Simonetta Carbonaro, a native of Milan, studied psychology in Italy, worked in industrial sciences in Germany and gave journalism a try in the USA. Returning to Italy in the early 80’s, she joined the “Radical Design” movement and the designers around Memphis.

Today, Carbonaro is Professor of Humanistic Marketing and Design Management at the University of Borås in Sweden and for Design Direction at the Domus Academy in Milan. She runs the management consultancy “Realise – Strategic Consultants” together with Christian Votava. Prior to founding “Realise” she worked for Wolff Olins for ten years, one of the most renown U.K. companies for branding strategies.

Her ideas focus on the approach, that people are dissatisfied with excessive consumption in today’s world – she refers to this as “Prosperity Civilisation”. People want to experience their personal values by helping to shape the world, by contributing and taking on responsibility. “The focus is shifting from the individual to society as a whole.”

Carbonaro: “Customers perceive the powerful identification potential of brands and products as being the real added value, for which they are willing to pay a higher price. Therefore, marketing in saturated markets will increasingly take on the role of a ‘sense value process’.”

In a recent speech to the Hamburg “trendbuero” she stated: “Currently everyone is talking about the crisis. But this crisis is a clear sign indicating a necessary change in our consumer-oriented and prosperous societies. Consumers will continue to search for their objects of desire. What is new, is that they no longer just want to satisfay their individual needs, but also want to convey their outlook on values.”