All marketers know that consumer demands can shift at a breakneck pace. Last year’s assumptions, beliefs and trends may struggle for relevance. Blink and you’ll miss it.
Marketing campaigns must exist in the now of course but great marketing keeps one eye firmly fixed on the future. Consumers and the landscape which shapes their decision-making are constantly fluid. From the global pandemic to increased consumer reliance on technology and the rising prominence of middle-class millennials and the incoming generation Z.
To highlight upcoming adaptations to the marketing playbook, we will highlight six trends which we believe will inform a successful marketer’s strategy.
Trend 1 – Purpose
Brands with purpose are looked on favourably by the emerging class of consumers. Deloitte’s 2022 Global Marketing Trends report highlighted that although quality and price remain as important as ever to consumer decision-making, a new factor is emerging. The report states that brand purpose is as important to the new generations as price and quality.
Consumers are more concerned than ever about brand values, those values which set them apart from their competitors. 80 per cent of respondents to the Deloitte survey said they expect CEOs to speak openly about their company’s social values.
The new generation expects companies to contribute positively to society. Leaders need to embed purpose into the heart of their business to meet this expectation. Doing so can positively impact a business’ bottom line as surveyed companies with more than 10 per cent annual growth implant purpose at the centre of their decisions.
Trend 2 – Diversity, equality and inclusion
Diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), is another social factor which consumers expect businesses to focus on. Generation Z, those born between the mid to late 1990s, are particularly forthright about the need for increased DEI.
With increased migration to the UK, there have been changes to the ethnic diversity of the country, since the millennium.
The youngest generation wants to see this represented in the brands they love. This can include more representation at the board level for non-white employees, diverse faces in advertising campaigns, and a commitment to introducing diversity throughout the workforce.
Successful companies often have key performance indicator targets for inclusion and diversity.
Trend 3 – Move to first-party data
We recently wrote about the approaching cookie-less future, as Google plan to phase out third-party cookies on their Chrome browser. Deloitte asked a range of consumers to what degree they find certain forms of data collection ‘helpful’ or ‘creepy’. Of those surveyed, 53 per cent of consumers said they thought active device listening was creepy. Obviously, we’re not advocating for mass listening devices, but the wider lesson for brands is to understand where the line is between being helpful when collecting data and avoiding invasive behaviour.
Brands need to build trust whereby data experiences such as personalisation offer genuine value to customers that value extra engagement. Sending customers sales alerts or in-store phone notifications is a way that brands can use data to add value to consumers that are already engaged with the company’s products and services.
Trend 4 – Agile/remote teams
When looking to hire for new positions businesses will need to be aware of the changing way the upcoming generations approach work. Marketers and data scientists can collaborate remotely across regions and countries.
Influencers have also become central to marketing strategies, especially local influencers where a business is creating a marketing strategy for overseas markets.
Deloitte’s report also shows that CMOs are valuing data analysis above creative skills.
Trend 5 – Hybrid experience
COVID-19 accelerated an increasing shift to digital experiences; however, it appears post-pandemic that a shift to hybrid experiences is becoming the norm, a hybrid experience means a combination of physical and digital experiences.
75 per cent of businesses interviewed plan to deliver a hybrid experience in the next 12 months. This could come in the form of virtual experiences in-store, including VR headsets, mobile integration and personalised offers to individual customers. The younger generation is digital native and open to new buying channels such as social media, which is already a prominent channel in Asian markets.
Trend 6 – Marketing automation
Deloitte’s report shows that 70 per cent of marketers use automation. 33 per cent of the marketers who do not currently use automation plan to put it in place during 2022. There are a number of different ways that marketers can implement automation this year.
Artificial intelligence in the form of chatbots, predictive marketing and content creation and curation are some of the most popular forms of automation. Chatbots can be integrated into websites to assist consumers with website navigation, answer customer queries and offer an engagement point. Predictive marketing uses data trends to forecast customer desires and create compelling offers. AI can also be used to assist with content creation based on the needs of customers.
In fact, 79 per cent of leaders plan to invest in greater AI strategies in the coming two years.
Is your marketing stuck in 2021?
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