The Line Between Consumers and Brands is Becoming Thinner

Although companies highlight their goodwill and servility towards customers in their advertising campaigns, most secretly hope to be in a position to swap roles. Instead of convincing customers that they are their best choice, they want the situation to be reversed, where customers want to be part of the herd of a particular brand.

As noted by Trendwatcher.com in its annual consumer trend forecast, it is likely that this will happen in 2016. One of the five trends that will define consumer behavior in the coming year is called ‘status test’, which refers to behavior where customers choose brands to which they must prove their skills, creativity, or good taste, all to enhance their status and become part of the fan community of that brand.

Self-Made Master The reason is that in recent years, more and more consumers demonstrate their status in society by acquiring experiences rather than just material things, which they, of course, inform their audience about on social media. This is an ideal opportunity for brands not only to offer experiences but also to require some activities from customers to earn the right to use a status brand. For example, in September of this year, Netflix introduced The Switch button that automatically launches Netflix, mutes phones, dims lights, and even allows ordering food delivery. The company presented the button at the NYC Maker Faire and then published instructions online on how consumers can make the button themselves, noting that it can be made by users with solid knowledge of electronics and programming. Users were also motivated to post tricks and ideas online, helping each other assemble The Switch. Thus, in this case, users did not demonstrate their status by cashing in money for the innovative button, but by making it themselves and becoming part of an exclusive Netflix community (the button cannot be made by just anyone). The next trend noted by trend watchers is, in loose translation, ‘contextual presence’. They state that new technologies and the vast possibilities of digital and real media have imposed on brands the need to be everywhere at all times, all to meet consumer demands. Since this defies the laws of physics, consumer trend compilers believe that brands will have to relieve this pressure next year and focus on the opportunities offered by certain technologies and channels (more than on customer needs).
 
Employee Care A great example of this is the fashion minibars that users could find in the Belgian Bank hotel. In their rooms, in addition to the classic minibar, there was also a bar with clothing from the Pimkie brand selected according to the weather conditions. Guests could buy everything they needed without leaving their hotel room. The brand Domino’s made excellent use of mobile technology and super-popular emoticons. It allowed its users to order pizza by sending just one emoticon (a slice of pizza image) in the body of the message. That it is important to know technology is confirmed by Spanish Telephonica Research, which reported to the media that in 83 percent of cases it can accurately guess whether users are bored while surfing their smartphones. It sent respondents links to Buzzfeed content; those it thought were bored preferred to ‘click’ and read the sent links.
In the next 12 months, companies that want to earn points with consumers while also increasing their sales and improving their image should pay special attention to their employees and how they treat them. It has been shown that aware, modern consumers no longer appeal only to the treatment of workers in global companies in Third World countries but also increasingly pay attention to companies operating in their markets when making purchasing decisions. Practice has shown that every good initiative related to employee treatment resonates in the public and based on that, companies quickly and effectively build their image. For example, the American company REI announced that it would close its 143 stores on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, during which stores announce discounts) and would not count this as a day off for its more than 1,200 employees. It also encouraged its customers and employees to go outdoors, spend a day without shopping, and photograph their experiences to post under the hashtag #OptOutside. This initiative resonated in the media, especially considering that Black Friday is a day that retailers eagerly await as they usually break their sales records then.

Common Good On the trend watchers’ list is also a rather romantic and altruistic trend that calls on brands to use technology for the common good, to improve the world, or truly ease consumers’ lives. The Swedish railway company Stockholmstag does the latter and, together with technology experts and mathematician Wilhelm Landerholm, is developing an algorithm capable of predicting train delays two hours in advance (based on ‘big data’).
Google, with its SmartReply, which it introduced last month, plans to save Gmail users the time they spend responding to emails. The program scans sent mail and offers three possible responses based on the received email. Additionally, the program is designed to remember and track user correspondence, so (reportedly) future responses it gives are increasingly accurate and natural (they do not seem like they were really given by a ‘machine’). Finally, the last trend highlights the change in the perception of brand value, as well as the way purchases are made or participation in production occurs. This is thanks to a series of ‘crowdsourcing’ campaigns where consumers invest their money to enable the placement of certain products or services on the market. One of the more extreme examples is the campaign for Greece’s ‘Greek Bailout Fund’ launched by a Briton on the Indiegogo platform. Although the campaign was declared unsuccessful as it raised two million euros out of a targeted 1.6 billion, it shows what kinds of initiatives can be launched and what existing platforms can serve. In any case, judging by the mentioned trends, next year the line between consumers and brands will become increasingly thinner. Consumers will thus participate more in the development, but also in the advertising of products or services, particularly those brands that can show their human side.