by The growing sophistication of consumers (aka “people’] at the leading edge of the value changes described by Consumershift means that they will expect to be dealt with by those who understand where they are coming from and what they need. They will be impatient with those still in the “old paradigm” of the slick, hard sell — this will be especially true of the Integrals, for whom patience is not one of their virtues — they have things to do and no time for nonsense.
One of the principal purposes of Consumershift is to help those designing new offerings, whether it be new benefits from a government agency, a curriculum revision by educators, or new products and services by businesspeople, is to provide a model of how values changes are influencing consumer choice. The value changes are refined into seven emerging need states, which in turn are brought to life in the form of a representative persona.
I believe it is not enough to simply take the need states and personas and “get to work,” though that is certainly possible. A lack of understanding of why that need state is important may lead to slight missteps or miscalculations that could undermine an otherwise well developed campaign. For instance, a branding approach that relies heavily on authenticity must understand why that authenticity is important. Simply paying lip service to authenticity will likely be detected by consumers–reflecting their growing sophistication–and will undermine the campaign. The “why” is indeed important. Andy Hines
Leave a Reply