[Habari Tuongee 2013] Who is the New Consumer?

Georgina Muirhead, Rowan Belchers and Byron John.

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Muirhead introduced delegates to the New Consumer - who they are, what they want and how this influences retailers, service providers (SPs) and all the rest of it. The digital era has changed things a lot. From the retailer/SP being in control, the tables have turned and the consumer is now behind the steering wheel.

This has complicated things to some extent for retailers/SPs as the majority of them are struggling to keep up with the changes in their customers' shopping habits and preferences as well as the ever-changing digital realm.

Convenience and red carpet experiences

It is said that big hyper stores are slowly dying because the New Consumer is all about convenience and they prefer having things available locally. They now have technology at their fingertips and want to use it as much as possible to make their lives easier. I guess that makes me a New Consumer then?

However, the new consumer wants more than that. Market research has shown that they want to be able to navigate themselves easier around their grocery stores and they want their digital devices and mobile apps to be able to assist them with that. For example, mobile phones are actually considered as "shopping assistants" and tablet devices are often used to browse online stores from home. Retailers and SPs are needing the help of developers, creatives and agencies to be able to meet the New Consumers' needs better.

Angus Robinson from Native gave some input out of the audience on how this can be achieved - the programmable enterprise. This phenomenon, where a company doesn't try to do all these things in-house, but rather opens it up to external developers, can be a very successful and helpful solution.

The New Consumer also wants to feel important and values having individual relationships and a red carpet experience at their chosen store.

A new view of the consumer

John unravelled the concept of who the New Consumer is a bit further and stated that it's perhaps rather about getting a new view of the consumer. He delved more into the theory and neuroscience behind consumers' purchasing behaviours. For example (and I won't go into great depth as I might confuse you with my lack of knowledge on how the brain works), if you see a can of Coke, without you being aware of it, your brain associates the brand with all the memories formed from since you were a child. All those memories collectively determine how you feel about Coke and whether or not you will buy it.

So, basically, as John explained, purchasing decisions are made unconsciously and that's why it's so important that a brand builds up a good, trusting relationship with the consumer as the consumer "won't know how they think about it unless they know how they feel about it."

For more:

• Bizcommunity: [Habari Tuongee 2013] From mobile to mobility by Ilse van den Berg