Adapt to the Changing Consumer Landscape, or Get Lost

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The following is adapted from Localmotion by Alex Barseghian

Everything old is new again.

Never has this saying been as true as it is today in the context of the consumer landscape. The global marketplace continues to grow, but so does the old-fashioned idea of shopping local.

Consumers have matured. They want a marketplace that’s more responsive to their needs.

They want to be better served by goods and services and the companies that provide them.

They want to feel attached to things and have influence over the nature, selection, and quality of the goods and services they use at a local level.

You might say we’re going back to the days of the mom-and-pop store, but with a global twist.

Companies that invest in understanding what their customers need and want are going to be far more successful in the future than those that don’t. Businesses that clue in to our new “localmotion” marketplace will ride the new commercial wave. Those that don’t will struggle to stay afloat.

Why Consumers Crave Local

The shift toward local is in part a reaction to the dull sameness of shopping in urban centers across the globe. Main Streets and High Streets from New York to Singapore have been inundated with cookie-cutter chain stores selling similar goods.

Local businesses have been pushed out by the likes of Starbucks, The Gap, and Banana Republic. Malls are no better, and people are pushing back. They aren’t hungry for more Cheesecake Factory restaurants, but for uniqueness and innovation in the vast sea of sameness that has swallowed our cities and towns.

The disruption to economies worldwide and the devastation to local Main Street businesses after the Great Recession of 2008 accelerated the shift in thinking. Everyday people reacted with heightened awareness and cynicism about the machinations of the global economy.

The consumer perspective shifted to a local one.

Instead of remaining complacent and detached from economic forces, individuals gradually changed their buying habits to reflect more engagement with local sourcing of goods and services in the ever-widening economy.

What Does Local Really Mean

Local isn’t confined to just a city or town or even a fifty-mile radius that includes surrounding suburbs. In the broadest sense, “locally sourced” products include coffee grown by hilltop farmers in Ecuador and handcrafted pottery made in New Mexico.

New and emerging e-commerce platforms are connecting local sellers with buyers across oceans and continents. The seller may be a wood-carver in Borneo or a weaver in Peru. The buyer may reside in Tahiti or Toronto. We’re witnessing a convergence of technology and locally sourced products and services from Beijing to Banff.

The local, economic landscape puts the individual front and center, regardless of whether he is the buyer or the seller. Local commerce respects individual needs and wants and doesn’t exploit labor.

Localmotion is a movement away from mass production to artisanship. It’s a trend away from factory farming to free-range meat and poultry, although not just about food or getting back to the land.

The local movement embraces technology as the great equalizer. The wood-carver in Borneo can access a world market on the internet. E-commerce companies such as Shopify and platforms such as eBay help individuals set up online stores, extending the global reach of artisans who live and work in remote locations.

The central force of local motion is around personalization and the adoption of technology to allow companies to individualize better and speak to the heart and mind of consumers.

How to Tap into the Power of Local

The following strategies will show you how to get to the heart of Localmotion by connecting with your customer.

1. Be authentic. People today are looking for an elusive something, and that elusive something is authenticity. It’s what Localmotion is all about — finding personal and community connections in the things we do and the products we buy.
2. Get Personal. Learn and analyze the uniqueness of individuals and their changing tastes. Sophisticated algorithms that monitor taste, lifestyle, and patterns of behavior can help you make an emotional connection by delivering content that is personal and relevant to the individual.
3. Build Community. Smart companies understand their customers as groups of people who share like-minded opinions and tastes. Community is created by listening, developing mechanisms to foster relationships, striving for authenticity in branding, and focusing more on serving people instead of pushing product.
4. Create an Experience. Every touch point, whether online, on smartphone, or at an in-store location has to deliver on a memorable brand experience. Websites need to be user friendly, questions need ready answers, customer service should be all about service. Every interaction needs to positively reflect on the brand and the values of community associated with the brand.
5. Nurture Your Tribe. The tribe creates itself and comprises individuals who are passionate about and identify with the brand. Companies need to be responsive and connect to, encourage, and nurture their tribe. Meet your tribe’s expectations and never dilute or deviate from your brand.
6. Embrace Social Media. Engaging on social media brings companies to the community conversation and allows an expression of brand culture beyond traditional advertising. Always engage or respond quickly and authentically on a daily basis. Tailor your message to the channel and keep the context local if you want to have the best impact.
7. Use Technology. Use technology like artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and software applications to understand individual consumers within their immediate environments, so you can respond to their needs and desires.

The evolution to localmotion is happening globally and locally, and it’s gaining speed. The time has come to adapt or be left behind. Local is where people want to go, and where you need to be. Are you ready?

For more advice on adapting to the trend of going local, you can you can find Localmotion on Amazon.

Alex Barseghian founded Samba Days, a technology platform connecting localized businesses to the mass markets, before joining Blackhawk-Americas as VP of Original Content, where he leads development of a new global technology platform and oversees $1B in revenue to integrate digital technology for systems such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.