“The
age of information is reshaping the way people live”
With the evolution of digital era, we
are experiencing a dynamic lifestyle with more informed consumers, more
fragmented marketplaces, big shot brands, e-commerce, social forums etc. There
is a constant shift in consumer behavior from consumption towards experience.
When it comes to brands, they are moving towards marketing conversations from
traditional marketing communications. Brands are injecting conversations and
discussions among consumers. The more we talk about a brand, the sooner it gets
viral. But are these conversations leading us to a better living?
The thought process of consumers is
changing every time when they are about to make a decision. This is because
of various factors like moods, nature, culture, family and social class etc.
For example, there is a constant war in mind when it comes to decide between
Pepsi and Coco-cola drink, between Amazon and Flipkart, between idli and dosa.
Consider human mood changes according to
situations we experience. For example, today it was very cold outside I felt
like having a chai. During summer, we always look for something cool. No one
taught us that we should have chai in winter and cool stuffs in summer.
But consider other situations like,
Diwali we look for dairy milk, when we plan to go to a restaurant we look
at zomato, when we are hungry we look for 2 minutes maggi, when we plan to buy
a bike we look for Royal Enfield. These are not natural thoughts; we learnt
them because these brands taught us.
The information we see, observe and
experience in our routine life gets registered to our unconscious mind and pops
up when there is a need/problem arises. The more information we get, the more
we trust these brands. They have the power to educate us with new information
and trends. Few years before there was no OLA, no ZOMATO, no ICE BUCKET
CHALLENGE. Big brands evolved and started educating consumers with new trends
and we started learning it.
When your mom tells you about chapati
and its healthiness you don’t want to listen to her. But when McDonalds tells
you about its burger you want to listen to him. WHY? Because it’s a BRAND
But do you think whatever a brand says
is true? Is it always good for us?
With this digital evolution, there is
service for anything and everything
If a fresh.com says we have 100% fresh
food delivered to your doorstep. Do you really think it is fresh and healthy?
If Olx/Quickr.com says register with us
and you can sell anything for free. Do you think your details are safe
with them?
If Flipkart says its Big Billion Days
sales and 80% off on every products, Have you ever thought why they are doing
this?
It’s all because these brands they
understand our needs and behaviors really well, especially our weaknesses. And
it is getting worse with digital world evolution.
Do you think intensive brand feeding
using digital platform is good for consumers or will it make consumers lazy,
unhealthy and ineffective?
Kindly share your views in comments below.
-ARJUN G (Business Leadership program- SOIL)