Consumer Trends March 2023

Trends shift so very quickly in our society today. It’s important to stay on top of what’s hot and what’s not in the advertising world. Every few months we do a dive into what is important to consumers and the trends that they’re following. Here is what we found as we’re about 4 months into the year so far.

1.     Uptrend in social media commerce: Millennials and Gen Z want brands to be where they are and apparently that’s on social media. 50% of adults in the U.S. have already taken advantage of social media commerce and that’s expected to grow (Future of Commerce).

2.     Search engines are still at the top for consumers discovery of new products: HubSpot survey shows that 44% of people still use search engines to discover new products over others. In store comes in at number two with 41%.

3.     Consumers want video content: HubSpot’s survey indicated that it’s important that the video be authentic. This really doesn’t come as a surprise to us. Do I hear sourced UGC advertising anyone?

4.     Adopting cost-saving habits: 96% of PwC’s Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey either have already or plan to within the next 6 months. It makes sense in the U.S. with financial uncertainties looming.

Staying up with trends is key to understanding how to effectively market to your audience. If social media commerce is up, it’s time to make sure your brand is taking advantage of shopping on social. Consumers want authentic, short-form video content. Give the people what they want in your advertisements. If your target audience is cutting back on spending, how can you let them see that what you have to offer them as a brand is necessity? What problems in their lives can you, and only you, solve?

Holiday Advertising 2022

We’ve recently been looking into current consumer trends, such as Found Content: Recession Proofing Costs. In this article we talk about how consumers are now spending more on essentials and less on luxury in the wake of economic downturns. It is important that brands are not being insensitive with their messaging in regards to their audiences’ financial positions. This is especially true for luxury item brands. Yesterday, we posted the 2023 consumer trends from a GWI Report that shows consumers are beginning to exhibit even more particularity with their budgets going into the new year. Consumers’ top three reasons to decide to buy from a brand right now are quality at 53%, cost at 36% and trust at 32%. It’s certain that consumers are spending more frugally do to their economic hardships. That being said, in the wake of the pandemic, most consumers are still opting to spend on travel and in person experiences, despite economic situations. These luxury experiences will not be seeing any dip any time soon as everyone is ready to experience the world again. This is important to know for brands as they should focus on in person engagements for their audiences’ in order to connect with them. Another trend that is a consequence of the pandemic is that of online shopping. This trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere either and it’s crucial that brands have an omnichannel UX for their consumers where they can get immediate attention (consumers are short on time) across any and all channels. Brands would do well to invest in their digital spend to improve their e-commerce and digital advertising. Keeping the pandemic and economy in mind, it shouldn’t need to be said that whatever brands do they need to make sure that they can shift gears easily. We now know that nothing is certain and that it’s important to be able to change your strategies quickly and without difficulty. Going with the flow is a trend of the future that everyone should get on board with. Happy Holidays and we hope this helps your brand understand consumer trends going into 2023.

Where do People Seek Product Information?

You want to buy a new jean jacket. What’s the first thing you do to get started in your process of finding that perfect jacket for you? The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone reading this because research says it depends on what generation you are part of. It also depends on which populations we look at around the world. For the sake of this article we will stick with the states. Let’s start by taking a look at each form of product discovery and how each generation takes part. According to HubSpot research, the most popular forms today, in order of usage are: web searches, retail store, television ads, word of mouth, online reviews, social media, and YouTube ads. It’s interesting to note that Boomers are the highest percentage in each category followed successively in the order of younger generations. However, once you reach the social media category and YouTube ads this trend changes. Gen Z takes the lead for highest percentage in each category followed by older generations successively (HubSpot). Looking to other statistics of overall sources of information on products in the U.S. this year, search engines still top at 55% of all people, customer reviews & online stores tie at 33%, 30% of people in the store, followed by 29% on brand websites and apps (Statista). There is some overlay here. Both contain that search engines at the number one spot. They both include online reviews and retail stores. Focusing highly on these for your brand to increase product awareness is a good way to for new products to hit the market. We could dive much deeper into this topic but the rabbit hole is quite long. We will leave you with this concise snippet of the top ways that people discover new products.