What We Can Learn From The Fuel Crisis And Why Crises In Consumer Confidence Will Only Get Worse
The great fuel crisis of 2021, is of course, not a fuel crisis at all. Instead, it’s one of the more extreme examples of a crisis of consumer confidence, the likes of which we haven’t seen for nearly fifteen years (think Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley).
But whether it be financial or the energy industry, there’s a common thread running through each; they’re all fuelled (sorry) by something initially seemingly inconsequential but which escalates incredibly quickly. But how?
Just like the queues at the banks and building societies in 2007 and 2008, on seeing a queue, who wouldn’t join it? After all, if there’s a queue then something must be wrong, so we’d be foolish to ignore it. And almost literally overnight, nothing becomes something.
But there’s one crucial difference between the runs on the financial sector and the current fuel crisis: the influence of social media on so many of us.
Back then, Facebook and Twitter were still in their relative infancy having been launched in 2004 and 2006 respectively, and therefore nothing like as ubiquitous and influential as they are today. News travels fast, especially when we’re all carrying it around in our pockets.
A lot has been said about the role of mainstream media in causing this fuel crisis but that would be too convenient, after all, they didn’t recommend filling up plastic bags with unleaded (yes, it really happened).
And as with most cases of a sudden lack of consumer confidence, often, there is no rhyme nor reason to any of it — think pasta and toilet rolls during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
It’s something which marketeers would love to be able to bottle and dispense at will.
Of course, there are a number of factors at work here which have all contributed to the shortage of HGV drivers (as we know, there’s plenty of fuel at the depots).
However, what it does do is highlight the fragility of today’s just in time supply chains. Today’s fuel crisis will soon be forgotten but for similar reasons it’s likely that there will be others in the run up to Christmas.
But what the fuel crisis really teaches us is that in today’s digitally enabled world, information, misinformation and disinformation is not only spread so easily but also readily consumed, often by people gullible enough and willing to believe just about anything that appears on their timeline.
