Correia The Fluid Consumer

Next Generation Growth and Branding in the Digital Age
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-86414-886-6
Verlag: REDLINE
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Deutsch, 192 Seiten

The Fluid Consumer takes an in-depth look at how digital technologies are driving profound shifts in consumer expectations and in the consumer packaged goods industry, and it explores the implications of those shifts for business models, branding, and growth strategies.

Branding in the digital world requires new practices and strategies. And, as Teo Correia explains, platform economics demonstrate how brands can leverage the power of network effects to grow.

In this book, Correia builds upon the new model for digital branding: Brands as Platforms, a revolutionary way to approach and leverage digital technologies beyond e-commerce. He also provides a framework to help leaders and managers position their organizations for sustainable growth by leveraging digital technologies to engage consumers, and to optimize innovation efforts, marketing, and channel strategy development.

In a nutshell, The Fluid Consumer:
- Reveals how profoundly the consumer is changing in the digital era, and the ways in which consumer packaged goods companies are evolving and adapting as a result.
- Develops the new model for digital branding – Brands as Platforms – a revolutionary way to approach and leverage digital technologies beyond e-commerce.
- Describes the Four Pillars of Digital Growth needed to achieve digital consumer engagement and position an organization for success.
- Uses case study examples to demonstrate how consumer packaged goods companies are finding new ways to position themselves and stay competitive in the face of industry transformation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Correia, Teo

Leseproben

Chapter One

Experience or Utility: Setting a Course to Please the Fluid Consumer

Rapidly evolving digital technologies have given rise to Fluid Consumers: people who can dip in and out of the consumer packaged goods and services (CPG) environment at will, wherever they are, at any time. These consumers embrace new product features or digitally driven enhancements, acclimate, then raise their expectations, seemingly in the blink of an eye, leaving many CPG decision makers feeling that they’re always just behind the curve (and prone to making knee-jerk, ill-informed decisions).

To get ahead, brand guardians need to hit “pause” in a world where it can often seem as if pausing would be the worst thing to do. They need to carve out the time and brain space to examine the Fluid Consumer objectively. Then, they need to develop a clear and purposeful approach to brand building with Fluid Consumers in mind.

That process begins by answering one critical question for every brand in a portfolio: Is the brand better enhanced by offering consumers Experience or Utility? In other words, is it best suited to engage consumers directly in an ecosystem of activity and connections (experience) or focus on efficiency, “surfacing” only when needed, and leveraging unobtrusive connections to stay relevant and command loyalty (utility)?

When e-commerce first appeared in the late 1990s, most of us in and around consumer packaged goods and services (CPG) certainly believed that it heralded big changes in how consumers shopped and manufacturers and retailers delivered. Still, I don’t think any of us had a real appreciation of just how “big” those changes would be. Even our wildest guesses about how the world of shopping would change were woefully shortsighted. Now, however, we have a better understanding of just what those first forays into e-commerce signaled. This trend is only just gathering in ferocity. We are all still very much in the first phases of the digital revolution.

Consider: In 2010, Internet retailing accounted for 0.8 percent of global packaged food sales, or $15.4bn; by 2015 that share had grown to 1.6 percent, or an absolute dollar amount of $34.6bn. Between 2014 and 2015, Internet retailing for packaged food grew 15.6 percent on a year-over-year basis, dwarfing the rate in other retail channels.3 The digitally empowered consumers who are reaching adulthood today won’t remember a time when it wasn’t possible to reserve, order, purchase, and review online. In fact, they won’t even remember a time when it wasn’t possible to do all of those things through a small, glowing, hand-held device, at will. Being more and more plugged-in to a complex array of different digital propositions, these consumers have begun to see the Internet and mobile devices – along with the transparency, support, and services they provide – as ever-present companions, and, increasingly, as advisors, friends, coaches, assistants, nannies, mentors, and curators of all aspects of their lives.

These are Fluid Consumers. For these members of the contemporary species homo consumericus, exploring commercial life and executing purchases through the omnipresent lens of handheld devices and apps has become as normal as brushing teeth, boarding a bus, or enjoying a meal. Most follow digital routines instinctively and expand upon them without much thought. And more join their ranks each day. In 2015 there were approximately 2.6 billion smartphone users in the world, an increase of 23 percent from the prior year.4 Forty percent of consumers use their smartphones to track down goods and services today and 27 percent expect to purchase more via smartphone next year.5

Their power (our power, because most of us in the CPG arena are Fluid Consumers) to raise the bar for what CPG companies must deliver is still just gathering. In the next 10 years, the level of change driven by Fluid Consumers in the CPG industry will probably exceed the level it has experienced over the past 30 years.

In fact, the pressure that digitally powered markets and digitally enabled consumers are bringing to bear on CPG companies – to transform their brand promises, go-to-market strategies, and approaches to innovation and manufacturing – is enormous, unprecedented in the lives of most of us working in CPG today.

Figuring out how to be mindful and purposeful about building brands in the face of such tumult starts with understanding the Fluid Consumer in depth, really looking objectively at how this new breed behaves. Many of us probably think that because we are Fluid Consumers, we understand them. But, really, how often does looking in a mirror reveal useful knowledge? We need to use a wider lens and a higher vantage point.

High-Level Traits of Digitally Enabled Consumers

To that end, consider the following eight high-level traits of the Fluid Consumer as a general and broadly defined type of individual. Many people are becoming Fluid Consumers in stages, so although you personally may exhibit some of those attributes, you probably don’t exhibit them all.

• Fluid Consumers have fluid expectations. Once they have a unique experience or encounter a particularly high standard of service in one area of their lives, they are ready and willing to expect the same other areas, raising the bar across brands, categories, even industries. (“Why can’t I have an Uber-like experience with my favorite restaurant, or my bank?”) The qualities they value are thus fluid, and that translates into enormous challenges for brand guardians; essentially, they are aiming at moving targets.

• They are generally not very brand loyal. They are easily put off by sub-par digital interactions with a company. They will switch brand allegiances quickly if a brand overpromises and under-delivers and if other options are available to them. They will also switch if another product offers features that are immediately relevant to their lives. They are easily swayed by improved convenience and by readily accessible peer reviews. Roughly 40 percent of younger shoppers take information on social media platforms into account before they make a purchase decision.6

• They are impulsive, particularly with regard to consumer packaged goods and fashion items. With a world of shopping possibilities literally at their fingertips, a well-placed, well-timed “suggestion” from a friend or company can prompt an immediate transaction. Fifty-nine percent of consumers do not perceive switching to be a hassle and 44 percent are open to shopping for better deals. Some 41 percent are happy to receive promotional offers and discounts.7, 8

• They are agreeable to sharing a lot of personal information. The rising generation of consumers, while arguably concerned about privacy, has already in large part resigned itself to sharing massive amounts of personal information in return for all of the conveniences that digital technologies offer. Three out of four consumers are generally comfortable with retailers collecting personal data if they can control when and how it is used. Seventy percent of consumers claim to be generally comfortable with retailers collecting personal data if they are transparent about how they use it.9

• They do not treat shopping as an activity unto itself. Instead, in many cases, they integrate it into other life activities (working, commuting, dining out, dining in, socializing). Why shouldn’t they? They already do the same with other regular activities such as banking and making travel plans.

• They are irrevocably integrating digital technologies into most of their shopping activities. Fifty three percent of consumers want to use their mobile phone while out shopping to compare prices and reviews, and global online sales are expected to grow 184 percent within the next five years.10

• They multi-task most of the time. When they are eating with one friend, they are often communicating with several more. When they are communicating with friends, they are also often consulting reviews of products they’re interested in or activities they might participate in or restaurants they may decide to patronize. When they are participating in activities, eating at restaurants, spending time at the gym, or cooking at home, they may also be doing work, buying clothes, reading or writing reviews, taking and sending photos, making reservations, or some combination thereof. (What other things are on your mind as you read these words?)

• They have multiple consumer identities, and, more often than not, align those identities with various activities in their lives. Fluid Consumers (and in particular, Millennial Fluid Consumers) can have six, seven, eight, or even nine distinct identities, possibly attracted to different types of brands as they correspond to themes such as healthy, social, busy, anonymous, unique, conscious, curious, creative, and even VIP. (The graphic, created by Vic Lee, depicts this “World of Me”.)

Locating Your Brand on the Experience-Utility Spectrum

Pleasing one Fluid Consumer doesn’t mean pleasing them all. And, as noted, pleasing one today doesn’t even mean pleasing the same one tomorrow. So there’s no boilerplate solution to the challenge of serving them profitably. However, one thing is clear: In order to plug into these...