COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of technology in many ways, both good and bad. Because more people are going online and for longer periods of time, there are some shifts in the way consumers browse content online. As a brand, what are the shifts in consumer content consumption behaviour that you should be aware of? How should you tweak your strategies appropriately to achieve your desired outcomes?
1. Shorter Attention Span of Consumers
A common consumer behaviour trend shows that consumers have a shorter attention span nowadays. This makes it more difficult to reach an intended audience to spread a word or a message. One of the main causes is that we are now dependent on multiple devices to keep track of everything for us. Our devices contain everything ranging from reminders to schedules and work minutes. As a result, we attempt to multi-task, resulting in a fragmentation of our attention span.
What does this mean for your brand?
a) Clarity in the First Contact of Your Message
Consumers do not have time to read through a minute-long newsletter. For your marketing and customer outreach strategy, it is extremely important to be able to state your message clearly. Get straight to the point with the copy as early as the first few seconds of your material!
“On the average, five times as many people read the headline than they do read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” – David Ogilvy
Pro-tip: One way of brainstorming for a strong headline is to write 50 variations of it, regardless of the quality. After that, pick out 3 – 5 that stands out strongly to you, and ask your teammates for feedback. Only after refinement, will you be able to find one that sticks.
b) Entertain and Inform
Consumers now spend up to 50% of their time on social media platforms when using their mobile devices. And when they do so, some of them are seeking a respite from the day to day work and are looking to entertain themselves. Brands have turned to content that entertain and inform at the same time. And the types of content that entertain include creating memes, funny videos, and hashtag campaigns.
Uniqlo launched the #UTPlayYourWorld campaign in 2019, asking users to upload videos that showcase their passion and personal hobbies. Users dressed in their favourite Uniqlo apparel coupled along with content creation tools that make it easy for almost anyone to upload a TikTok video. The campaign hashtag saw 575 million views on TikTok. Moreover, the top two videos on Uniqlo’s account garnering 3.7 million and 2.7 million views each.
2. Demand for Authentic Two-way Engagement
Your consumers today want much more interaction, and want to do more than “just watch”. They are now much more discerning in choosing which brands they want to buy from. It is no longer the most effective method to put out marketing materials with eye-catching visuals promoting what the product has to offer. Instead, the consumer behaviour trend has shifted towards wanting to be able to interact with the brand – be it through a community, through live-streaming, or the comments section.
To stay ahead of the competition, it would mean creating user experiences that will enable consumers to react, engage, and voice their opinions and feedback.
What does this mean for your brand?
a) Build a Community for Your Brand
As mentioned in our previous blog post, building a community for your brand fosters trust and brand loyalty. It is especially helpful when your consumers end up becoming advocates for your brand. What better way to promote your product than through consumers who find the value out of your product and genuinely want their friends and family to know about it?
There are several ways to build a community; one of the considerations is to note which distribution channels are relevant to your target audience. For instance, your target customer’s typical consumer behaviour represents they are more likely to lurk around Telegram. You can explore the opportunity of bringing your consumers together in a Telegram group. Not forgetting to pepper topics that are relevant to both your consumers and your brand.
b) Create Content that Encourage Two-way Interactions
There are many social media platforms out there that encourage two-way dialogues. If you would like to bring your consumers together, there are platforms like Discord, Slack, Whatsapp, and Telegram that enables the formation of group chats, which then allows you as the brand to mingle first-hand with your users.
Pro-tip: If you have a YouTube channel, you could ask consumers what they think about specific topics, and interact with them in the Comments section. While most brands have not explored TikTok yet, it is worth experimenting with as many of its video formats allow for consumers to take part in interesting campaigns.
For instance, beauty brand TooFaced partnered with TikTok influencer Kristen Hancher in the #toofacedpartner campaign. The TikTok community posted videos of themselves doing makeup routines with a before and after showing their transformations. This promotion itself garnered 1.8 million views, 167K likes, 1816 comments, and 2219 shares.
Pro-tip: Why not try out live streaming options available on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, which will allow consumers to ask questions and checkout in real-time? You can even interact with them before they make an informed purchase. While live video shopping is not yet prevalent in Southeast Asia, it already powers the majority of online shopping experiences in China. For example, Alibaba’s Taobao Live scoring US$7.5 billion in first 30 minutes of pre-sales during last year’s Singles’ Day.
c) Engaging with Content Creators that Represent Your Brand
As social media permeates the lives of consumers, the interaction with influencers on these platforms become more and more common. The role of influencers, or content creators, plays a somewhat crucial role in connecting brands to consumers in authentic ways which can bring about positive returns.
Influencer marketing is an industry that is poised to hit $15 billion by 2022, which means many brands are willing to shell top dollars to partner with the right influencers. It is important to select influencers that best represent your brand and image. It is also not sufficient to build a one-time relationship with these influencers. Authenticity comes from a continued partnership with many of these personalities who can continually advocate for your brand.
Pro-tip: Many third-party influencer platforms now allow you to choose key opinion leaders (KOLs) based on their content. You will not have a lack of options in terms of the KOLs that you can partner with, so you can take your pick from the thousands of content creators available and find those that are suitable for your brand.
3. Increasing Awareness of Environmentally-friendly and Eco-conscious Brands
COVID-19 has also led to a larger amount of single-use plastics due to more home deliveries for all forms of consumer goods. While price and convenience are still the main drivers of making a purchase decision, sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor. On Pinterest, we see an increase in searches like “eco-friendly living” (+93%) and “zero waste products” (+108%). This indicates that consumer behaviour and mindsets have now become more conscious of environmental sustainability when shopping. 9 out of 10 Generation Z and Millennials also believe that companies have a responsibility to address environmental issues.
It is crucial to acknowledge environmental sustainability in brand messaging, especially since Gen Z will account for 40 percent of global consumers by 2020.
What does this mean for your brand?
Integrating eco-friendly messages and actions into your products
Are there ways for your brand to integrate eco-friendly actions or messages? For instance, switching to sustainable packaging that is plant-based can be a way to do our part for the environment. In the fashion industry, leading brand Patagonia created a retail shop called ‘Worn Wear’, specifically for consumers who are keen to shop upcycled and recycled products.
In Singapore, brands like The Fashion Pulpit allowing consumers to swap pre-loved clothes and accessories which are kept affordable. Brands like Matter Prints have its clothing made from organic cotton as well as biodegradable fabrics.
Keeping Up with the Consumers
In summary, consumer behaviour trends today indicate that they demand more from brands in their purchase decisions, and some of these demands have been accelerated as a result of COVID-19. As a brand, you have a great opportunity to ride on the tailwinds of these shifting consumer behaviours, and enable consumers to express their own personal identity through the power of your brand image!
Here at Shopform, we enable your brand to connect with your most passionate followers and empower them to be your advocates. Your followers, who are most aligned with your branding, will be able to showcase your products in their everyday style, and tag your products so that others can directly purchase what they want. Find out more about how Shopform can connect you with your customers!