Take
advantage of a trend
We’re
all working in an ever changing market place but I wonder how
many of us really consider key trends in the world around
us, and try to adapt our products or markets accordingly?
I
enjoy receiving the regular newsletters and information from
organisations like
www.HenleyCentre.com whose leading edge thinking
spots trends we can all use. Here are a few ad hoc facts that they’ve
uncovered. Could you somehow change the way you position your marketing
to take advantage of one or more of these?
People have become much more aspirational
They
want quality of life more than “things”. 35%
of UK adults say they’d rather spend their money on experiences
rather than material goods; 60% say they haven’t got enough
money; 55% haven’t got enough energy; 47% haven’t got
enough time; 35% haven’t got enough space; 25% have already
got too much information!
When
asked which of these resources are the most valuable to them – time
and energy are most popular responses. Can you help customers save
time or make them feel energized? You’re on to a winner if
you can. But remember – you have to make it obvious how you’ll
do that.
Spending patterns have changed
The
proportion we spend on services has increased from 34% to 49%.
In the service
sector people are willing to pay more for an
experience than for goods. Good news for tourism and if you enhance
your service and make it even more of an experience, they’ll
pay more!
But
we shouldn’t assume consumers can be “ripped off” – they
still want to feel they are getting a good deal, even if they don’t
really know what one is! 60% of all consumers will try and find
the lowest price for a holiday but only 26% know how much a holiday
should cost!
In
1999 32% of all UK adults were willing to spend money to save
time. Now
it’s 40% - fast growth in a short time and still
growing!
20% of British adults would pay to jump the queue on the phone
and 4% would even pay to jump a queue at a cash-point machine.
So if nothing else, you know you might be able to sell your place
at the front of the cash-point queue during the bank holiday!
Susan Briggs
Keeping
ahead of the Joneses
Marketing
isn’t just about keeping up with the Joneses,
it’s about knowing what the Joneses might want before
they even know it.
Many
marketers spend a considerable amount of their time scrutinising
statistics and tracking sales figures.
This is important but won’t have half the impact that spending
half as much time looking into the future could have. This used
to be difficult but the internet now makes it much easier. You
can access the summaries of what would normally be very expensive
research reports, and keep tabs on what’s happening around
the world – totally free. All you need to do is make sure
you work out how to implement some of the trends and make them
work for you.
For
example, there’s plenty of research around at the moment
which indicates that nostalgia is a strong motivating force for
buying
all sorts
of things from Harry Potter stories to holidays. Perhaps kicked
off by the insecurity we all felt after 9/11, nostalgia is for
specific memories and previous experiences as well as for “feelings” such
as a sense of freedom.
Nostalgia
was something that came up again and again when VisitBritain
was
researching the England brand and how to encourage English
residents to take more domestic holidays. They’ve used it
in their new marketing activities and it’s already been successful.
So how can you take advantage of trends like this?
You can stimulate that sense of nostalgia in the copy you write
on your website and in your brochures:
“Remember
those carefree childhood holidays? Recreate that timeless sense
of freedom with your own children at.......”
“
Relax. Take a day out of your busy life and enjoy the memory of
less care worn days. Come and enjoy lunch with us. We’ll
even provide lashings of ginger beer and Battenberg cake….”
This sort of emotive copy works not just for those who had a great
childhood but those who didn’t and who want to make sure
their children are happy. Others simply want to "catch up" on their
quota of happy memories by making more of them today.
You
can also stimulate nostalgia through good photography and even
the products you sell in your shop. Or perhaps by creating
packages for your accommodation in off-peak periods that have just
a small element of nostalgic fun such as providing Ludo, marbles
and a chalk for hopscotch for family groups.
One
of the best things about spotting trends and looking into
the future is that any product or promotion you develop is likely
to
be newsworthy because it takes advantage of the zeitgeist so you
can stimulate plenty of free publicity through PR. Most of the
time taking advantage of trends costs very little apart from time
and imagination. See below for a few great websites to
stimulate your thinking.
Trends information
www.henleycentre.com
www.trendwatching.com
www.buzzmarketing.com is
not so much about trends as how to create your own through word
of mouth - free and effective, what could be better?!
Business
trends
Business trends are not so much about looking into the
future but about
finding
new ways of doing things, seeing what others are doing and jumping
on some-one else’s bandwagon. Why not subscribe to the
free newsletters on www.themindgym.com
www.businessbricks.co.uk
Susan Briggs
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