Consumers today are time poor and information rich. From New York to Moscow, Beijing to Sydney, Johannesburg to Tokyo, the consumer is struggling to prioritise. We are told that globally we have never had it so good, that the global population has never been so well-off.
Equally there have never been so many people on the edge of starvation, witness Somalia, Darfur, and Bangladesh. Climate control has never before had such a devastating effect on our global outlook and the speed at which we can access information has never been so fast. Regional wars are reaching our living rooms as countries fight to preserve valuable resources or expand into weaker political territories to secure greater mineral wealth.
It is true that the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ is increasing, not only in my own country of the UK, but also across all continents.
Poverty, Energy and Climate Control
Poverty, energy and climate control are the three most debilitating factors for a world seeking stability. If we accept stability as being good for trade, an unstable economy or region does not bring prosperity to its inhabitants. The more the gap grows between the rich and poor nations, the more demands will be placed on the affluent consumer, and the more manufacturers will demand the attention of the affluent household. The poorer nations will demand more support from its wealthier neighbour and economic migration will be the order of the day as the affluent consumer moves up the social ladder.
Every action has a positive reaction and as history will confirm it has always been like this. So what makes today’s events more critical, more exacting and more demanding?
Global Market…
The consumer has to cut through considerable market noise to find the right choice and in today’s world the consumer has a wide choice on where to invest their time and money.
Is it a truism that the value of any product or service has a shorter shelf life today because the consumer has become more sophisticated?
Are the following statements worth debating?
• Consumers have more power than ever before.
• Multiple channels of information mean that it is almost impossible to live a brand lie.
• The ability to change fast is the single best asset in a world that is changing fast.
• Blogs matter. If you want to grow, you’ll need to touch the information-hungry, idea-sharing people who read (and write) them.
• There are no side effects. Just effects.
• Indulge short attention spans.
‘Small is the new big’ – Seth Godin.
For many years reports have been published indicating that consumers are more ‘market and product savvy’, that they understand the true value of everything. Today the consumer intuitively knows what is a good deal and when an interesting proposition has limited value. As a consequence product life cycles are becoming shorter with the buyer’s experience moving from ‘must have’ through ‘got that’ to ‘what’s new’ much faster. This puts increasing demand on time and response.
Customer Categories
In his book eMarketing Seth Godin identified four types of people: Prospects, customers, loyal customers and former customers. By his own admission Seth was wrong. He revised his theory in his next book, called Permission Marketing, to read ‘Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers but still he felt this was not precise enough.
In his most recent publication, ‘Small is the new Big,’ Seth defines his theory more precisely in the following soundbites:
• Turn strangers into friends.
• Turn friends into customers.
• And then … do the most important job.
• Turn your customers into salespeople.
It’s simple when you break it down. Most people are not your customers in fact the majority have not even heard of your product or service. Most of these people are not your target audience, but they may well be, if they knew you existed and you could persuade them that your offering is worth paying for.
So how do you do this? As we will discuss later, today’s global market is the most cluttered, centralised and homogeneous market there has ever been. Global brands emerge over night. Now global brands are introduced to me on-line and instantaneously. Like the majority of on-line users today I am weary at first. But my friends and family will let me know if the offering is responsible, credible and valuable. Amazon was the first, then eBay, now there seems to be one every day.
In today’s world it doesn’t matter what you are selling you’d better make sure you get your message out there. Viral marketing can build a brand identity quickly and using standard distribution chains will place the product in the consumer consciousness faster then a traditional media campaign. From clothes to crisps, cars to shoes, bags to holidays, getting your message out there has never been so important.
Consumer Behaviour
As consumers we now take new technology for granted. The gadget generation becomes more adept at intuitive value selection. Companies are adopting more sophisticated tools and resources to attract the right type of customer into their retail space. With more and more companies experiencing increased revenues from the web, the financial reasoning for retail outlets is becoming ever more marginalised, as we the consumer visit the shops less frequently.
The Retail Unit
To increase footfall retailers are investing in brand promotion, product innovation and speed of service to capture the ‘shopper dollars’.
e-Tailing
On-line retailing has made a significant contribution to how we all shop, with the trip to the shops now becoming a pleasure activity. More significantly is that on-line shopping, after many years of hype, is starting to deliver the type of numbers to the bottom line that makes the High Street take notice. The emergence of the on-line grocery shop is evidence of the change in fortune, as we become less fearful of fraud helped by the credit card companies underwriting on-line credit transactions. Increased consumer spending has been made available by the cheap credit rates available from banks, which in turn has been fueled by competitive global money supply.
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