2010 CONSUMER TRENDS

A simple tool to understand changing consumer behaviour and inspire insights

and ideas

Marion McDonald, January 2010

The WHAT, WHY & HOW

WHAT: A compilation of consumer trends filtered for the most relevant for Asia Pacific PR professionals. PR implications are given for each.

WHY: Provide a guide to behaviour shifts that drive new target audience needs and opportunities for new communication approaches

WHO: Sourced from trend watching experts - see credits slide. The full Trendwatching.com report for further reading is on Truffles now

HOW to use it: To drive insight generation and new communication ideas for your clients

BUT: Trends don’t apply to all markets equally or to all consumers, and still require your professional judgement

7consumer

trends

1. EXPECTATION ECONOMY1. EXPECTATION ECONOMY

2010 will see higher expectations – of salary increases leading to increased spending on non-essentials and trading back up to branded goods again (for those who tried private label/store brands in recession). This raises expectations for branded goods and for services we sacrificed in leaner times. We’ve learnt to look for value for money in recession. Now we’ll judge brand performance as a measure of value.

PR implications: highlight proof points and communicate accountability. Prove your brand’s value & prove you deliver what you promise. Money back, peace of mind messaging and performance guarantees will be powerful motivators.

.ON.ON

‘Online culture is THE culture’ (Kevin Kelly quote).

It's elected presidents, toppled celebs, exposed corruption, all in real time, and its all exponential growth ahead for Asia. The offline world is adopting online cues (eg. Ford Fiesta with wifi, @everything. Asia still has a huge gap between the developed markets at >70% penetration and developing markets at 7-25% penetration but mobile internet will be the driving force in Asia.

PR implications: DI your brand in 2010 or give up, dinosaur!Design online communications for mobile access (eg. mobi-zines). Select and support online brand ambassadors (in a fully transparent way), align celeb endorsement deals with their social media presence, build and maintain dialogue between a brand and its users in social media, support facebook fan pages.

3. URBANY3. URBANY

With >200,000 people per day moving to cities globally, a city the size of Shanghai is born every 2 months. Asia is one of the world’s most rapidly urbanising regions, creating more sophisticated, demanding super-wired consumers wanting more daring experiences.

PR implications: messaging reflecting urban wired lifestyles, reflect aspirations to global megacity lifestyle, target new city migrants in developing markets, highlight city of origin where aspirational (especially for beauty brands & those targeting non-urban consumers)

Ready-to-buy consumers now search or are automatically alerted to a live online stream of advice from fellow consumers, largely unmonitored by brand owners. 70% of global online consumers trust online reviews (81% in Vietnam, 77% in China) second only to friend’s recommendation. (source: Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 2009)

PR implications: Brands must be responding to their online reviews using listening posts to pick up issues and thanking users for praise to build loyalty. Launch/relaunch brands via select reviewers. Engage with online reviewers to share new news. Convert the most powerful negative influencers via DI engagement.

4. REVIEWING IS THE NEW ADVERTISING4. REVIEWING IS THE NEW ADVERTISING

5. (F)LUXURY5. (F)LUXURYLuxury in Flux. Luxury is now what you want it to be: time, escape, human-friendly, access, perks. Consumers are adjusting to new forms of luxury like “real” food and designer brands’ second tier lines, secure finances for peace of mind. Balanced consumption is the new trend and brands need to offer status without overt excess.

PR implications: define how your brand offers status and everyday luxury, make ‘trading up’ to your brand a luxury, provide status to loyal users through value add benefits

6. GET REAL!6. GET REAL!

Grown-up (and online) consumers are over-exposed to urban culture, hypocrisy and raw honest opinions. Brands need to be more honest, edgy, daring and have mature, real conversations with increasingly unshockable consumers who’ve seen it all online.

PR implications: Storytelling is a must. Start conversations with consumers, don’t message at them. Co-create with fans in an online transparent environment (eg. Public competitions to create a new product/ range/ flavour). Use a more straightforward tone in key messages - don’t talk like a TV commercial.

7. ECO-EASY7. ECO-EASY

Corporations and government now regulate to make it easy for consumers to be more green. Sustainability has evolved well beyond tree planting & water recycling programs to become a senior management role in larger organisations.

PR implications: Communicate improvements in packaging, shipping, water usage and carbon neutral programs. If your client has someone focused on this area, help them establish regular dialogue with customers and stakeholders.

Sources:

PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONSUMER OPINIONS POSTED ONLINE ARE THE MOST TRUSTED FORMS OF ADVERTISING GLOBALLYhttp://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/pr_global-study_07709.pdf

INTERNET WORLD STATS, 2009 http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia.htm

Practical Tips on How to Apply these Trends

• Use these in your next insight generation meeting to check how they provide insight into your target market’s behaviour

• Compare them against your next new project brief for relevance as idea sources

• Pick the top 2-3 most relevant to your brand and brainstorm a story pitch for each. (We did this on Ford recently and developed 4 story pitches in 30 minutes)