Moving Forward: The Consumer Who Thinks “Like A Woman”
The only way to head into 2009 with a positive mindset is to embrace interconnected, relational thinking. As a marketer you simply won’t be able to reach consumers if you don’t step back from your fear and tradition-grasping ways. If you can bring your brain to admit it - circumstances beyond anyone’s control have lead to the following realities:
Interconnected: People are - it seems - suddenly aware of the long term and global implications of what they buy. They are inclined to wonder how this step they take or purchase they make will affect future generations or even just their nearby neighbors.
Community Aware: People are reaching out to share and care for one another in challenging times. They realize the emotional value in combining forces and weathering the difficulties together, rather than hoarding or being one-up on their neighbor in order to feel better.
Balanced: People are being forced to balance out their right and left brain thinking. Thus, they are more fluidly and simultaneously taking in both emotional influences and linear facts and figures.
While consuming will be strongly guided by bottom line price in this recession, of course(!), a new more deliberate shopper will emerge from the ashes. These new ways of thinking and evaluating purchase will have been deeply embedded in their psyches. Brands will need to be ready.
There is no short term, band-aid approach to what marketers face right now. Rather this is the time to look a bit beyond your nose or next quarter’s earnings, and notice how much the average consumer has changed.
This more interconnected, community-aware and balanced brain processing of decisions means that your consumer is thinking more “like a woman” every day.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Well said and I couldn’t agree more. In fact I trust women so much that my wife Kim, and my daughter Jennifer and I have formed an exciting new branding, strategy, design and digital media company call Shurn Group. I’m the minority managing partner and I’m luvin’ it!
January 5th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I read this post with 2 minds. First, as a consumer, nodding my head: yep, that’s exactly how I’m looking/thinking/feeling when I shop and buy. Second, as a business owner, specifically with a website re-do in mind. Oof. I’ve always marketed as a sincere, knowledgeable person. I hope I can articulate that attitude and maintain my focus as I reorganize my site. Off to the drawing board!
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
[...] Think “Interconnectivity”: Andrea Learned, a well-known and esteemed marketer, recently wrote that the average consumer is changing and that this new consumer will rise out of the ashes of recession. “This more interconnected, community-aware and balanced brain processing of decisions means that your consumer is thinking more ‘like a woman’ every day.” If you’re part of that new way of thinking and connecting, then you don’t need many more tips. Except, perhaps, to remember to keep your fly zipped in public. [...]