IN SUMMARY: 46% of consumers say they are more likely to try new brands than they were five years ago. Most global internet users lack confidence in what they see and read online, with only 8% believing that the bulk of information shared on social media is true, dropping to 4% when it comes from influencers.
Baby boomers are redefining what aging is and what old age looks like, Millennials are broke because they carry large student loan balances and a whopping 46% of consumers told Nielsen they are more likely to try new brands than they were five years ago.
Consumers are changing and they are changing rapidly. Brands, on all parts of the consumer journey, continue to throw money against marketing efforts aimed at holding or growing loyalty without a clear benefit proposal.
A massive 42% of global consumers say they love trying new things, and a further half (49%) of consumers—while preferring to stick with what they know—can be moved to experiment. With the overwhelming majority of consumers actively or passively open to unfaithful actions, the risks for brand owners have never been greater.
Influencers are kaput
Most global internet users lack confidence in what they see and read online, with only 8% believing that the bulk of information shared on social media is true, dropping to 4% when it comes from influencers.
On the same measurement, even governments were seen as more trustworthy than most celebrity influencers or bloggers/vloggers, with 12% of people globally saying information shared by governments was ‘mostly truthful’.
However, people in the UK and US were more cynical, with these numbers falling to 8% and 6% in those regions respectively.
And about those Millennials…
A study by Daymon Worldwide found that just 29 percent of Millennials usually purchase from the same brand, compared to 35 percent of Gen X-ers. In fact, Gen X is now being held up as the most brand-loyal generation of consumers.
Separately, fully 72% of Millennials said they’d like a company either much more (51%) or somewhat more (21%) if they found out that it paid its employees well. There was a broader consensus among respondents about liking a company more on that basis than on any other business ethic tested, including giving away a large share of profits to a good cause and producing goods in America or in-state.
Traditional marketing is on life support. Social media marketing is irrelevant, replaced by social media advertising.
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