The consequence is that established brands need to maintain consumer trust and that to maintain their reputation, brands need to be mindful of consumer recommendations. It is very easy, in the digital age, for consumers to post good or bad reviews about a brand and then share these on social media. Social media messages can be rapidly passed on, greater gains or losses for the brand in question.
This tendency has been highlighted in a new report from GlobalData. The report is called “TrendSights Analysis: Experimentation – Tempting consumers with unique, inspiring and exciting products.”
A key finding from the analysis is that part of the competition process in business requires brands to attract new consumers. Often this process requires nudging less adventurous (so termed ‘traditional’) consumers to move out of their comfort zone and experiment with something new. This might be, for example, an unusual flavor variants in food. As well as the generating curiosity factor, brands additionally need to build trust and get recommendations to win consumers over.
Sticking with the food theme, the GlobalData analysis finds that ‘curiosity’ is the main motivating factor for consumers to try new or different food varieties among traditional as well as adventurous consumers. However, ‘curiosity’ is not as great a motivating factor for traditional consumers (37 percent) compared to experimental consumers (53 percent).
This means that brands need to adopt innovative strategies. According to Ramaa Chipalkatti, who is the Lead Innovation Analyst at GlobalData: “There are other ways to persuade the less adventurous consumers to try new flavors besides a natural curiosity – for instance, these traditionalists are more driven by recommendations from friends/family and brand trust/familiarity, than their novelty-seeking counterparts.”
Chipalkatti adds: “Although such traditionalists may seem to be highly appealing due to their strong brand/product loyalty, consumer willingness to experiment with novel offerings indicates a higher engagement with the product and brand, a highly desirable trait for a brand in the long term.”
