Two things come to my mind while thinking about consumer behavior.
What and
Why
When we talk about "WHAT" we are focusing majorly on questions like -
- What product or service are they looking for?
- At what cost?
- What time?
- What quality?
- What quantity?
When we talk about "WHY", we want to know -
- Why do they want what they want?
This one "WHY" can solve many of our marketing problems. If we dig in to know why someone needs what he/she needs, we can connect to customers' core needs, and then serve them with all the good things we have to offer. All the Whats' will be answered eventually.
There is an analysis in Marketing known as Cohorts. It helps you retain and engage your existing customers/clients. But how?
Well, it helps us in grouping people with common interests at a specific period of time which also to a major extent can help us understand why a customer needs what he/she needs.
Effect of COVID-19 on Consumer Behaviour Shift
People are online more than ever before. COVID-19 has led to a new online revolution. Shopping behaviors especially for essentials and home entertainment have gone up significantly.
Now that everyone is shopping online, they have more and maybe better options to choose from, and that too in their convenient times. What this actually means?
It means customers are switching brands frequently and are open to products and services which satisfy their needs at the time when they need them.
I feel this makes Branding even more important now. If your business does not have a brand presence it is most likely that people won't buy from you due to a lack of trust.
Understanding Online Behaviors and Targeting Specifically
Understanding the online behavior of your customers is really important to retain and engage them throughout and even motivate them to re-order products & services or advocate for your brand.
" Change is the only thing constant! "
Yes, it's true, human behavior keeps changing and so do their needs and the way they look out to satisfy their needs.
For Example: Before COVID, X aged 35, Male saved 2 hours daily for the commute in his routine. But post-COVID, he got free for those 2 hours and decided to invest his time in physical exercise. There was a demand due to a situation that may lead to sales online.
Consistently tracking user behavior and acting on those insights is really important to grow or scale your business online especially for B2C businesses.
This is something I can help you with. I work with data & analytics to understand what your customer is looking for, what content & how are they engaging with, and how certain people of groups of people may respond to a certain event or activity in the future.
Let me know your thoughts and also share your learnings from the changes you observed in your business due to this pandemic.