August 23, 2023
5 min read
The old saying “Money talks” has never been more true. As the cost-of-living crisis intensifies, the first waves of consumer behaviour shifts are starting to trickle through. London is seeing the first batch of consumers who are showing less brand loyalty as they lean towards cost-effective alternatives instead.
This trend seems to be a direct response to the financial pressure they’re experiencing and is almost certainly happening across the board, including your customers.
The wider context of repeated bludgeoning by unruly inflation has meant that a large portion of Londoners surveyed have had to make switches in their shops. 66% cited the spiralling cost of living as a reason to look towards new brands, away from the ones they know and love.
Which is a huge opportunity for brands that are looking to either capture the swaying shoppers or to cement their brand as the staple for their customers. In fact, despite brand loyalties being questioned, customer spending has actually increased, which ties in with reports of record levels of Ad Spend in the UK last week.
Brands are having to be smart in their attempts to keep their customer base. Price cuts and promotions are the primary mechanisms. It’s a strategy backed by the research we did earlier this year, which showed that customers want offers and incentives to keep them buying.
Another huge strategy that has emerged is the role of personalisation in building brand loyalty. 72% of those respondents said they would be more inclined to stick with brands that they felt understood them as consumers.
On the ground level this means using the digital footprints of your customers to serve them relevant and helpful content. With the outlook being bleak, you’ve got to make customers feel seen in order to foster genuine loyalty.
And once you’ve got their loyalty – maintain it! Give them better prices and promotions, because if not, they’ll start looking elsewhere. Historically, the brands who were bold in recession periods are the ones that see better returns.
And whilst promotional offers and content are a great plan, many brands want to use biddable media to get that message out. The issue here being that rising platform costs make it difficult to sustain.
Those platforms aren’t in the business of reducing your spend, because to do so would be to reduce their bottom line. So relying solely on new business or increased awareness coming in from those platforms is a losing battle- one that is chipping away at your margins.
At the end of the day, the results are clear. Customers want brands to genuinely support them through the crisis. They want price cuts and they want brands to engage them in a personalised way. It’s pretty much the only recipe for lasting success that’s available to brands around the globe at the moment.
There are definite strategies you can implement in-house to make sure you hit those key metrics, but if you’re looking to take the stress out of achieving that, its one of the things we have consistent success achieving for over 150+ brand partners.
Talk to us here and make sure your brand is set for long-term growth.
We're experts at scaling brands across multiple channels by connecting them to our engaged communities.
We don't do empty promises. Just quality connections.
