The Fluid Consumer is a term coined by Teo Correia, the Global Senior Managing Director of Accenture's Consumer Goods & Services industry group, to describe the digitally enabled consumer. In his book, Next Generation Growth and Branding in the Digital Age, he analyses the characteristics of this new category of consumers and explores new marketing strategies in times of hyper-digitization.
“For reasons of necessity and opportunity, every industry finds itself in the technology business”
Rachel Rofel, creative director at Fischer Productions
His analysis of the consumer's behavior in the digital era is quite representative of a whole new generation of natively digital consumers. Beyond the digital-empowerment, there are also generational traits that are characteristics of millennials. So here I am sharing some insights from the book, relevant to keep in mind when designing products and services in this digital era.
To start, we must realize how digital mobile devices are the root cause of change in the behavior of consumers. As they became part of daily life, they changed the fundamentals of how a company interacts with its consumers.
At any time and almost everywhere, the fluid consumers can access most of the information they need in order to consult, compare and contrast before making a decision or taking an action.
In order to adapt to an environment, where building strong brands became more difficult yet more crucial to preserve brand loyalty, companies must now work more on bringing fluidity into their processes in order to deliver innovative and creative digital points of engagements.
To better understand fluid consumers, it is important to dig deeper. Teo Correia defined the 8 traits of the “Digitally Enabled Consumers”.
Once a fluid consumer has a positive experience with a brand or service, they are ready and willing to expect the same from other brands, markets or even industries. This, therefore, makes the qualities they value very fluid, making marketers aim at moving targets, which requires a great deal of flexibility and constant adaption. It becomes increasingly challenging for marketers to find the right messages and engage at the right moment.
Fluid consumers tend to not be loyal to any particular brand. They can quickly change their choices for improved convenience and by the vastly available peer reviews. The data supports this by showing that 40% of young shoppers take the information available on platforms into account before making their decisions. If a brand overpromises and underdelivers, new features in other products become relevant to them or if simply a better option is available, fluid consumers will not hesitate to switch brands. This makes it increasingly important for marketers to build strategies that allow them to lock in customers and build long term sustainable relations.
59% of consumers do not see switching brands as a hassle, %44 are open for better deals and 41% are happy to receive promotions and discounts. Having most marketplaces within a click away, timely and well-placed communication with a consumer by the company or a peer can prompt an immediate purchase.
Although concerned about privacy and data protection, fluid consumers do not mind to exchange their personal information for the convenience digital markets has to offer them. 75% of consumers are willing to let retailers collect their data if they can control WHEN and HOW it is used and 70% are comfortable sharing personal data given TRANSPARENCY is respected.
Fluid consumers do not see shopping as an activity in itself, digital technology allows them to incorporate it into their daily life, doing it when they are working, commuting, eating, socializing or during any other routine activities they perform in their daily lives.
Even when not using digital technology to shop, 53% of fluid consumers will still revert to the internet while doing their regular shopping in order to compare prices and read reviews, with that said, it is also expected that global online sales will almost double by 2022.
Digital technology has also enabled consumers to be able to multitask, this means that they can be at the gym, having dinner, talking to a friend, yet they would also be reading or writing reviews, buying things online, making reservations or simply reading about products and services they are interested in.
Fluid consumers and most notably the millennials ones will usually have multiple consumer identities and that can be reflected by their attraction to different brands that correspond to different themes such as healthy, social, luxurious or creative.
Digital technologies have broadened the concept of a product, although design and features still matter, companies must also focus on building a brand that can anticipate customer desires and provide relevant offers. They now have to put a lot more work to satisfy consumers in every stage of their journey, this includes the ease of finding, comparing, selecting, purchasing, and receiving the product.
Drawing upon the characteristics of the Fluid Consumer, in the next article, I will showcase to you the importance of Platform Thinking and the power of networks in the context of Marketing in the digital era.
