The arrival of the Internet and new technologies in our lives has marked a before and after in the way brands have sought to connect with consumers. Every day we come across new advances, projects and ideas whose main objectives are aimed at innovation and the positioning of new solutions within our era.
In contrast to classical theories, which claimed that the media were a threat to critical thinking and that we would increasingly find ourselves with passive consumers, the behavior of people on the Internet and social networks has shown us the opposite.
Nowadays we find ourselves with educated users, who know what they want, who are not afraid to give their opinion and who use all the digital platforms available to them to express themselves. If 2018 was a year where this behavior was observed at its maximum expression, and was evidenced by the growth of personal brands, influencers and drastic changes in multiple industries due to social requests, 2019 will undoubtedly be a year where we will see much more of this. That is why, in this installment we will learn about the 4 trends that will mark the course of consumers in 2019. Becoming a warning for those brands that need a guide on how to act and carry out their strategies for this important year to come.
1.
Inbound marketing has been a marketing philosophy that has had a strong impact in recent times and therefore, its foundations have influenced multiple digital marketing strategies . These foundations propose placing the consumer at the center of the strategy and creating valuable content that educates them rather than selling to them. In some way, these principles created a kind of empowerment in consumers in which they increasingly want to consume content that makes them more knowledgeable about a discipline or technique.
This whole relationship and dynamic between brands and consumers not only sought to create an educated consumer but at the same time, a critical consumer as well. Social networks became the space par excellence in which consumers began to express their opinions and exert pressure on these companies to carry out better practices for society and the environment. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram specifically, were those spaces where users began to audit and demand responsible practices from both companies and governments, such as: equal pay and conditions, respect for the environment, inclusion, reliable content, etc.
As a result, it is said that for 2019, one of the trends is associated with the fact that it will no longer be just consumers who will become aware of what is best for societies, but that brands, under pressure from these audiences, will also begin to use their power and their voices to promote the good management of public policies.
In the United States, since Trump became president, this trend has had a major impact on the public agenda, where both brands and consumers have used social media to protest and show their discontent with certain government decisions. This shows that both companies and their customers know exactly how they want their social environment to be and to raise awareness about it.
2. Technological solutions to promote healthy lifestyles
In addition to this context of empowerment and awareness about what is good for society and what is not, consumers throughout 2018 have had a strong interest in improving their nutritional and eating practices, that is, in leading a healthy lifestyle, especially with the help of applications that are dedicated to offering these services to users.
Apps like Fitbit, Strava, MyFitnessPal, Apple Health, among others, have driven this trend among today's consumers and it is estimated that this practice will continue in 2019. It should be noted that the origin of this trend is found in Silicon Valley, a space where technological solutions of this type are constantly emerging, which are launched on the market if not for free, at least at an affordable cost.
In this sense, if you are a company that sells food and perishable and non-perishable products, gastronomy, nutrition or sports, we recommend that you make the most of the benefits of this trend by creating marketing campaigns and opportunities for your consumers to educate themselves on how to eat properly, how to carry out an appropriate exercise routine and how to use technology and social media to achieve this. Brands such as Nestlé, TimesHifter and Kolibri have promoted products and/or services whose main objective is to improve the well-being of their consumers. They are even free products in order to offer users the opportunity to educate themselves and lead a better lifestyle.
3. Collaborative work, open source solutions and impact creation
Since the Internet became a solution to access multiple types of inform cellphone number philippines ation and content for free, users from all over the world have wanted to participate in this exchange of knowledge. We have all at some point downloaded content from Ares, read some information on Wikipedia, traveled in Uber and heard about how blockchain and its money transaction system work. These ideas, which materialized thanks to the advancement of communication technologies, are just some examples of how working collectively has become a business model and the power we have to help others and even make money, as is the case with cryptocurrencies.
Now let's imagine a scenario where brands and consumers work together under this "open source" principle but creating projects that promote sustainability and promote actions that generate a positive impact on cities. This, beyond being something fictitious and at the same time a reality, has become one of the trends for 2019 where more and more brands and users are developing business models whose value propositions are closely related to the UN's sustainable development goals and therefore, are inclusive ideas, accessible to everyone and built collectively and as a group.
4. Artificial intelligence in digital marketing
In 2018, data collection, quality customer service and the use of virtual assistants on websites became the core of multiple digital marketing strategies . Measuring and quantifying each of the objectives was a major challenge for companies, especially when they aimed to improve by using automated, practical, easy-to-use and innovative tools.
It turns out that artificial intelligence offers marketing all of these benefits and much more. That is why its use as another of the trends for 2019 should not surprise us. This trend also derives from the new demands that consumers demand in terms of speed of attention and personalized information, which makes it necessary to use external aids that allow processing these requirements, such as artificial intelligence and the use of programmed algorithms (chatbots).
This is why it is estimated that by 2019 the use of algorithms in social networks and artificial intelligence in customer service will continue to grow exponentially, especially when this helps companies obtain important data about their audiences and followers. Consumers rather expect brands to support these technologies more because they recognize how efficient they are and the benefits they bring to them.
In short, all these trends that will mark the course of consumers in 2019 arise because consumers, instead of being passive agents of the mass media as many authors of communication theories (among them Antonio Pascuali and Marcelino Bisbal) claimed in their theories, on the contrary, we have found active consumers who are critical of the bad actions that governments and companies can carry out.