2021: Time for a fresh perspective?
It’s been a year of massive change and upheaval. It’s impacted your home and working life in ways you could never have imagined. But has it also reshaped your marketing plans for 2021?
Consumer behaviours are shifting far greater speeds than most brands. Now is the time to embrace and lean into these trends, before you get left behind. It’s time to look at your brand plans with a fresh perspective – your customers.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Reshaping life as we know it
Even with a vaccine now on the horizon, hardly any of us can imagine returning to the office 5 days a week in 2021. In fact, Deloitte has just announced it will be closing four of its UK offices and asking staff to work from home permanently. I’m sure others will follow.
It’s not just our ways of working that have changed. We have also changed the ways we live our lives. The way we shop, the way we socialise, the way we exercise, the way we view property, even the way we see doctors. More and more, technology is enabling these experiences to become virtual and consumers are seeing an on-going role from them in their lives.
These trends are not new, but they have skyrocketed this year. According to new data from IBM for example, the pandemic has accelerated consumer’s shift toward ecommerce by five years.
And these behaviours are expected to stick. In a recent global study conducted by Salesforce, 58% of consumers said they expect to do more online shopping after the pandemic than they did before it. Also, a recent Mintel study into post-Covid life discovered that over half of consumers said they were not comfortable going back to the gym, compared to only two in ten who said they were comfortable doing so.
The Royal College of GPs predicts a 50/50 split between 'telemedicine' and face-to-face consultations in the future.
Searching for the right model
Some of the biggest winners this year were businesses that were designed around these trends and therefore were born ready for this moment. Think Zoom, Ocado, HelloFresh and Peloton. As well providing ‘at home’ products and services, they all have direct relationships with their customers, driven by the smart application of data and technology.
As of 6th Nov, Peloton’s revenues for 2020 were up 232% year on year. Their stock price has more than doubled this year.
(Source: Bloomberg)
It’s a model Nike started to mimic in 2017, with its ‘Consumer Direct Offence’ strategy. Nike decided to take more control of its distribution channels and focus on selling direct and through mobile. It has since amassed 170 million direct consumer relationships and over $16bn in DTC sales. What seemed like a bold move at the time, is paying huge dividends now. The apparel category has been hit hard this year, but despite a 38% drop in total sales during their fourth quarter, Nike's digital sales grew 75%.
It has been reported that Nike is doubling down on efforts to grow online operations in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, with plans to strengthen their own e-commerce platforms while intensifying partnerships with leading retailers such as Foot Locker and Nordstrom to drive digital sales.
Nike has developed multiple ways to engage and sell to more 170 million people, based on deep understanding of their needs and passions. For example, it’s SNKRS app (for sneakerheads) is now responsible for over 20% of its digital sales.
There are other brands who have been more responsive to the challenges people were facing and who have managed to pivot quickly to reimagine their offering to customers.
Bulb, the energy supplier, were quick to react to the pandemic and found new ways to connect with customers and provide relevant and meaningful experiences. For example, they contacted all their prepay and pay-as-you-go members to offer them help and advice on getting top-ups done if they were self-isolating.
Bulb also conducted social listening during lockdown, proactively looking for situations where members might need help. For instance, by connecting pay-as-you-go members who might be struggling to top-up with local voluntary services.
On a much smaller scale, one of my local pubs was quick to spot an opportunity during lockdown, creating Berkhamsted Bottling Co. They cleverly repurposed their bartenders’ skills to create delicious pre-mixed cocktails that they bottled and delivered to you and your friends to share over Zoom.
The Berkhamsted Bottling Co.’s lockdown essential, the ‘Quarantiki’.
Embracing a customers’ perspective
What all of these examples have in common is their customer-centricity. They are putting their customers’ needs and motivations (vs their brand or product) at the heart of their strategy and creating products, services and solutions to serve them (increasingly at home).
To do that, they are building direct-to-consumer programmes, usually including ecommerce. As well as adding another sales channel, it provides them with valuable first party data to fuel insight, innovation and personalisation. It also enables them to control the retail experience, where they can promote and price the brand in the most optimal way.
If you are interested in or considering building your own DTC programme, then I recommend reading Si Goodall’s thoughts on ‘Fixing the first-party data gap’.
Now is the time for change
It’s not too late to adapt your plans and lean into these accelerating trends. Now is the time for brands to embrace a more customer-centric agenda and provide them with more relevant solutions and communications.
With 2021 looming large on the horizon, I imagine many of you are putting the finishing touches to your marketing plans. If you would like a fresh perspective on your customer experience strategy, or someone to challenge and stretch your thinking, please feel free to contact us for some friendly, free advice, with no obligation. We are experts in customer acquisition, growth and retention, helping brands unlock value by being more relevant.