Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Trailing mobile among the most influential consumer trends are three others commonly discussed: the emergence of Millennials (see just how many there arehere); advanced marketing analytics; and demand for personalization.

While not perceived to have quite the same impact as Millennials, the aging population also figures among the top 10 consumer trends, per respondents to the survey. Emerging technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and wearables lie outside of the top 10 consumer trends, outweighed by other shifts including a focus on shopping experience and direct-to-consumer models.

To respond to these trends, marketers are taking a variety of actions, ranging from forming strategic partnerships (54%) to increasing technological capacity (51%) and engaging in dialogue with consumers (48%). That consumer dialogue is a critical focus for enterprise social business initiatives, and is also being increasingly used by CMOs to shape innovation....

I have bad news for companies that are struggling to improve their customer engagement—it’s only going to get more difficult.

...They also shared ideas and best practices where there’s common ground. “People want to learn, borrow, and understand what other industries are doing to solve similar problems,” said Bob Weiler, Executive Vice President of Oracle’s Global Business Units.

The customer experience is one such area—a challenge, opportunity, business goal, and IT undertaking all rolled into one here-and-now, make-or-break imperative.

“The customer is in the driver’s seat. We need to get in front of what her needs are,” said Karen Katz, CEO and President of Neiman Marcus Group , during the Oracle Industry Connect keynote for retailers....

...The report says people are getting some optimism back, although their buying habits -- particularly those of 20- to 30-year-olds -- are going to be radically different. The report lists 13 "microtrends." First on the list is trust, or "trust is the new black." Gerzema said there has been a 50% decline in trust since 2001, but a 35% rise in trust as a driver of brand equity. That suggests there's an opportunity for brands that open their arms wide and say, "Here I am with all my blemishes."

"Customers want a reason to believe and brands who give them that will be better off," said Connelly. Gerin said MasterCard is doing just fine in that category -- as she said the brand is 87% more trusted than any other brand of any kind.

McCracken said trust matters in a "black swan" world full of disruptive competitors. "The last 20 years have been a chronicle of brands behaving badly," he said. "The name of the game is absolute transparency." The good news for established brands is that assuming they have not been behaving badly, they have equity, while new competitors have nothing but VC money. To achieve trust equity functionally, the "front" of a company -- its brand, communications, what it claims to be -- must match the back, the invisible side, where it does what it actually does....

[Very interesting trend report for marketing and PR ~ Jeff]