The pandemic made 2020 the year of staying home. Brands that are winning are those that can help consumers improve their quality of life at home.
And as people continue to work from home, eat at home, shop from home, workout at home and homeschool, consumers will continue to be on the lookout for products and services that support these needs. At-home goods sales are estimated to see 15% year-over-year growth in Q4 2020, with kitchen electrics up 19% and home environment electrics up 20%.
“I think the biggest impact is that people are spending more time at home and are realizing if they invest more time in the goods in their home they’ll reap more benefits from that,” said Ian Yung, VP of Growth at Parachute Home at Brand Innovators’ Brands at Home two-day event. “And I think our business and our category in general has seen very positive tailwinds from this unfortunate circumstance as people look to spend more money on the sheets they sleep on, the things they use to dry themselves coming out of the shower, robes, slippers, all those things have been beneficial to us.”
This means different things to different businesses. For New York gym Brrrn, a quick pivot to online classes was the only way to keep the business going when studios were forced to close. Thankfully, they were already developing At Home video classes and had just launched an app. The shutdown led the company to speed up development and get the product to market.
“We had to really create a whole new business overnight, with our Slide Boards, and content library in our app,” said Jimmy Martin, Co-Founder at Brrrn. “We realized that we have a whole new ecosystem that we really built from scratch, and we did it in a way that people would expect from an At Home platform. It’s awesome to see the success of Peloton and Mirror, so we can see what they’re doing, and apply those learnings to our platform, but in a way that’s specific to our community.”
For CPGs, this means making it easier to shop for groceries at home, as consumers are buying more non-perishables from ecommerce sites. Kelloggs, for instance, saw Q3 results for ecommerce up triple digits, 104% globally.
“We were already seeing that ecommerce acceleration across the board before Covid but Covid definitely pushed it,” said Brittney Williams, Director, Global Omni-Shopper Marketing at The Kellogg Company. “The companies that were prepared were able to grasp that opportunity, and unfortunately there were a lot of companies that were not prepared who had to do a bit of scrambling. I’m very proud to say that about two years ago, Kellogg’s decided to invest in several key pillars. One being the ecommerce capability and through various resources, partnerships, and the right talent, we were able to capitalize on the unfortunate events of Covid because we were ready for the challenge.”
Williams was joined at the two-day summit by senior marketing executives at Nestlé, Home Chef, ABInBev, Microsoft and Genexa, among many others. Here are five key takeaways for how brands can adapt to massive shifts in consumer behavior. Head to Brand Innovators’ YouTube page to watch the whole event.
Define your North Star. Consumer behaviors can change overnight but brands that have a clear direction are better positioned to adapt to new realities. “The North Star was to provide more relevant consumer experiences in our advertising,” said Rachel Mervis, Programmatic Lead, Digital Media Team, Sales and eBusiness Unit at Nestlé. “So we defined this North Star and everything came off of it so they built out our standard operating procedures from planning to execution to measurement.”
Focus on cross channel experience. Consumers that interact with your brand in one place may be different than those that interact in another channel. Consider these factors when developing the experience.
“Retail customers and e-commerce customers have very different need states,” said Shira Schwarz, Brand Director at Home Chef. “Retail customers are last-minute shoppers, whereas e-commerce customers are thinking ahead. Overwhelmingly, there is a different mindset: the planner vs. the last minute buyer. But, both types of customers are looking for convenience and taste, no matter their mindset.”
Think beyond product. Brands that can connect to consumers throughout their lifecycle are better poised to see increased revenues than those focused on pushing sales.
“As we grow and expand our digital presence, we are seeing that it’s not just about the product you are giving your customers, but rather about digitizing your relationship across every customer touchpoint,” said Kerry Doyle, Global Director, Data & Experience Products at ABInBev. “The bar is getting higher for customer support services (among others), and now we must think about the whole supply chain and customer relationships, not just selling the product. We are expanding our depth in how we think about digital. We need a customer-centric vision.”
Use data for personalization. In the past, brands often ran their retail and ecommerce as different business units. Brands that are connecting the dots between the data across these different touch points offer better personalization opportunities.
“It’s great to see the parallels between all the different industries,” said Ram Iyer, Worldwide Director, Digital Strategy and eCommerce at Microsoft. “The ecommerce industry has always been focused on price, selection and experience. In retail, they have focused on experience. Ecommerce has focused on price and selection. I believe that we will see a huge pivotal shift in terms of how brands are going to reimagine consumer experiences. Hyper-personalization of experiences is becoming more possible through the power of AI and new technologies.”
Embrace authenticity. Brands should remember that consumers are people and think about how these people would like to hear from them, based on their wants and needs.
“The most authentic way to get our message out to different communities is to be authentic,” said Kelli Lane, Chief Marketing Officer at Genexa. “We use grassroots strategies to get our message into a person’s hands, mind, and heart. We think about it on a one-to-one level. Especially in the field of medicine and health, people trust other people. During the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to listen to our consumers. Through our social channels, we try to remove the barriers that exist with other pharmaceutical brands because health is the most personal thing.”
