The Future Of Consumer Behavior

Martin LindstromMay 6, 20085 min

The Future Of Consumer Behavior

A typical 21-year-old has played 5,000 hours of computer games, exchanged 25,000 emails, SMSs and chat messages, has used a cellphone some 10,000 times and spent 3,500 hours online. Surprised? Well that’s your future consumer.

When I conducted the ‘BRANDchild’ research for my book of same name – the world’s largest study on kids and their relationship with brands – one of the results which took me most by surprise was the number of channels kids are able to handle at the same time. Where adults are able to manage 1.7 media channels at the same time, say, watching TV and reading a magazine, kids can give attention to an astounding 5.4 channels at the same time. To illustrate this multi-tasking, they can watch TV, send SMS messages, surf the net, chat on MSN, listen to music and even devote 0.4 of their simultaneous communications repertoire to homework.

But even more surprisingly, when I recently repeated the study, three years on, not only had the number of channels kids handled at once increased by 0.2, but adult capacity for dealing with multiple channels had increased by close to 0.1. It seems, therefore, that the ever-evolving media environment is not only influencing the younger generation. It is affecting us all and we are all making adaptations to it. This leads to this question: what behavioral changes will we see in future generations vis-à-vis communications strategies and media use?

The answer is straightforward. A lot. But here are two key developments you can expect to deal with in handling future generations of consumer behavior:

1. Welcome to the MSP generation. I first dubbed tomorrow’s consumers ‘the MSP generation’ in my book BRAND sense. ‘MSP’ stands for ‘Me Selling Proposition’. This is a generation which takes on personal ownership of their favored brands turning the power relationship between consumers and corporations on its head. Rather than brands being in control of the consumer’s power of choice, consumers demand their own input, even customization, in products. You can see this MSP reflected in, for example, concepts such as Build-A-Bear or The American Girl Place, both of which allow kids to design their own toys down to every last detail. Kids, present and future consumers, are suddenly in control of their own brands. So, in the future, brands will need to give their audiences the power to design their own products. If they don’t manage to adapt to this B power shift, ‘generation tomorrow’, with the highest expectations of customization – online, offline and wireless – will be lost to them.

2. Welcome to the broadcaster generation. I recently received a commercial in my inbox for a brand of energy drink I’d never encountered before: Kfee. If you’ve received this same ad you’ll know what I mean when I say that it’s shocking. At first I thought I must have been one of only a few people to receive it. But, making presentations and speeches all over the world, I’m in a position to be made aware of the fact that at least 25% of my audiences in any of the 20 countries I’ve been visiting have also seen the ad. In fact, recently released information tells us that an estimated 45 million people have seen the Kfee ad. The production budget for this massive exposure? Roughly US$10,000! And the key to this success is this: Kfee is a product that fits perfectly with the MSP generation. Why? Because the MSP generation is also a generation of broadcasters. In action with 5.6 media channels at once, these kids are at once recipients and transmitters of the brand message. They send it on. That means they’re doing the marketing for the brand. So, these days, every brand needs to trigger broadcast responses in recipients. Of course, this can be a gamble. If you win, you win big time. If you lose – if the MSP generation discards your approach – too bad. A fact of future branding life is that playing with the confident, self-aware, critical and canny MSP generation can be risky.

So, you’re dealing with a generation of broadcasting MSP consumers. In tackling this crowd you have to live on the edge. It’s essential that you take chances to meet the ultimate objective of having your brand stand out.

It’s a sad fact that most companies perceive and represent themselves according to core values extracted from an MBA manual. Brands of tomorrow need to be distinctive and push the envelopes of acceptability across a spectrum of socio-economic and political tolerances. Brands will have to even offend certain audiences to make their presence felt and their distinction from competitors clear.

In a world where the challenge of growing a successful brand is becoming greater, it’s essential that brand-builders and their colleagues focus on narrow audiences. By doing so, a brand can reflect values which only this audience appreciates. Yes, you may offend a lot of people beyond that specific group but, in doing so, you’ll build your brand’s relationship with its core audience. This philosophy represents a radical departure from the branding approach of the past in which everything – values, reputation, nuances – had to be perfectly perfect and acceptable to the vast majority. Mass market audiences are now a thing of the past. In principle, no brand can afford to be friends with everyone at the same time.

So where does this lead you? Well, reflect on the three related themes of this article: the MSP generation, the broadcaster generation, and the on-the-edge marketing that applies to your brand’s part in the lives of ‘generation tomorrow’. Is your brand MSP-ready? Are you factoring the broadcaster behavioral phenomenon into your brand’s platform? Are you recognizing these key consumer characteristics by making your audience the center of your brand? Have you revisited your brand values to make sure you’re stretching its message and personality, voice and style to the edge? If not, you’d better polish off your brand and arm it with relevance to the motivations and impulses of generation tomorrow, before generation tomorrow discards your brand forever in one short click.

The Blake Project Can Help: Please email us for more about our purpose, mission, vision and values and brand culture workshops.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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