By: Wendy Greenwood, Contributing Author
Marketers across the globe are challenged with changes in consumer priorities and purchase behaviour. According to research by McKinsey and Company, 75% of consumers have tried a new shopping behaviour and most say that they will continue it. But will they? If so, how can your brand stand out?
Emerging Shopping Behaviour and Changing Priorities
The economic fall out from the pandemic has upended retail stores and services, permanently altering how people shop. The tsunami of eCommerce swept in advancements and adoption of home delivery, curbside pickup and instore self-checkouts, just to name a few.
Right now, consumers are looking for value, especially for essentials. They expect convenience and availability when shopping, both instore and online. With supply chains disrupted, many products have been out of stock or eliminated altogether. As a result, consumers are switching brands and looking to private labels for value. Brand loyalty is in peril.
As we head into the Holiday season, sales promotions will become more prevalent, especially in apparel. The temptation for many retailers will be to jump on the bandwagon, but it will be a race to the bottom for many. Come January, the sea of sameness will swallow up many undifferentiated brands. Don’t be one of them.
Really Know Your Customer
Everyone is experiencing the health crisis differently, and you are no exception. As Marketing Week’s columnist Mark Ritson proclaims, “you are not your customer.” You need to understand how the pandemic has changed your customers’ priorities and shopping behaviour. Research is imperative to understanding changes in consumer behaviour, attitudes and motivations. Social listening tools are just one way you can uncover insights by tracking and analyzing conversations across various platforms.
Listen. Observe. Find out what’s going on.
Recalibrate Your Goals and Strategy
Armed with new insights and data, reset your objectives for next year. How will you build brand awareness? How will you grow sales and market share? What resources will you need to get there? You need to identify your priorities and fix your strategy first, before you can adjust your tactics.
Scenario planning can help when making difficult decisions. No one has a crystal ball. Not even you. Doing nothing is not an option. Speed is everything. To mitigate risk, try a new idea out on a small group and then roll it out and scale it up. One customer. One store. One market at a time.
Rethink Your Value Proposition
Markets are unstable and customer behaviour is changing. As new problems for your customers emerge, look for opportunities to solve them. Now is the time to stand out and be different. As co-authors Stan Phelps and David Rendall advise in their new book, Pink Goldfish, “your flaws are what make you unique, awesome.” By leaning into what makes you “weird” or doing less of what others consider as normal, brands can stand out. Canadian cough syrup Buckley’s achieved success with its famous slogan “It tastes awful. And it Works.”
Opportunities are out there. Brands are changing the products they make and how they make them. Early in the pandemic, distilleries began producing hand sanitizer. A Canadian manufacturer of underwear, Stanfield’s, began producing PPE. Innovation can happen anywhere, at any time. Did you know that many products were created by accident? The list includes penicillin, Post-it Notes, Corn Flakes and the Slinky toy. How can you find a new way to drive revenue?
Measure what Matters
Take a look at your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Are they still relevant? Does your dashboard need an overhaul? For eCommerce sales, are you measuring the percentage of order fulfillment? Substituting white milk for chocolate won’t help someone who needs it for their tea. Review your KPI’s and make sure they align to your corporate objectives and today’s reality.
Look to Loyalty Programs
Look ahead as to how your loyalty program can better meet your customers’ needs and maintain trust and deliver value. Review and assess your digital systems and uncover new areas for improvement. Flybuys, Australia’s most popular loyalty program, recently made it more convenient for customers to use. The new online payment channel, called Flypay, simplifies the checkout process for customers and allows retailers to better compete with Amazon.
Adapt Your Ecosystem
Just as tide pools depend on the changing level of the ocean, brands depend on ecosystems too. That’s why malls exist. Some stores drive traffic and others feed off them.
Ecosystems are changing. Canadian drug store chain Shoppers Drug Mart is opening the Health Clinic by Shoppers. The goal is to drive foot traffic to its brick and mortar stores with convenient one-stop access to medical services and trusted advice. The first clinics are opening in select locations prior to a national roll out. Who can your brand partner with?
Look to technology for contactless commerce
You don’t necessarily need to look to a new technology for a solution. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, QR (Quick Response) codes have made a comeback. Remember those two-dimensional barcodes that you scan with your smartphones? They emerged back in the
mid-90’s but fell out of favour until Apple’s iOS11 update in 2017. Your phone camera can now scan a QR code without having to download a third-party app.
Scanning the code allows for quick and easy website log-in. In July, Coke began using QR codes in its Freestyle Soda vending machines for contactless dispensing in restaurants, cinemas and theme parks. A customer simply holds their camera up to the machine’s display and then scans a QR code. It then connects them to the cloud and brings the machine’s user interface directly onto their smartphone. The customer next selects an item from the menu and hits “pour.”
Restaurants are also using QR codes so patrons can scan menus at the front door or tableside. Digital menus are flexible, as menus can easily be updated with new prices or food items. QR codes can also be incorporated into ad creative, such as in-store or in-mall posters, giving shoppers easy access to the latest store hours or sales promotions.
Amid the Storm Clouds, Bright Spots are Emerging
The rise of eCommerce and new technologies have changed the fate of brands in many categories and industries. Whatever changes you undertake, be sure to deliver value and differentiation. We’ve learned from past recessions that discretionary spending will be slashed. Brands that continue to invest in marketing will fare better than those who don’t. Are you prepared?