Be prepared for an unprecedented change in value (s)
The pandemic is causing a permanent change in consumer behavior, according to marketers. Hence it is not only about the shift in the (online) sales channel, it is also about a different expectation pattern of consumers when it comes to brands. Two tips to answer this.
This column is written before Jasper Brunner, Director of Strategy and Business Science at MediaCom and previously published in SWOCC.
There have been times when it was said that marketers did not listen enough to the consumer. Now that the cards are shuffled again in times of the pandemic, one thing is for sure: To be able to keep up with the (post) Covid era, marketers must listen. And many brands seem to be well aware of this, because a large-scale CMO study by WARC shows that the biggest influence of their 2021 marketing plans is changing consumer behavior.
Not just e-commerce
There is regular discussion about which consumer behavior will persist in this pandemic and which behavior will not. But marketers agree on one thing: the shift to e-commerce is here to stay. Whatever product category you look at, everywhere we see that more than half of the CEOs expect lasting change, with the retail category being the absolute leader at 84 percent (Marketer Toolkit 2021, WARC).
It is imperative to realize that we’re not just talking about a sales channel shift here. Increasing digital sales is shifting consumer expectations towards brands. Branding choices will be increasingly determined by things like optimal digital customer experience, fast delivery, and high availability. This shift in consumer ‘values’ is by no means limited to e-commerce. For example, in this pandemic, we see sharply increased focus on health, trust, sustainability, group and comfort, among others. But also in specific areas, such as making the most of your life at home, which means products like luxury home meals, entertainment, fitness equipment, live streaming services and games are skyrocketing in terms of sales.
Such a global windfall Shift in Value Unprecedented, and so has dire consequences
Such a global windfall Shift in Value Unprecedented, and so has dire consequences. Accenture calculated that a whopping $ 3 trillion (that’s 12 zeroes!) Would be redistributed worldwide due to all of these changes. Hospitality, retail and office rental, among others, are undergoing major transformations, which in turn are also affecting other sectors. Consider, for example, the shops, florists, and brunch cafes that make a living again from office visitors. Obviously, this redistribution has two sides, because where the demand for office space decreases dramatically, so does it Home office The products are growing tremendously. The companies that will ultimately benefit from this redistribution are the ones most able to adapt and respond to these new changes. But how do you do that? Two tips:
1. Invest in ideas: You can’t sail without seeing
One of the most important tools marketers cited for success in these times is introducing new, relevant products. Additionally, responding to changing needs through correct communication. In order to do this properly, current insights for various target groups are essential. This sounds like a big deal, because we’ve all experienced that things sometimes go wrong if you have to “make 100 percent of decisions with 50 percent knowledge”. But in the past year, market research has had to endure one of the toughest budget cuts. According to research by Kantar, 37 percent of advertisers in the UK have cut their search budgets. If you want to increase the return on investment of your networking and product development, then investing in gathering powerful, up-to-date insights is really essential.
2. Fracture myopia for optimal growth opportunities
Collectively, marketers indicate that the purpose of the brand is more important than ever (78 percent). But here too we see the strange irony, which is that brand campaigns are currently being hit hard by budget cuts (70 percent). This is while performance marketing is barely affected (13 percent). We can also see it in the media spend projected for 2021. In the fastest growing channels, mobile, internet search, and display are among the top 4. And let these are not the most appropriate channels for launching new products or communicating related brand values.
According to marketers, there is often a willingness to invest in the brand, but the organization has become very focused in the short term. It is a typical example ofCurrent biasPeople tend to choose a lower reward in the short term. In other words, if you ask someone whether they’d rather have 100 euros now or 125 euros next week, most of them tend to choose 100 euros now. Totally illogical from a rational point of view, but yeah ‘Saturation ‘ Short-term. The same thing happens in marketing and ultimately this short-term focus defeats the growth opportunities out there in the (medium to) long term. This is why marketers have an essential role: Stop this short-term focus by providing insight into the financial success of brand communication (in the short and long term). Combined with the right insights, product range, and digital customer experience, the world definitely looks brighter after the ‘value shift’.
