Nothing's more personalized than predicting what I want... before I know I want it

In today’s world, everything seems to be shifting towards digital. Including marketing. In 2021 FMCG brands spent nearly 60% of their advertising budget on digital, and with good reason.

FMCG saw incredible growth during the first year of the pandemic - food and beverage sales were up 7% and non edible categories grew 9%, according to IRI. Year 2 of the pandemic looked different, and so did shopping behavior. With restaurants reopening, fewer meals occurred in the home, and food & beverage categories declined 2% versus 2020. That's still up 5% versus pre-COVID, but no one likes reporting a negative top-line.

CEOs are looking to their CMOs to drive growth

According to McKinsey, 80% of Consumer Goods CEOs are expecting their marketing leaders to drive growth. And the key to outsized growth is data-driven marketing and personalization at scale.

Leading-edge brands have built an insights engine which captures consumer data including preferences, purchases, psychographic and behavioral information. They are working hard to understand people's needs and wants at every stage in the path to purchase. With AI, they are creating smarter consumer segmentation which identifies untapped pools of growth. That, combined with personalization, is driving 3 - 5% incremental growth and 10-20% increases in marketing efficiency.

Why is this approach so effective? Because it’s what shoppers are looking for.

80% of people want a personalized experience from their brand.

People want to be understood and treated like individuals. Brands who do this successfully build emotionally connected consumers who are twice as valuable as a highly satisfied consumers.

I have no doubt FMCG brands will double down on personalization in 2022 as they look for ways to unlock profitable growth and increase the lifetime value of their consumers.

Personalization is going to lead to predicting what people want

I believe we’re going to see some brands take personalization even farther and into predicting consumers needs before they even know it themselves. Sound a little far fetched? You might be surprised to know that Amazon patented predictive shipping technology ... 8 years ago! According to the patent, they intend to deliver products to customers before they even place an order.

What’s certain is brands are on a never ending quest to know their consumers better than ever before. And we should expect novel ways these brands connect with, and delight, consumers in a 1:1 relationship. And maybe even read our minds. :)

All opinions are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer or any other organization I am affiliated with.