The only thing we can be sure of is change, and the success of any venture depends on the ability to adapt to constant social, economic and economic changes. However, to understand the future and learn to spot consumer trends, we must first understand the present and listen carefully to what it is trying to tell us.
Consumer trends are born in small, initially hidden groups, and soon unnoticed, but with impetus, change the lifestyle of the entire society. The challenge of every entrepreneur is not only to be aware of their existence in time, but also to draw inspiration from them for their own development.
What are consumer trends?
Consumer trends are the directions of changes in the behavior of market participants that exist at a particular moment. They appear as a result of the influence of many different factors - social, economic and technological. They can be typically local in scope, but often have a global dimension. They are born as a supplement to existing trends or as a contrast to the prevailing fashion.
Consumer trends
Trends that drive change behaviors consumer, they can actually be born in every area of life. However, the ability to perceive them is not a secret knowledge, available only to the chosen ones. Trends are a sequence of events that make up a certain pattern that can be predicted by carefully observing social behavior. They illustrate a certain tendency in the behavior of society, which influences specific purchasing decisions, which is why for years they have inspired entrepreneurs to change in terms of shaping the offer, but also in the style and use of communication channels with the target audience.
Trends are primarily awareness of what is happening around us and how it affects us. Their awareness does not give ready-made answers, but inspires to change and implement really innovative ideas, which they also belong to marketing innovations.
What is the impact of consumer trends on sales?
Nowadays, building a brand-customer relationship requires an exceptionally in-depth analysis of consumer behavior. The offer must give the impression that it was tailored to the specific customer. The entrepreneur must therefore have precise knowledge of what he needs target groupin the direction of which it sends its messages. Knowing the customer's preferences is the shortest way to his heart and wallet, and the ability to transform this knowledge into a marketing and sales strategy is a distinguishing feature of the largest players on the market.
Consumers are not passive in the face of the changes in the modern world, so companies have to keep pace with them and skillfully use their knowledge at all stages of the purchasing process, which are:
- arousing interest in the product,
- analysis of a specific offer,
- selecting an offer and finalizing the purchase,
- after-sales care and post-purchase feeling.
How well do you know your customers' preferences?
Profit by meeting them!
The analysis of consumer trends allows us not only to create the right offer, but also to define a vision for the development of the entire company. Today, customers do not buy products or services, they buy a specific set of benefits and values offered by a selected brand, and only those brands that are in line with the prevailing trends gain a competitive advantage.
Contemporary consumer trends - which ones to use?
The trend is something that is yet to come. It shows the direction in which society is heading and which will soon have an impact on their consumer behavior. Not every novelty turns into a trend and not every trend becomes a global fashion. Some consumer trends pass very quickly, and others stay in the minds of buyers for good. Trends come and go. The end of certain trends means the beginning of others.
There are also general trends that will not pass in the coming years, so it is worth using them in communication strategies, marketing and sales. These include, among others:
- broadly understood concern for health and strengthening immunity,
- ecology and care for the planet it uses eco-marketing,
- media, films, music, culture "on demand",
- conscious consumerism, limitation and minimalism,
- interest in local food products,
- limiting the amount of meat consumed,
- handicrafts and a move away from mass production,
- personalization and "tailor-made" products,
- experiences more important than shopping.
The secret to seeing trends - and being ready to act on the opportunities that come with it - is identifying points of tension between what people want and what is currently available. Here are examples of people who perfectly sense consumer trends and find themselves in them perfectly.
This is how it sells in 2021
Huang Wei - a Chinese livestreamer who works under a pseudonym is a leading Chinese online retailer. In her livestream store, for example, she sold 430,000 kg of rice in just 60 seconds or 814 houses in 20 minutes. In May 2020, its audience amounted to over 37 million - this is more than the final episode of "Game of Thrones" or the Oscars gala accumulated in front of the screens. Viya sells everything from cosmetics to furniture and doorbells, but also cars, houses and rockets. Its live show is a combination of several current technology trends - streaming, influencers, social media, and trading. It all adds up to a success that many only dream of: her audience places millions of dollars worth of orders every night.
Consumer trends
Viya she is not the first to make money, because she responds perfectly to those who come up tendy consumer. In 2017, a businessman Xinda Zhan with the pseudonym Pearl Bro grossed $ 4.4 million in six months by broadcasting the pearl collecting process live.
"Car, order three chicken wings, half a kilo of cheese and one bottle of milk!" - this is not a quote from a science fiction movie, but the automotive industry's response to new consumer trends. Voice assistants live in our homes and are an integral part of smartphones, but what about our cars? Already 5 years ago it was calculated that the average Pole spent almost 4 years of his life in a car! There is little you can do while driving other than listening to music or an audiobook or sinking into your thoughts. It turns out that if we want to, for example, order something for dinner, we can do it using the built-in voice assistant in the car. Of course, not in every car model. BMW has already integrated Alexa Amazon in its cars, and Visa provides its partners with Visa Token Service, a digital car wallet that makes payments simple and secure.
How and why to analyze consumer trends?
Careful tracking of consumer trends can be the seed for implementing truly innovative solutions. The key to success is the use of the so-called Consumer Trend Canvas (CTC), a matrix analyzing consumer trends, consisting of two basic parts: analysis and apply.
In the first part, we analyze in depth:
- the reasons that made the trend appear;
- customer needs that a given trend is to meet,
- changes that a given trend will cause (on a macro and micro scale).
Once we have thoroughly analyzed a given trend, the next step is to determine its potential and practical application as part of the marketing and sales strategy. Finally, we get ready ideas for using a given trend in a given organization. Each trend should be analyzed not only in terms of its creative application, but also the profitability of implementing new solutions. In order for an innovative idea to turn out to be a truly profitable investment, it must be firmly embedded in the market and financial realities of the enterprise.