Top 3 Consumer Trends Marketers Need to Pay Attention To

/ 26 April 2022

“It’s still: right time, right place, right person, right message… So, what are marketers missing?”

To better understand the answer to this question we conducted a Consumer Insight Survey at the end of the holiday shopping period with over 900 participants from across the UK, Singapore, and the U.S. Our goal was to better understand consumer attitudes toward personalized brand experiences, and how consumer attitudes to data collection and personalization have changed since our last survey published in 2021.

When analyzing the data, we discovered some emerging consumer trends that marketers need to pay attention to:

1 – Consumers Like Loyalty Schemes.

60% of our respondents stated that loyalty programs were the best way to maintain their loyalty, which explains why consumers were more willing to share data when signing up for a loyalty program. The reason why loyalty programs work so well is they are an engaging way for customers to provide their personal information in return for a mutually beneficial value exchange.

To successfully engage your customer’s, you need to get to know your customer, and every customer is different. Once consumers have shared their preference and personal data, brands can then gather insights from this data to help optimize incentive strategies. It will also help you to understand which incentives work best to motivate your customers. The results can then be applied to improve your marketing communication efforts and to enhance your customer loyalty program moving forward.

2 – Consumers want personalized offers.

At 3radical we often discuss the importance of personalizing the consumer experience; so it was disappointing to see that 65% of respondents stated they experienced poorly targeted communications, and 52% of respondents were frustrated from receiving communications and offers not relevant to them. Additionally, 42% would be less inclined to shop with brands that did not extend tailored communications. Therefore, is it clear that brands need to be asking for information that enables them to better serve the consumer, all while being a little creative.

Application of gamification and engagement science are proven to generate greater results when personalizing customer engagement journeys. Using game mechanics, like earning badges, points, surveys, and quizzes, brands can incentivize and motivate customers to share their data, while making the experience inherently enjoyable. One company that has successfully used gamification to help personalize future offers was this global pet care brand. They engaged their customers with an ‘advent calendar’ game, which offered thousands of coupons and an engaging experience, in return for a completed customer survey during the Christmas period. The vital pet ownership data collected was then used to inform the planning of future marketing activities and a tool to personalize marketing messages as they built consumer trust directly with the brand.

3 – Cash rewards are not always key

Not all rewards are made equal. Each customer will have their own preference and will be motivated to either purchase or provide their personal data for a multitude of reasons. Our study reported that consumers view discounts and coupons (61%), cash rewards (46%), and reward points (43%) as their preference. However, cash rewards were significantly less motivating (down 12.4%) for consumers than they were in the previous year.

This shows that brands have no choice but to continue getting to know their customers as motivations are continually changing. Zizzi, part of one of the UK’s largest casual dining business, did this well by creating a daily retention game, in the style of a boardgame mechanic, on their website. They coupled this game with additional daily tasks, including completing several quizzes designed to capture key demographic and preference data in return for more ‘plays’ of the game. Additionally, by monitoring how customers were interacting in real time with website content, marketing messages, and prizes they could use this data to optimize and customize each customer journey.

To view the full Consumer Insight Survey to discover our key findings, including additional observations on where priorities should lie for marketers in 2022 click here.

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