundamental part of life

As basic as cooking and sticks

DIY goals:

• create

• repair

• maintain

As our world changes…as the materials and tools of our world change…as the availability of information dramatically increases:

DIY is undergoing huge changes

• Tools

• Information

• Need or desire

The Three Elements of DIY

Tools can become an obsession--an end in themselves

Desktop Computers

Digital Cameras

DIY = Tools

DIY = Tools COMPUTERS & SOFTWARE …the new tool shed

Computer

Printer

Monitor

CD/DVD Burner

Digital Camera

Scanner

Audio speakers

MP3 Player

DIY = Information

Various types of practical How-To-Do-It knowledge

DIY = Information

Sources of DIY info• Word of mouth ----------------

• Books, magazines, print

• TV, video, DVD

• Computers (CDs, DVDs)

• The WORLD WIDE WEB

INFORMATION may be the biggest piece of the DIY puzzle

Information Channels: Print

Information Channels: TV, video, DVD

Information Channels: CDs & DVDs

Information Channels: Internet

Find out everything or how to do anything on the Internet!

The internet itself has been a huge collaborative DIY project

Collaborative open systems

Linux, Napster

Tools = (computers x software) x internet

Information = (computers x software) x internet

Tools X Information = (Computers x software x internet)2 = DIY gone wild

DIY is undergoing a tools-and-information explosion

DIY gone wild … via the internet

Four examples• DIY surveys• DIY health care • DIY websites• eBay

DIY Surveys & Opinion Polls

Online.

Available to everyone

Do your own consumer research!

DIY Internet Health Care

Health website users are more likely to:

•Ask their doctors questions •Question their doctors about diagnoses and recommendations •Agree that the medical Internet often explains things better than their doctors

•Feel more like partners with their doctors regarding their health care•Have more faith & trust in their doctors

DIY websites

Weblogs

www.fotolog.net

Huge DIY system• Searching & buying stuff

• Selling your stuff

•Promoting it yourself

•Writing text

•Pictures

• eBay has spawned a cottage industry of “DIY on eBay” businesses

• Buy stuff for DIY projects

And then there is eBay

An object sells on eBay every 1.7 seconds. More than 70,000 Americans make their living by selling on eBay

The Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards of DIY

• survival• practical – money/prevention

• mastery & control/confidence• pride/reputation• amusement & pleasure• joy of self-expression • joy of problem-solving• joy of learning (& flow)

• adds personal meaning to the objects in our lives

• adds meaning to our lives

Need/Desire & Expertise

Human Experience and Motivation of DIY

• From need to desire

• From practical and functional to expressive and fun

• From learning to mastery

Hypothesis/Insight:

In general, as learning continues, expertise grows and the DIY activity moves from being motivated by practical considerations to being sustained by intrinsic and expressive rewards

Can we plot consumers and brands on this map?

DIY Priorities

We can’t do everything DIY Which DIY activities do we pursue

& which do we hand off?

Cost/benefit trade-offs & personal desires

Experts see a few trends at work here: Sales of artisanal cheeses have spiked, science-happy home gourmets continue to seek new challenges, and the ferment-it-yourself trend is going beyond standards like homemade beer and wine. From Keeping Up With the Cheese-Makers by Lisa Kalis, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 7, 2003

DIY trends

Artisanal Cheese Making At Home

DIY trends

Shed Chic

Backyard sheds traditionally house lawn mowers and garbage cans. But in the insane California real-estate market, where many families can’t afford to buy bigger homes, gussied up sheds are housing something else: people. Newsweek Sept 2003

DIY trends

DIY as Religion

Groups now organized inNew York San Francisco Los Angeles Seattle Montreal Toronto Stockholm

www.churchofcraft.org

DIY trends

Self-organizing shopping-alert groups

DIY recognizance

End comment

It’s a do-it-yourself world…

and you’ve got yourself a do-it-yourself life