Blog : How Consumer Culture Changes Consumer Decisions And How It Should Be Integrated Into Marketing Strategy

For companies, connecting with consumers in a much deeper way that goes beyond the anecdotal is a crucial question. The market and its reality impose it that way. Not only is it that companies have to face more and more competition, but also the situation in which they move is increasingly complex.

Consumers demand that companies position themselves by addressing more complicated issues (from greater transparency to the stock fever, which has become a hallmark) and the links are increasingly established at a much more emotional level and in processes that They go far beyond the cause and effect relationship of selling something to get something else. To all this, it must be added that demographic changes and new consumer interests have further complicated matters. Some 'usual' rules on consumption and on how to connect with consumers have ceased to affect, and companies have had to reposition themselves.

And, in this area, a crucial keyword has been established, which has become one of the basic pieces of the marketing strategy. Brands must now be able to read the culture of consumers and position themselves based on these assumptions and principles. It is not easy, yes, and it is not always easy. Understanding what culture is and uniquely how it connects with it is as complex as assuming how it has changed. Reality is complex and has many faces, as Mintel has just shown in the analysis. The axes on which to position oneself are a consumer culture, consumer identity, and how these two points influence industries and consumer decisions. Consumers have a vision of themselves, of the world around them, and of the elements that make their purchasing decisions that are often new. Companies not only have to understand it but must be able to analyze and visualize where it intersects with their market positions and how it affects their business decisions.

To understand the world in which its consumers move, as pointed out by Mintel, it is no longer enough just to have demographic data on consumers in hand, but you have to go further. Consumer knowledge must go beyond demographics. It helps to shape market niches, but it is the psychographic elements that help us understand why it is consumed the way it is. One of the examples provided by Mintel is clear and striking: more than the gender gap in the United States (and although women tend to connect better than men with brands that support controversial causes), which works to understand why they buy what consumers are their political ideology. Knowing who they vote helps to outline better their consumption patterns than knowing their gender.

The consumer culture also forces companies to think about their strategies in a much broader, more transversal and holistic way. They need to understand consumers in a much more comprehensive and much more ambitious way because to study their consumer behavior and they must know what is hidden in all their areas and what characterizes them.

As they point out in Mintel, they can no longer be fragmented by niche markets. Consumers cannot be thought of as shampoo buyers at one time and shoe buyers at another. You have to have a complete vision of them, as people who are with unique and multi-faceted identities. Likewise, that vision that consumers have of them and that cultural connection makes them change how they see brands and what they expect from them. No matter what they are consuming, that vision will shape their position and

And also, the vision of culture and the connection with it is much more complex than simply adding an element to a specific campaign. If a brand wants to demonstrate that it understands the culture and that it supports it, it has to make a more transversal and much deeper strategy than a simple cosmetic movement.