A new Marketing: approach the new consumer in 3 steps

Pilates at 10am. Cooking class at 11am. Meeting with your boss at 1pm. Instagram challenge at 5pm. Video call with the family at 7pm. Going out on the balcony at 8pm.

The confinement has filled our agenda of activities (and our cell phone with memes and fake news). The situation has transformed our lives and we are gradually adapting to being at home. Our habits and ways of consuming have also changed, and will even be installed as new habits after the COVID19 crisis, which means that brands are asking themselves a question: how should brands adapt their content and product offerings to the current situation?

Pedro Mir, professor of Marketing at the University of Navarra and ISEM Fashion Business School, gives the answer: better active listening to the new consumer. Circumstances have made people change their habits and, with it, their needs. For this reason, brands must redefine their customers' current interests and demands.

Professor Mir proposes to brands to listen better to their consumers through three steps:

STEP 1- Distinguish and establish what these NEW consumer needs are in the current context.

1. The need to be connected. Despite being more separated than ever, people need to socialize, stay connected and maintain ties with those closest to them; they are interested in being close to their loved ones.
2. Home office productivity. Everyone thinks about how we can work effectively at home, what elements and behaviors we should adopt, and how we can be effective during quarantine.
3. The training option. The free time that used to be used for commuting to work or outdoor tasks leaves room at home and awakens interest in learning new things or taking up that course you started and never finished. People are willing to come out of this confinement better educated or, at least, to take advantage of this time.
4. Everyone in shape. Although the Healthy trend was already established in society before the arrival of the coronavirus, the sedentary lifestyle of this stage, caused by the absence of travel and physical space, makes exercise mandatory and awakens people's interest in personal wellbeing and the practice of physical exercise.
5. Not everything is going to be work. Entertainment is a fundamental part of consumers' new needs: they need to escape and disconnect from time to time from the complicated situation that surrounds them.
6. Masterchef at home. Flour and yeast are two of the products whose sales have increased the most in Spain during the confinement, does this fact give you any clue?
7. Home care. The consumer takes advantage of this unprecedented situation, 24/7 without going out, to spend time at home: tidying, cleaning, redecorating?

STEP 2- Think about how your brand can provide a solution to these new needs.

To do this, it may be necessary to adapt, and even reorient, the messages, content, products or services you provide; but at no time should you leave aside the essence and tone of your brand. Take advantage of these circumstances to build (or reinforce) your brand image by accompanying this time with an appropriate message and tone.

But be careful, you must pay special attention to the way in which you face this new situation; do not be opportunistic or think only of your own benefit: help others and let yourself be helped.

STEP 3- Take action as a brand: highlight certain benefits and utilities, propose alternatives, transmit security and peace of mind.

1. Offer entertainment. Now that consumers want to be more connected with their family and friends, how about a campaign to help seniors not feel lonely?
2. Reorient your products. Some staple goods like sanitary gels are in short supply and big brands or groups like LVMH are shifting their production to make these items. This is your moment to help, as a brand, think about how you can do it and what your consumer expects from you.
3. Show your expertise. You work daily with your brand, but what do you do best? Show it to your customers! Offer it as enriching content. For example, if you have a flower business, why not organize a masterclass on how to make a centerpiece?
4. Create healthy dialogues . Hands up who has trained during this quarantine with Instagram or Youtube! We've all done it. Your consumer has discovered their fitter side, thanks to that pilates cycle that you have organized in your Instagram live.
5. Suggest ideas and existing content. Recommend content on screens that align with your brand message. We're now looking forward more than ever to Netflix releasing the next season of our favorite series. Think about how you can benefit your customer and satisfy this need, how about a free Netflix subscription for your consumers for a month?
6. Empathize with your audience, how about broadcasting a cooking class with the founder of your brand through your social media accounts? Even more so if your brand is related to food: offer your consumers different recipes in which they can use your products while cooking with the family and having a good time.
7. Talk about style. If cooking is not your thing, maybe you are better at decorating: offer your consumers quality content on the subject with interviews with interior designers and architects.

But above all....

Make noise, spread the word and use the RRSS