A New Era of Brands Wants to Arm You With Knowledge
So you didn’t learn personal finance in school? No stress.
These days, we get the feeling that more and more brands are acknowledging the fact that they’re talking to smart, astute consumers. No smoke and mirrors for them. Transparency is key.
They want to be like an open book.
They want to tell you everything about everything — whatever you need to feel like you can make an informed decision. It’s empowerment through transparency, with accessible, easy-to-understand information.
Obviously, this is done with a business goal in mind — they ask themselves what they want their customers to become. According to Harvard Business Review, it’s about making your customers more valuable rather than extracting more value from them. In this case, they want customers to be awake and aware of their options, and have the tools to make a decision. The decision will be, of course, their product or service since they’ll have built trust in the process.
The strategy makes sense.
Through constant product and industry education, these brands allow consumers to make a conscious choice and become a go-to, trusted destination for reliable information and, in turn, for this product / service.
This is also in response to being faced with increasingly discerning consumers. We as a society are becoming more politically active and informed. We have also evolved our consumption habits. We aim to be informed about our choices, where we’re spending our money and what are the best options. We know what we don’t know and incertitude will no longer do.
With the constant evolution of digital platforms comes increased access to information. You no longer need to research financial questions (but you absolutely can) — you can now subscribe to a personal finance newsletter, a beauty podcast, a tech YouTube channel. You can download an app.
As consumers, we’ve realized that there is no more excuse to not be up-to-date. And brands are simply following and adapting to this general movement.
What’s interesting is how this particularly appeals to Generations Y and Z.
They (we) grew up questioning everything, including how the education system did not prepare them to “adult” correctly. No one taught them how to do their taxes. Their parents brought them shopping at department stores, where cosmetics were kept behind a counter lock and key. Home economics class might have only taught them to make pancakes, but not how to cook a balanced dinner. Companies like Blue Apron are jumping to the rescue with detailed recipe cards, ingredient education and a strong social strategy to promote it all.
Cool. So what can brands (and agencies) do?
- Be of service. Whatever product or service you offer, be proactive and make yourself useful in the consumers’ path to knowledge.
- Identify the pain points. Analyze where consumers experience friction when shopping around for the product / service you offer. What makes the process more complicated? How can we simplify it by breaking it down for them? Create a roadmap to solve these problems through education.
- Develop a strategy accordingly. Based on the frictions identified previously, see how they can be addressed — product, service, better and more clear advertising, useful and relevant content, etc. For example, write and publish about your product and the industry, analyze a relevant piece of news, answer your community’s questions and share it with everyone.
A final word
Step up to the plate — Whatever you think consumers are lacking, make sure everyone can level up their knowledge and understanding of the industry so they can be better consumers (and customers!).
