Four Consumer Trends to Help Drive Your Brand Voice in 2022 and Beyond!

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The dynamic nature of the business world does not only depend on the transactions, but the consumers who are driving it. It is important for brands to know their consumer base and feed the information and products according to them!

In recent years, consumers have witnessed a huge change in the behaviour, preference, and buying pattern. This is backed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has induced several changes in consumer’s lives.

Here we are listing some of the major trends among consumers, which would provide your brand with key growth prospects:

1. Evolution of Customer Centricity

Customer Centricity refers to an approach in which consumers' situation, perception and emotions are kept at the core while making a company's strategy. In the last few years, companies are widely adopting this concept and are using this approach for better customer experience and consumer satisfaction.

Now, people are becoming smarter and they are aware of their importance in the business world. They are acting as the driver for the business.

Thus, one of the highly popular concepts, on which organisations are significantly working is customer centricity. It is of utmost importance to know your target audience well, after all they are bringing you more business opportunities.

Using past data and sales patterns, one can easily draw out trends, which prevails among the customers. For example, if a company wants to know at what time their products are majorly searched, then they can use that time for the launch of their new product or solution.

There are many companies that are increasingly using solutions like customer data management tools, which help them to evaluate and frame strategies for better brand value.

Imagine, knowing what would be the possible next step of the customers you are serving. This would let any company imagine their brand value and customer retention rate. Drawing a pattern out of the data extracted from various sources can help a company to make different strategies.

So, it is important to make customers’ the core aspect of your business along with understanding and observing their patterns through historic data.

Timings play a crucial role in determining whether a customer would opt for your services or move to your competitors. Hence, you should identify at what time, customers would probably need your assistance and then, show up at that time.

Plan for the path, you want them to choose, at the time when they need it!

It is that simple, right?

2. High presence of customers in the digital world

The reason why the digital world is holding more prominence than the actual world, is its wide adoption among customers as well as companies. The COVID-19 pandemic compelled companies and consumers to shift to online platforms for any kind of interactions and transactions.

In the current scenario, the high penetration of the internet and growing adoption of smart devices like laptops, smartphones, are compelling companies to have a decent footprint in the digital domain.

Social media platforms like instagram are helping customers to carry out their shopping while scrolling for entertainment. Now, such platforms are not just limited to people’s personal accounts, but also have emerged as a medium for the companies to interact with their customers.

For example, companies like Starbucks, Zomato, and Amazon have started sharing various posts on twitter and instagram in order to map their brand in customers’ minds. Since an average person spends a significant time on their phones, scrolling their social media handles, it is best for the companies to enter their domain and connect with them. Influencers on these platforms have a high capability to influence the audience, who generally look for the review before choosing a product. Thus, opting for such marketing tools can help product companies to improve their brand voice.

Nobody can deny the fact that social media has the power to influence people. Any information can be spread like fire on social media. So, why can’t you make barbeque out of it?

Customers are becoming advanced, they understand the deal and crack it! All you need to do is to present the deal before anyone else does.

Apps are making customers’ lives easy and hence, they are opting for it, recently various apps gained popularity because of this. The main points to remember while launching any app for your company are:

• It should have easy user interface
• It should have the ’guiding’ factor
• It should be quick and attractive

Considering these pointers can attract more customers towards it and hence, help you in gaining a brand value.

So, chase for what you want to be chased for!

3. Growing awareness among customers about their health and environment

Consumers across the globe are significantly changing their lifestyle, food habits and even ethics. There is a surge in the population who are opting for sustainability at the core of their living.

It is due to the rising awareness among people about the importance of conserving resources and protecting the environment through every small step.

Understanding how consumers are thinking and how changes in the environment and social culture are affecting their lives, is crucial. Many companies are highlighting sustainability in their products and processes in order to gain more buzz among consumers.

Imagine a food company becoming completely vegan in order to stop cruelty on animals. In this case, people would definitely opt for it. The pandemic has significantly motivated consumers to opt for a clean diet and to be sensitive towards other beings.

In a case study, Grubhub, an online food company, published a report in 2021, in which they mentioned that people are significantly opting for their plant-based dishes. Additionally, in comparison to 2020, vegan orders have surged by 17% and vegetarian orders surged by 55%.

Similarly, many fashion brands are introducing sustainable clothing and accessories. This shows that consumers are significantly driving up the concept of sustainability due to the high awareness, which is further creating opportunities for the companies to gain momentum in the digital space.

Knowing the level of awareness and information consumers have is important for the companies. Along with that, it is important for companies to respect the emotions of the consumers and also fulfil their environmental responsibility. ?

4. Interactive, Relatability and humour

Today, the millennials and Gen Z are the most commonly targeted consumer base for the companies. They are the early adopters of various new products, technologies, solutions and services. This is why it is crucial to target and establish an interactive communication with them.

Since these generations are not passive acceptors, it requires a lot to maintain a relationship with them. Adding relatability to the content you post on your business accounts can hold on to them.

Millennials need companies to have interactive communication with the companies through various modes, especially social media. For that, companies should be very active on different platforms and always welcome the feedback they get from the audience.

Also, it is highly important to understand the slangs and language they use and reflect that in your work. Anything cool and funny would always be in trend among the population. Thus, it is important to maintain the relativity and humour part while communicating to the millennials and Gen Z.

Meme culture is at its peak, many organisations, no matter in which industry they deal in, are making memes as a fun way to communicate with their customers and engage them to elevate your brand voice.

Word of mouth plays a crucial role in influencing and establishing a brand value among consumers. For example, a person wants to buy a television set, then, generally, they ask their known ones and then scroll online for review. In this case, companies need to build brand image among consumers, which builds trust on them and then, further help in expanding the customer base for the company.

Building a healthy relationship with the younger generation with rising disposable income can be a boon for the companies. Be humorous, use their language and know their deals! This is all you need to make hustle among them!

To Sum up…

The relationship between consumers and businesses is not just limited to the trade of goods & services with money. It has transformed to the exchange of ideas, emotions and values. Earlier, consumers were passive receivers of the content floated by the companies, which were limited to a few of the mediums only.

But, now, it is a broad spectrum, which companies can utilise to boost their presence and strengthen their brand voice. So, after reading some major trends among consumers, now, you can have the idea of boosting your company’s brand value!

Just focus on the concepts like Evaluate, Study, Create, Relate and Shoot your business sales! This mantra will give you a clear vision of your target audience and hence, help in creating your brand voice.