Today’s consumers choose value, transparency over loyalty- Fabusoro
By Abimbola Mohammed
Kemi Fabusoro, the Executive Director, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), has tasked brands and business owners to evolve, follow trends, optimize marketing strategy to suit today’s consumer as they are more informed, cautious and careful to choose value over loyalty.
According to the marketing communication expert, consumers are now interested in brands with corporate responsibility and sustainability plans to drive Return on Investment (ROI).
She made this call at the just concluded MARKETING EDGE 2nd Quarterly summit, which was held with the theme: “Changes in Consumer Behaviour: Delivering Better Consumer Experience Amid Pressure to deliver Better ROI.”
Her words: “Business has evolved over time and so consumers’ habits and attitude are expected to also evolve. Consumer behaviour mirrors trends and happenings within the society and economy. For instance, if we put Nigeria in perspective, the inflation will definitely affect the purchasing power of consumers and then it will affect the type of goods or services that people chose to have.
“Also post-Covid, you will see that the behaviour of consumers has evolved. People are moving from just the brick and mortar store to do convenient shopping and online shopping. People are more interested in what the brands have to say beyond just marketing campaigns. There is a lot of dynamism in marketing strategy, so things cannot remain stagnant. Every brand and organization must evolve or die.”
Speaking on trends that are shaping consumers habit and attitude, she noted that the latest consumer trend and behaviour, which is predominant in Nigeria, is social commerce.
“There is a lot of social commerce going on Facebook, Instagram, etc., as people hardly go to stores as these days as much as they should. Raher, they buy things on e-commerce websites like Jumia, Konga and the likes. This means that lots of brands need to plug into this and not just make social media platforms a place to communicate, but where people can make purchases,” Fabusoro said.
She continued: “Another trend about consumers now is that they want transparency and they are more value driven. Consumers are more informed about products. They are cautious of the kind of things they consume. People now check expiry dates on products unlike before. They are more interested in safe, quality products that meet what is more important in life. So, as a brand, it is very important for you to know that the details about your product should be spelt out. When talking about consumer behaviour these are the things that are changing; people care about price, transparency and value of the goods or services.”
The marketing expert noted that brands need to evolve and see technology adoption beyond social media platforms.
“In terms of technology, organizations need to deploy different approaches to strategy matters. Brands should understand that technology is more than just social media platforms. We now have AI and VR blends that are becoming more mainstream and available for everyday use, data gathering, improved product formulation and analysis.”
She added that after talking about all the differences in consumer behaviours it is important to discuss how to deliver consumer experience (CX) amidst Return on Investment (ROI).
“The truth of the matter is that most people are not about price anymore, they care more about experience with the brand and the value they get for their money because price loss or gain doesn’t give consumer loyalty. Lots of times when you position your brands in terms of cheapest you are not going to get large loyalty once people can afford to buy something that offers much better value. What happens is that if you have a competitor that offers the same product at very good quality, the only thing that will differentiate you from the competitor will be the experience consumers have using your product.
“This is why 45% of businesses are saying in the next 5 years, the focus is going to be on consumer experience. So, it is clear that if you can deliver on business value, ROI and consumer experience then your business will be successful,” she explained.
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