HomeThis was a great article from Mario over at scrappymarketing.
Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited as a guest speaker to the Drucker School of Management. What a great place that is. Anyhow, I was gifted a couple of different Peter Drucker books which I have been reading over the past few days. One of the things that Peter Drucker frequently mentions is the need to recognize trends that already happened. Don’t worry about predicting the future (nobody can do that anyways) but rather analyze and benefit from the future that already happened. Here are three consumer trends, which affect marketing in a big way, that are happening right now and definitely cannot be stopped.
1. Consumers are in control
I hope every marketer has realized by now that they can’t spoon feed consumers with information any longer. Consumers will seek out information about your products and services when they want and how they want. While you as a marketer can spend some money on advertising to hopefully inspire that process, you also have to make sure that your website can be found through Google, looks good on a smartphone and probably soon on TV.
2. Consumers are skeptical
So they should be. For years, they’ve been bombarded with overly biased commercial messages. And now they’re running across all sorts of “honest” information about your products on forums, via search engines and now on Twitter. There is nowhere to hide for bad customer service or lackluster product performance. We’re finally moving to a time where the best products become popular and not the ones with the biggest advertising budget. Until then, consumers will be very skeptical of all your commercial messages and double-check everything. As a marketers, you need to be transparent and make it easy for consumers to find the information they’re looking for – not just the information that you want them to find.
3. Consumers expect value
That is certainly true from a product level. Consumers want to buy a quality product at a fair price. If your product is overpriced, they will find that out through forums and online reviews such as on Amazon.com. More importantly, consumers expect your marketing to deliver some value as well. That means if you do a TV commercial, you better make it very informative (tell me something that I don’t know) or entertaining (Apple is a great example). If you want me to visit your website, please offer content that delivers meaningful value. If you want me to subscribe to your email newsletter, what are you going to give me in return?
These consumer trends are forcing companies to be more transparent and deliver actual value across many different levels. So while marketing has certainly become a lot more challenging over the years, it also should be lot more rewarding. These times provide a huge opportunity for marketers to really contribute – not just sell, sell, sell. Contribute first, then sell, sell, sell.
