Let’s think about the consumer

Brands are not just about the service or product they provide.
All brands want to set a mood for their consumer to make them come back again and hopefully be solely loyal to them.

With all the competition out there, it is no longer just about your impeccable offering. Customer journeys include many things that happen before, during, and after the experience of a product or service.

When going to get their morning coffee, what does the consumer think about?
The coffee has to be good, that point is not up for debate.
A lot of other elements still play a role in their journey for coffee:
The smiling waiter and the way they greet them when they comes in,
the smell of that freshly roasted coffee,
the barista wishing them a good day while mentioning their name,
and the cherry on top will be the amazingly foamy cappuccino.
Not forgetting their educational content on Instagram; about the different coffee origins.
This applies to any service or product.

An experience is the sum of the service, the physical product and the digital tools, including all the touchpoints and channels. A journey that can last days or even weeks. With all the tools out there, and the consumer's easy access to information and different brands, we have to speak to him/her taking him/her in consideration - putting them front and center.

We should all move to a user-centric experience in order to properly manage the journey.

Tools we can use to understand our customers:

1- Simple Observation:
Observing consumers while shopping or using our product or service can really get us insights about their behavior and motivations.

2- Social media as a learning tool
Social media has definitely changed marketing and the market dynamics and how we promote brands, and it has a great power in helping us understand consumers, detect relevant information and react swiftly and maybe find clues that can lead to innovations. All we have to do is be active listeners.

3- Co-creating
Beyond active listening, brands can integrate their customers in their product development by gathering feedback on a specific product before its launch or even in the ideas generation phase. Cocreation can reduce market-research costs, increase customer loyalty, and develop the products and services that customers want.

Now that the market is shifting fast, new business models are changing what customers want and how they shop. It is more essential than ever to better understand customers.