1.6 Consumer Behavior Present Trends
Your T-shirt CEO pulls you aside after a meeting and says she needs your help with the company’s website presence. Before starting her T-shirt company, she had worked at another clothing store between 2000 and 2010. That clothing store did not sell its shirts online. She tells you a story of how customers would come into the store to try on shirts to find their right size and then leave, saying they were going to purchase the shirts cheaper online. She does not want that to happen with her new company. With her startup, she has both a physical store and a website. She wants your help to ensure that the company stays competitive and understands its customers so that it can stay at the top of their minds. What consumer behavior trends have emerged since 2010 that you could leverage?
“When consumers hear about a product today, their first reaction is ‘Let me search online for it.’ And so they go on a journey of discovery: about a product, a service, an issue, an opportunity. Today you are not behind your competition. You are not behind the technology. You are behind your consumer.”
– Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, VivaKi1
As a marketer, you can’t be behind your consumers. You must be present with them at their moment of truth (MOT). Moments of truth include three stages: stimulus, shelf (first moment of truth), and experience (second moment of truth).2 Before 2010, a customer would see an ad for a T-shirt (the stimulus), go to the clothing store to buy the shirt (shelf), and get compliments about wearing the shirt (experience).
Image adapted from Think with Google1
After 2010, access to and familiarity with technology, including mobile phones, social media, and unbiased third-party review websites, created a mental shift for consumers. A zero moment of truth (ZMOT) emerged between the stimulus and first moment of truth.3 This ZMOT happened to your T-shirt CEO when that customer searched online for the shirt price before coming into the store. Our cognitive consumers now hold a powerful tool to access information and make informed choices. As a marketer, you must keep up with the top consumer behavior trends to ensure that your company is at your customers’ ZMOT.
Trend 1 - Deals, Availability, and Convenience
A decades-old trend that has not changed is our rational consumer’s need for products and services that are inexpensive, widely available, and easily accessible. These attributes rank in the top three across both age and income in the Deloitte Consumer Change Study 2018.4 In fact, even consumer groups who are more technology resistant are rapidly moving toward online shopping to take advantage of these three attributes. How does this Stitch Fix video advertisement demonstrate the trend toward deals, availability, and convenience?
Trend 2 - Internet of Everything
“Don’t call them search engines. Call them connection engines.”
– Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, VivaKi5
In 2011, Google stated that shoppers used 10.4 sources of information before making a decision. These sources of information have evolved from the consumer reports book in the library to our mobile devices. Cisco previously predicted that 50 billion objects will be connected to the internet by 2020.6 These objects are vital ZMOTs that create new opportunities for businesses to collect new customer insights. And 73% of consumers voice that they would share data with businesses in return for benefits.7 Our consumers’ consent to share data is reflected in refined Google search results that best support them in making educated buying decisions.
Let’s think about what our T-shirt consumers would potentially search for prior to shopping at our store. Open a Google Search tab and search “softest T-shirt.” How many results did you get? What types of information sources did you review on your results page? Now picture our consumer reading 10 of these information sources before selecting a T-shirt. As marketers, we must ensure that these information sources funnel the consumer toward our brand.
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Trend 3 - User Experience
“No product is an island. A product is more than the product. It is a cohesive, integrated set of experiences. Think through all of the stages of a product or service—from initial intentions through final reflections, from first usage to help, service, and maintenance. Make them all work together seamlessly.”
– Don Norman, inventor of the term user experience8
Businesses need to create a seamless ZMOT experience for users on their websites. User experience or UX design evolves as online shopping becomes more sophisticated. If we as marketers don’t design end-to-end advertising experiences, consumers will go find their ZMOT elsewhere. Users are more critical now if companies’ websites aren’t mobile responsive or have unclear calls to action, slow pages, or broken links.9
Trend 4 - Digital Video
A vital part of the user experience is digital video. Video has been exploding across the digital landscape, from website landing pages to email marketing to social media platforms. In a recent Animoto study, consumers ranked video as their favorite and most memorable type of brand content,10 and their favorite platform to discover their preferred content is YouTube. According to a recent Think with Google study, consumers rank new and fresh content first, followed by videos that refuel, and finally videos that inform.11 Unboxing videos perfectly capture the ultimate ZMOT experience of influencing consumer sentiment and trust, placing the box packaging in the starring role. We will take a closer look at how this emerging trend of product packaging impacts consumer behavior in Topic 9.
Trend 5 - Micro-Influencers
In unboxing videos, micro-influencers are the costars, seeking to engage in authentic communities primarily on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Expert influencers with 100,000 followers or less still give businesses an opportunity to create relationships and share ZMOT value-driven content. This content encompasses a wide variety of moments, such as making purchasing decisions at online and physical stores, searching for products, and giving reviews. Consumers want to know what people similar to them think about products or services, which is why influencers with smaller audiences exert greater ZMOT influence.
Based on the five present-day consumer behavior trends explained above, decide which one you would leverage first for your T-shirt company and why.
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