Ltap Research: Divining The Future: The Always-On Consumer

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Divining The Future: The Always-On Consumer

This article is by Erich Joachimsthaler, CEO of Vivaldi Partners Group.

Is it possible to know what the consumer of the future looks like?

Over five years, we have sought to determine that, by studying more than 10,000 consumers and more than 60 global brands and interviewing more than 50 U.S. CMOs and Europe. Our latest study, “The Vivaldi Always-On Consumer 2014,” reports on a survey of more than 500 U.S. consumers. The study focuses on the hyper-digital consumer we call the “Always-On Consumer” (AOC). The AOC is a consumer that uses three connected devices every day, goes online multiple times a day and does so from at least three different locations, a consumer initially identified by Forrester.

One of the major findings is that this consumer has now grown to be 48% of the U.S. population, from about 25% in 2010. Another major finding is that they are not any different from other, less digitally savvy consumers in terms of demographic profile. The new consumer is just like us, they just behave very differently.

It is merely a matter of time until all of us are like the AOC.

There are five patterns of how consumers behave with respect to brands and businesses and how they use devices, social networks, the internet and apps – in short, all things digital.

Social Bumblebees make up 22% of AOC, are very social online and spent over 7 hours a day online. The Social Bumblebees aren’t shy about broadcasting their opinions and are the most willing to share their private data. They are very active, buying something three to four times a week and do so spontaneously. They shop from their iPad while they are out and about.
Mindful Explorers (27%) keep a low profile online. They safeguard their personal data and reputation and look for the internet as a source of information and entertainment. They are intensive information seekers about new products or brands. They buy for a variety of reasons but always after careful deliberations. Not very much involved in social networks, love brands.
Deal Hunters (13%) are entirely driven by deals and discounts, and always gets the most value for the dollar. They have the most online friends. They spend the most personal time online but a lot of time involves gathering information, comparing prices and doing research. Deal Hunters will not overly engage with brands.
Focused Problem Solvers (18%) are very efficient users online that shut out the noise of social media and online advertising. They will check in social networks but rarely, preferring email instead. They only spend about three hours online a day, the least of all segments, prefers off-line shopping. Highly loyal to brands.
Ad Blockers (20%) make few purchases online, ignore advertising and branded content, and don’t engage in exploratory shopping and don’t buy because something is new. Very rational shopping based on needs or good value. Ad Blockers tend to keep a small, but active circle of online friends.

The study has several major implications:

The future consumer is a lot less like the active shopper of today that willingly connects with brands, and engages with branded content or even advertisements. The future consumer is far more focused and purposeful. A significant percentage of consumers simply ignore branding, advertising and communications.
There are distinctive patterns of behaviors in terms of connectivity, collaboration, mobility, communications, sociability, commerce, immediacy and responsiveness rendering traditional market research that focuses primarily on understanding consumer attitudes such as tracking studies obsolete. New forms of research through triangulating multiple sources of data, big data, location-based technologies and mobile will be required to identify paths to purchase along the consumer journey.
Building brands will need to change from attribute shaping and perception influencing to behavior channeling, and new value creation through a unique mixture of interactivity, commerce, experience, co-creation and customization. It is a new age for building strong brands, which will make advertising-led brand building largely irrelevant.
The marketing function will be reinvented along a new fluid structure and always-on processes that effectively will marginalize traditional functions such as communications, while proactive marketers expand their influence across the organization. Marketing spending and budgeting practices will have to be drastically reconfigured to remain relevant.