How are marketers responding to changes in consumer behaviour in 2018?

A decade feels like a lifetime in the modern world, 10 years ago we were playing with the first editions smartphones, but now it’s hard to imagine life without them. It’s extraordinary to look at how marketers are responding to changes in consumer in 2018.

‘The power of the palm’ switched the power from brands to the consumer, they do whatever they want whatever moment they want. Consumers have huge expectations customer service and trusting strangers, with a large following, as much as peers. Let’s a take a quick look at how marketers are having to respond to the changes in consumer in 2018.

As marketers, it is essential to keep on top of the changes, to ensure that our brands are ahead of the curve and connecting in the right way at the right time.

Let’s take reviews, they transformed the path to purchase, 77% say they read up to 10 reviews before getting to the purchase. Consumers trust online reviews just as much recommendations and most check reviews before making any larger purchases. It is astonishing just how much people trust reviews now. Check out this story about a guy in Dulwich who made his shed into a fake restaurant and got it to the top of Trip Advisor using fake reviews.

It is worrying just how much some people trust reviews and that such a simple and helpful service is being abused by fakes. Verifying reviews and having positive organic comments is essential to selling online.

Excellent customer service is paramount to achieving this. Once a separate department, customer service firmly sits next to the marketing team and is an essential part of the social team. Customer Service has to be intertwined with marketing to build brand love.

71% of surveyed, go online when having a problem with a product or service, but 70% of them that were helped via social return as a loyal customer.

For FMCG products the landscape to connect and convert is a totally new one 48% of Brits do their food shop online and more and more of us are avoiding the high street. It is essential that retailers work quickly to stores to become experiences to save the high street and fixed overheads.

The way in which brands connect and is limited on small screens, where everyone is fighting for the screen space, not shelf space! FMCG brands need brand experiences to sample in unique ways and emotional campaigns to create brand love.

The rise of the micro influencer has become a prominent part of the marketing mix but as fees become crazy and large influencers started to understand their worth the micro influencers are climbing the ranks and making headway. Influencer marketing is the best way of reaching hyper-engaged audiences especially when targeting millennials with 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations.

Pinners to purchase – Pinterest drives 33% more referral traffic to shopping sites than social media platforms, retail brands must take advantage of the Pinterest to drive conversion.

Recent movements feel like everything comes down to trust. Who do we go to for advice, on what to do, or buy? At Live we’re focusing on balancing between connecting within the moment and influencing the influencers our target market are following.