How to keep customers loyal as lives move on
Three words stand out in the latest print advertisement for the new Mazda MX5 sports car: "Best before kids."
Mazda says it wants to convey a spirit of freedom that will appeal to drivers both with and without children. But the campaign also reflects the closer attention brand owners are now paying to the way customers' attitudes and behaviour change over time.
Marketers have traditionally divided their consumers into segments according to age and income. More recently, too, they have begun categorising them by attitudes and behaviour. Practitioners now believe a combination of the two approaches and an appreciation of their interplay over time is the best way to ensure marketing communications are relevant and engaging.
"Too many household brands in many national markets are still marketing to consumers by targeting them according to life stage," says Dave Lawrence, planning director of Logistix, a UK marketing consultancy whose clients include Kellogg's, Capri-Sun and Appletiser. "So brands set out to target youth, or families, or the over-50s - a blunt set of definitions and an approach that overlooks the potential impact on consumer behaviour and brand preference when a consumer moves from one life stage to the next."
When a couple become first-time parents, for example, not only do they enter the market for nappies; they start making personal sacrifices as their consumer choices become driven by the needs of their child, he points out.
Older people, meanwhile, often adopt a more active lifestyle when their first grandchildren are born. The shift from student to full-time employment is also likely to result in changing consumer patterns and preferences, though both would typically be classified by brand owners as within the same life stage: "youth".
"Not all consumer attitudes and behaviour change as they pass from one life stage to the next," Mr Lawrence adds. "But how they consume and interact with a brand might. For example, once you have a child, favoured alcohol brands you previously consumed in pubs or restaurants are far more likely to be consumed at home. Rather than ignore such latent opportunities, brand owners should accommodate them in their marketing to ensure that as their lives move on their consumers remain loyal."
Liz Tinlin, director of brand strategy at Added Value, a marketing consultancy with clients including Bosch, Levi's and Volvo, believes many brands miss a trick by failing to understand the moments in consumers' lives that trigger a reassessment of their habits and brand preferences.
"Points of re-evaluation in a consumer's life may or may not directly link to the transition from one life stage to another," Ms Tinlin says. "For example, conception - or even deciding to try to conceive a baby - may well result in a greater change in consumer behaviour than actually becoming a parent for the first time.
"Better understanding such triggers, however, is the next big challenge for many household brands - but get it right and such insight can deliver clear competitive advantage."
Martin Hayward, director of consumer strategy and futures at Dunnhumby, the marketing consultancy that devised Tesco's loyalty programme, believes there is a reason why more brand owners are not yet doing this: the unpredictability of 21st-century lifestyles makes it impossible for them to keep up.
"Brand owners are only just starting to understand how to use the detailed customer-level retail data now available," he observes. "While brands such as Pampers and Gillette are adept at identifying points of market entry for their products, many others whose products have a less clearly defined lifespan struggle to understand the relevance and potential of consumer life stages."
To realise the benefits of such an approach, brand owners must identify what changes and what remains constant as consumers' lives evolve, Mr Lawrence adds. "Consumers are in control now. Brands can no longer afford to push their own brand values on to their target market," he says. "Instead, they must echo their consumers' values to be adopted because they are relevant, or because they were on hand to support or celebrate with their consumers at different turning points in their lives. It may sound daunting, but failure to do this will prove costlier over the longer term."
与顾客共进退
在
新款马自达MX5跑车(Mazda MX5)最新的平面广告中，有一句醒目的广告词――Best before kids(要小孩之前的最佳选择)。
日本汽车制造商马自达(Mazda)称，它想传递一种自由精神，使得有孩子和没有孩子的驾驶者都受到这种精神的感染。但此次广告活动同时也反映出，品牌所有者们如今更为关注顾客的态度和行为如何随着时间改变。
传统上，市场营销者会根据顾客的年龄和收入，将其划分为不同客户群。而最近，他们也开始按照顾客的消费态度和行为进行分类。业内人士目前认为，以上两种方式的结合运用，以及随着时间的推移，两者之间互相影响所带来的增值效果，乃是确保市场营销沟通具有针对性、富有吸引力的最佳方式。
“在很多国家的市场，太多的家用品牌仍是根据目标顾客的年龄段开展营销，”英国市场营销咨询公司Logistix企划主管戴夫?劳伦斯(Dave Lawrence)表示，该公司的客户包括家乐氏(Kellogg’s)、可沛利(Capri-Sun)和阿麦尼(Appletiser)。“因此，品牌一上来就针对年轻人、家庭或50岁以上人群――这是一套生硬的定义方式，它忽视了消费者从一个年龄段过渡到下一个年龄段时，对消费者行为和品牌偏好的潜在影响。
他指出，例如当一对夫妇初为人父母时，他们不仅是进入了尿布市场；而且，随着消费选择受到孩子需求的推动，他们在消费方面还开始做出个人牺牲。
同时，年老一些的人，当他们第一批孙子孙女出生后，往往会选择一种更为积极的生活方式。从学生到全职就业的转变，也可能导致消费形式和偏好的变化，而品牌拥有者通常会将这两种人分在同一年龄段：“年轻人”。
“但随着年龄段的更迭，不是所有的消费态度和行为都发生变化，”劳伦斯补充称，“但他们对于一个品牌的消费方式和反应可能会有所改变。例如，一旦你有了孩子，你原先在酒吧或饭店消费那些你所喜爱的酒类品牌，很有可能会改在家里消费。品牌所有者不应忽略这些潜在的机遇，而应该根据这些变化调整自己的营销方式，以保证其消费者尽管生活发送变化但仍保持对品牌的忠诚。”
市场营销咨询机构Added Value品牌策略主管利兹? 廷林(Liz Tinlin)认为，消费者生活中常有一些能够促使他们重新评估习惯和品牌喜好的时刻，而许多品牌未能理解利用这些时刻，从而错失了机会。该公司的客户包括博世(Bosch)、Levi’s和沃尔沃(Volvo)等。
“在消费者的生活中，进行重新评估的时间点不一定与其年龄段的过渡有着直接关联，”廷林表示，“例如，怀孕――或者甚至是决定要一个孩子――所导致的消费行为的变化，很可能比初为父母的影响还要大。”
“然而，更好的了解这些触发因素，是许多家用品牌所面临的下一个巨大挑战――但真正了解这些因素后，它就能带来明显的竞争优势。”
营销咨询公司Dunnhumby的消费策略及前景主管马丁?海华德(Martin Hayward)认为，之所以还没有更多品牌所有者开始这样做，是因为21世纪的生活方式难以预言，这使他们无法跟上客户的脚步。Dunnhumby为特易购(Tesco)设计了顾客忠诚计划。
“品牌所有者们只是刚开始懂得如何使用目前获得的、消费者等级方面的详细零售数据，”海华德表示，“像帮宝适(Pampers)和吉列(Gillette)这样的品牌擅长找出其产品进入市场的切入点，但对其它许多的公司而言，其产品的使用寿命没那么明确，在理解消费者年龄段的相关性和潜力方面，它们仍面临困难。”
劳伦斯补充说，要想领会这种方法的益处，品牌所有者必须确定随着消费者生活的变化，什么东西改变了，而什么保持不变。“目前，消费者们受到支配。品牌已不再能够承受在其目标市场推动自身品牌价值的做法，”他表示，“相反，它们必须迎合其消费者将接受的价值观，因为它们是与之相关的，或是因为它们将在消费者的每一个人生转折点提供支持或与之共同庆祝。这听起来也许令人畏缩，但如果不能做不到这一点，从长远来看，代价将是昂贵的。”
