Kathy Troy, senior planner at MCCP, on why brands must build strengths and get closer to today’s consumers
Having weathered tough economic times in recent years, Irish consumers now want practical but positive brand experiences to carry them into the future. In predicting trends set to impact on Irish business in 2015, Kathy Troy, a senior executive at planning agency MCCP, says if marketers are to guard equity they must build on brand strengths and consumer interaction.
Troy says a strong purpose is a brand’s raison d’etre and must be a priority for marketers. As well as brand purpose, the marketing emphasis should on product and service innovation and connecting with consumers as needs change. For some companies it may involve an overhaul of how they tackle innovation and make their brands more consumer friendly.
With Ireland’s economic indicators looking up, consumer sentiment is at an eight-year high, buoyed by low inflation and improved job prospects. Some emigrants are coming home and salary increases are likely. A general election may be held this year. With a shift to more polarised political brands, there’s less room in the middle which may result in a hung Dáil.
Like the flying shirts in the new Ikea ad, consumers are creating brands to “flock around them”. The marriage equality referendum and street protests on water charges point to a more vocal and demanding consumer. Cultural flux is shaping trends and movements which quickly rise to prominence but just as fast fade away.
In such an environment, brands must be agile and quick to react without surrendering their core values. Some trends vanish overnight. The ice bucket challenge was a fad which lasted two weeks. Brands like Penneys, with low-cost disposable fashion items, know how to connect with consumers as do the growing number of pop up shops and restaurants.
Julian Davis, director of PR agency FleishmanHillard, at the MCCP trends for 2015 seminar
Decreasing attention spans means consumers are constantly looking for something novel. The US National Library of Medicine claims the average person now has an attention span of eight seconds – a second less than a goldfish. Coca-Cola, Levi’s and Marks & Spencer have launched in-house labs and innovation units to keep up with technology and test new ideas.
In Apple’s first decade, Steve Jobs launched about nine new gadgets, around one a year. But in the last decade it’s been about 30 new products and that excludes software upgrades and new platforms like iTunes and App Store. Baby powder maker Johnson & Johnson has shortened its innovation cycle from three years to 18 months.
Troy expects advances in 3D technology to have a big impact this year. All kinds of material will be created straight from design without the need for materials and much manpower. But taking part in a constant race for new products is not sustainable.
Robots and a wider use of automated technologies is on the cards. The key driver here is the fact technologies are becoming cheaper and more mainstream. Prime examples include Lowe’s hardware stores in the US, with its fleet of multilingual robots greeting customers as they enter a store and asking them what they need.
University of Oxford researchers say there’s a 92 per cent chance that fast food preparation and serving will be automated in the coming decades – reminiscent of a scene from Woody Allen’s 1973 movie Sleeper. A recent Pew Report expects robots to play a major role in health care, transport, logistics, customer service and home maintenance by 2025.
Marketers busy trying to ‘crack digital’ should note that consumers are now turning off – even teens are tiring of Facebook 24/7. The novelty of smartphones has worn off sparked by the realisation of the high price people must pay. An appetite for mindfulness and of experiencing the moment instead of recording everything on mobile phones is growing.
Brand owners must be prepared to innovate beyond marketing this year, Kay McCarthy, founder of planning agency MCCP, said. People trust people not ads but that’s not to say ads don’t have impact. Consumers react best to brands with a positive tone of voice.
To contact Kathy Troy, her email is kathy@mccp.ie
