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Here’s What Consumer Behavior Is Telling Us About 2017, According To Ford

• Posted: September 13, 2017

We are indeed entering 2017 facing change and uncertainty. “Everyone is reassessing their priorities, rethinking what they thought they once knew,” says Sheryl Connelly, Ford Motor Company’s in-house futurist.

Trust in government, corporations, and media, which was on the decline back in 2013 when Ford first began sharing its trends research with the public, has gone off a cliff. We now live in a world where people—85%, according to Ford—are concerned about their personal data being obtained without their consent, and 80% believe media outlets offer more opinion than they do objective news coverage.

Eighty percent of respondents tell Ford they find social media is more about optics than substance, and 65% agree that people in general are less likely to even consider opposing viewpoints these days. “We tend to only seek out information that already reinforces what we already believe,” Connelly says. “There is less room for discourse, for compromise, and people seem to be increasingly wedded to their point of view and unwilling to entertain any divergent perspective.”

Christine Champagne. Here’s What Consumer Behavior Is Telling Us About 2017, According To Ford. Fast Company.

To read the complete article click to visit Fast Company.

How Modern Consumer Behavior Has Changed in the New Omni-Channel World

• Posted: September 13, 2017

What’s stopping consumers from buying online?

While 95% of consumers do shop online, 65% of the average shopping budget is spent in-store.

We dove into consumer behavior research by surveying shoppers on what impacts the consumer buying process. Why do shoppers make purchases online?

Why not?

• 58% of customers are deterred by shipping cost
• 49% of shoppers don’t buy online because they can’t touch and inspect a product
• 34% of online shoppers can’t wait out the delivery times — no matter how fast they are!
• 34% of respondents cited a difficult return process for their purchased goods
• 29% of shoppers prefer to buy at brick-and-mortar locations due to privacy concerns

Tracey Wallace. How Modern Consumer Behavior Has Changed in the New Omni-Channel World. BigCommerce.

To read the complete article click to visit BigCommerce.

Marketing to Baby Boomers

• Posted: September 13, 2017

The differences in customer motivations and decision processes between customers in the first and second half of life sometimes frustrate many marketers who have yet to figure out how to market to Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964). Until the last decade, this was not a matter of serious concern because the young dominated the marketplace. The young are easier to sell to and analyze. Now, with approximately 109 million adults over the age of 50, marketers are being compelled to figure out the values and behavior of Baby Boomers. Jim Gilmartin, President, Coming of Age, outlines “10 arrows for your quiver.”

1. Increased individualism
2. Increased demand for facts
3. Increased response to emotional stimuli
4. Less self-oriented, more altruistic
5. Increased time spent in making purchase decisions
6. See fewer differences between competing products
7. See more differences between competing companies
8. Concerns making discretionary-purchases decisions
9. Increased price-sensitivity (in non-discretionary spending)
10. Often project what seems to be contradictory behavior

Jim Gilmartin. 10 Arrows For Your Quiver. MediaPost.

To read the complete article click to visit MediaPost.

The Future 100 – trends and change to watch in 2017

• Posted: September 13, 2017

The technology industry continues to exercise enormous cultural and economic power, but finds itself entering unknown territory on multiple fronts. Markets that have long been overlooked or misunderstood are about to get their due. Advertising and marketing are embracing aspects of femininity that were previously taboo. And consumers are seeking new forms of escapism, fantasy and insight.

If there’s anything to be learned from this year, it’s that change comes rapidly, and often from unexpected places. While trends like “Brexterity” (#62) and “Political Consumers” (#37) reflect a world inevitably shaped by political storms, trends such as “Civic Data” (#12) or “Generation Z Arts Platforms” (#06) point to a future that’s propelled by immense creativity and the power of consumers. As more sectors embrace the unknown, it’s these forces that will drive industry forward.

The technology industry still continues to exercise enormous cultural and economic power, but finds itself entering unknown territory on multiple fronts. In “Silicon Soup” (#17), we look at how Silicon Valley brand perceptions are blurring as companies encroach on each other’s territory. Airbnb is fighting for hearts and minds amid regulatory crackdowns in “Travel Action” (#28). Responding to cultural criticism, tech brands are investing in novel ways to prevent online abuse, as seen in “Tech vs the Trolls” (#14), while also helping families carve out tech-free time with “Wi-Fi Disruptors” (#13). Even in the beauty sector, we see consumers worried about how light from screens affects skin (#60).

The Future 100. J. Walter Thompson Intelligence.

To access the complete report click to visit
J. Walter Thompson Intelligence.

Coming soon: A standard for cross-platform video measurement

• Posted: September 6, 2017

The media industry’s standards group, the MRC (Media Rating Council), is gathering comments for a proposed “Audience Measurement Standard” that will be finalized and introduced in Q3, MRC CEO George Ivie tells Axios. The standard will provide more powerful metrics such as progress through the video ad coupled with in target audience performance.

“Advertisers are more serious than I’ve ever seen them in pulling back dollars from those who won’t be audited,” Ivie says. “I’ve never seen advertisers more energized than right now about the quality of measurement.”

How it works: The “duration-weighted metric,” as the MRC puts it, will be calculated by measuring impressions (the number of times someone is reached) that are viewable by the MRC’s standards (viewed for at least 2 consecutive seconds), combined with how long each of those verified views lasts.

“Not everyone loves it”, says Ivie. “Some don’t think weighting is necessary because in digital you have long-form and short-form viewing (which can be just seconds),” Ivie says. He hopes the new standard will be adopted by everyone, creating a single standard for all video measurement and ad buying across TV and digital in the U.S.

Sara Fischer. Coming soon: A standard for cross-platform video measurement. Axios.

To read the complete article click to visit Axios.

Great Mind Awards – and the Presidential Award

• Posted: September 6, 2017

Established in 2006, the ARF Great Minds Awards honor those who are contributing impactful research that is advancing the business of their organizations and the advertising industry at large. This year’s awards, in nine categories, will be honored on September 19th (details, including registration, below).

The ARF will present the Great Mind President’s Award to Michelle Peluso, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of IBM. Nominated by the ARF’s president and CEO Scott McDonald, Ph.D., the award is given to an individual doing groundbreaking work in his/her field.

Ms. Peluso will talk about how she is changing the culture at IBM through left- and right-brain collaboration, and how disruption should be embraced, not feared.

The 2017 Great Mind Awards luncheon will be held on September 19, 2017 from 11:30am-2:30pm at the Battery Gardens Restaurant in downtown Manhattan.

Click to purchase tickets.

Click to learn more about the ARF’s Great Mind Awards.

comScore The 2017 US Mobile App Report

• Posted: September 6, 2017

Three key takeaways:

• Mobile Apps are the primary driver of digital media consumption but activity is concentrated
• More signs of having reached ‘peak app’ as interest in new apps begins to wane
• Millennials prove to be the most engaged, sophisticated and addicted users of apps

A sampling of other notable findings:

• Across age segments, smartphone users’ #1 app accounts for half of all time spent on apps … and the top 10 account for almost the entirety
• 55+ year-olds are 5x as likely as 18-34 year-olds to only operate their smartphone with two hands
• While there are variations by age group, YouTube, Google Search, Facebook & FB Messenger rank high across cohorts.

The top apps vary by age group, with YouTube and Snapchat ranking higher on the list among younger Millennials.

Andrew Lipsman and Adam Lella. The 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report. comScore.

To read the complete article, click to visit comScore.

J&J’s entertainment mandate

• Posted: September 6, 2017

Brands should seek to find the right balance between relevance and entertainment to successfully connect with consumers, according to Alison Lewis, Global CMO at Johnson & Johnson.

Lewis suggested the explosion of digital channels has enabled brands to become entertainers in their own right. “The barriers to entry have been totally eradicated, and there’s entertainment coming from everywhere … Even brands like [ours] can produce entertainment and be entertainers,” she said.

“I have these amazing brands with these amazing stories to tell – with this amazing science – that, quite frankly, 20 years ago we had trouble communicating to people,” she said. The flip-side of this equation, however, is ensuring the content that marketers deliver reflects real consumer needs, rather than only providing an amusing diversion.

Doing so, for Lewis, is the best way to drive sales. “In the world that I live in, it’s about relevancy,” she said. “And at the end of the day, I’m out to sell a product to this person. I’m not out just to entertain.”

Promoting Neutrogena’s innovative Light Therapy Acne Mask took a treatment that was traditionally the preserve of dermatologists and made it available to consumers, was a case in point. This program featured everything from a 30-second television spot to six-second video ads and influencer partnerships, including a tie-up with Nash Grier, a male teen content creator. “We’re using a broad spectrum of content,” said Lewis. “And I’d say it’s entertainment. Because people are choosing to engage in it, we’re entertaining them.

J&J’s entertainment mandate. WARC.

To read the complete article click to visit WARC.

Emerging Trends of the 2000s

• Posted: August 30, 2017

The income decline: The decline began long before the Great Recession, and it has hit the American middle class hard. Men’s incomes were falling well before 2000, the household income decline began in 2000, and women’s steady income growth came to a halt in the 2000s. The political repercussions of the resulting economic anxiety are well known.

The wealth decline: To rub salt into the economic wound of waning incomes, household net worth collapsed with the Great Recession as the housing bubble burst. Median household net worth fell 40 percent between 2007 and 2013, after adjusting for inflation.

The homeownership decline: The homeownership rate peaked in 2004. The number of homeowners peaked in 2006. By 2015, there were 1.4 million fewer homeowners than in the peak year. The homeownership rate in 2015 was the lowest since 1967.

Cheryl Russell, Editorial Director, New Strategist Press.

Shifting Promo Dollars to Media Produces Higher ROI via MediaPost

• Posted: August 30, 2017

Media company Turner Broadcasting commissioned a study showing that shifting as little as 10% of promotional dollars to media advertising can result in big return on media investment results for marketers.

The study—conducted with IRI, the consumer products/healthcare marketing analytics company—noted that consumer product marketers can spend as much as 66% of marketing dollars on promotion. Shifting 10% of that money can return in return on investment (ROI) gains of 10% to 25%.

Turner/IRI research looked at three years of data, across 62 brands representing $20 billion in sales and $3 billion in marketing spend across food, beverage, health care, beauty and home-care marketers.

The research indicates that the results are more dramatic when separating short-term and long-term ROI versus overall promo spending.

Source: Turner Broadcasting and IRI

Access full article from MediaPost