Brands Vs. Consumer: Who wears the trousers?
There are billions of reasons why marketing is a notoriously fast-paced sector. Seven billion of those are us, and as we are consuming at a rate that brands struggle to keep up with. We – the consumer – have absolute power. As people’s average attention span drops to just eight seconds (less than a goldfish!), engaging customers is only getting harder. So how do the best brands cut through? Brand engagement and predicting consumer behaviour are good places to start!
Brand engagement
All over the world, brands are faced with the enormous task of both gaining and retaining our attention. This is particularly hard amidst the age of smartphones. Why? Well, studies recently revealed that due to overusing smartphone technology, the average attention span of a human is a mere 8 seconds. Is this causing a ‘dumbed down’ human race struggling to concentrate and ultimately making things a lot harder for brands?
As an identical twin I can vouch that one of you will always be able to do it better. It is the same with brand engagement and competition between companies. John Lewis has done it better, and a rocket in sales always follows its highly anticipated annual Christmas advert. How so? Emotional consumer engagement. Who would have thought that in 2014, the nation would fall so in love with the story of a little boy and a … er penguin? We just couldn’t stop talking about this content. Successfully engaged!
Then there is rational engagement. This means numbers, facts and tangible outcomes. In theory, it is believed that people first buy based on emotional enjoyment and then follow with rational decisions later. However, as changes are always happening, will marketing professionals begin to see changes in responses to engagement efforts?
Consumer behaviour
Marketing departments have the responsibility of predicting consumer’s behaviours so they can market their product efficiently. Depending on the wants and needs of the consumer, the ease of marketing can vary. AsMaslow’s hierarchy of needs proposes, food is a physiological need, a physical requirement for human survival. What do you think? Is it easier to market a product that everyone at some point will inevitably consume? At some point in the day, I will need to buy food, that’s a given. The task of food brands is to sway this already certain decision of mine. Dissimilar to this, I do not have a specific need for an Apple watch, so does Apple have a trickier challenge trying to persuade me?
Maslow proposes another commonality in consumer behaviour that links us all … esteem. Most of their target audience will already own all the devices that the watch includes, so convincing consumers that they need something they already have requires a whole new level of understanding consumer behaviours. Thousands of people now believe that they will be happier and more content if they buy this product which, for me seems quite pricey and not particularly attractive. Is that a foolish consumer or a clever marketing strategy?
Am I right and what are the world’s best marketers actually doing to cut through? I will be exploring these topics at the CMO Europe Summit next month and speaking to a number of the world’s top marketing officers which, will no doubt fuel my interest even more!