Brands and Consumer Behaviour in Next 36 Months

Brands are built on the significant principle of ‘facilitating the life of consumers’; the more you facilitate consumers, they will become a regular customer and gradually becomes a sales team with word of mouth publicity. But it is not an overnight game, it takes months and sometimes years to reach there. Any company unable to facilitate the consumers can never transform itself from a Company to Brand league.And the most important part is, you will have to be 'consistent' in the above-mentioned principle, to stand out in the competitive market. Brands work on the ‘Consistent Customer Experience’. Having a good experience is not enough in this era if it is not 'consistent' to match the expectations you already set in your previous sale.

From Jan 2019, 36 months from here by 2022, 70 per cent Indian consumers will take the decision to purchase products from mobile phones, Imagine the 70 per cent of the Indian population with purchasing power in their palm, is your Company/Brand ready to serve this huge market?

People often misinterpret developing a Brand is like having ‘Branding’; where we publish fancy creatives ads and videos on multiple marketing platforms, Branding is somewhat Advertising, and a process of developing a Brand, though both are closely related terms, and they are not the same. In fact, Branding is one of the processes of many other processes, on the journey of an SME/Company transforming into Brand. It is like creating a Film v/s Filming with a camera, where creating a Film has pre-production, arranging a crew, post production and many other processes as well.

The Demand

The Indian consumer today expects and demands levels of convenience, speed, and simplicity which was not possible a couple of years ago. Nowadays, consumers accessing the information at the touch of a button, brands are seeing a significant change in the path to purchase. Google had also recommended for developing sites with Mobile Centric, not just mobile responsive, 60 per cent traffic on sites is coming from mobile devices. Google Analytics and Google Adwords also shown the data that maximum clicks are converting into Leads via Mobile Device with the ratio of 60–40 per cent, in some cases it goes 80–20 per cent as compared to Desktop/Tablet Traffic. Any extra click of the button, screen or any other inconvenience can lead to abandoning the desired and well-intended purchase by the customer.

For businesses to thrive in the future, we need to understand its impact and learn how to deal with it. If your business is on Digital platform and its User Interface (UI) is not mobile-centric, then you will be on the edge of losing your customers. An average user of a smartphone is surfing the internet for 1–3 hours in a day, other than calls and text. The habit of switching the desktop on, and then Google anything you are searching for, is already shifted to mobile and hence it affects the purchasing at the ease of manner.

From booking a Doctor’s appointment to a Hotel room and Flights for travel, people have access to the palm. With this major shift happening now, which shall affect the Revenue of other marketing channels like Radio, Newspaper and Television, Outdoor publicity Vs Mobile Digital Ads.

Consumer demands clear picture of pricing at the first stage of awareness before going for booking and having a hidden cost, in the end, may push the consumer to exit from the page. As per a combined report by Facebook+KPMG+Neilsen, named (ZERO FRICTION FUTURE) 1 out of 4 person with age group of 18–24 yrs drops the last stage of the online purchase due to lack of trust, that is 25 per cent of the total revenue of all the efforts.

By 2022, Brands will have to be prepared for consumer behaviour and emotional habits, Consumer will take a decision on the basis of:-

Awareness of the Product/Brand

Considering the product, on the basis of information available at ease.

Clearing the Intent by seeking reviews or reference from friends and others sources.

Purchase of Goods/Services.

After Sale Service (post-purchase relationship with the customer).

All above five points together will create the Brand Image and companies will be able to survive and transform into Brand. People do not just buy products but a Brand Name, they get associated themselves with particular brands over the time. Emotional Branding helps Brands to get associated and get close to consumers’ heart.

Reasons for Branding

The purpose of branding has three significant reasons. First one brings the awareness to the unknown/new generation. Secondly, by creating strong Trust factor with the recent buyer of your brand. Thirdly by re-calling brand value, who had left the unfinished business for any reason.

If any of the three significant roles are not being considered while designing a brand strategy, the investment in the multiple channels of marketing may not get you the best fruits you are looking at, and the company may end up with pinching the bank balance for a small hype in the market.

The Market and Consumer Behaviour is changing at a speed never before, be ready for the future, the future is Now.