It does not seem to be possible to finish off quick marketing updates in the final 2020 issue of this journal without a reference to coronavirus. Merriam-Webster, the famous online dictionary and thesaurus service, just proclaimed „pandemic” to be the word of the year. Apparently, the dictionary users were looking up the word quite frequently throughout 2020, with most notable spike in dictionary traffic recorded on March 11, 2020, when World Health Organization officially declared a Covid-19 pandemic and dictionary users looked up the word 115.806% more often than a year before.
The global map of marketing, marketing communications and consumer behavior has changed rapidly and indefinitely. Whichever products or services featured the prefix of online-, remote- or home- were on the winning side this year. New segments emerged and their sizes change rather rapidly as pandemic waves come and go. Most strategic consultancy firms such as Capgemini or Bain & Company draw marketers’ attention to the fact that consumer reaction to the pandemic shall be one of the prominent dimensions of any successful segmentation exercise.
BVA BDRC, UK-based market research agency, calls those distinct response-to-lockdown segments simply Covid-concerned, Covid-cautions, pragmatic-policy-supporters and life-goes-on. EY identifies within its Future Consumer initiative different four segments examining implications for consumer spending. The „Hibernate and spend” segment is concerned about the impact. However, they shop just as before and brands are still important to them. The „Cut deep” consumers are mostly older (45 years of age plus) and in danger of losing their jobs. Great majority of them shops less frequently and purchases essential supplies only. Brands are less important to them. While the segment labeled „Save and stockpile” cuts spending on leisure and clothing, they go on a grocery shopping spree and make sure they have enough essentials for year to come. Stockpiling hamsters are concerned over their families and long-term effects of the pandemic. The „Stay calm, carry on” segment tries to exercise normal consumer behavior and lead their lives unchanged. If „Stay calm, carry on” is worried about anything, then it is stockpiling and unusual behaviors of others.
In a more recent study of the same EY initiative, a picture emerges of five distinct consumer segments based on people’s post-Covid primary concern: health, planet, experience, society, and affordability. McKinsey brings along five trends to the consumer table: digital and online shopping; loyalty bust as many consumers switch brands at unprecedented rate; rise in health and safety concerns; reinvigorated interest in value for money; and emergence of the homebody economy. Delloite adds preference for local shops and focus on reliability to the list. Accenture makes another point highlighting the trend towards conscious consumption, as consumers are more careful about what and how sustainably they’re buying.
Merriam-Webster defines the adjective of pandemic as „occurring over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affecting a significant proportion of the population”. It seems that a Covid-19 pandemic has been quickly followed a pandemic change in consumer behavior, in which trends quickly spread across borders. Together with the increasing importance (and spending) of Millennial and Gen Z customers and their ability to change consumer behaviors of their parents and grandparents, surely we are up for some half scary half exciting paradigm shifts.
Résumé
Jak Covid-19 mění spotřební chování: O určování nových zákaznických segmentů a segmentačních kritérií
Ani poslední letošní příspěvek v marketing briefs se neobejde bez využití slova roku 2020, kterým byla vyhlášena slovníkem Merriam-Webster „pandemie“. V mnoha ohledech jsme svědky pandemických změn spotřebního chování, vyvolávajících nutno redefinovat dříve používané zákaznické segmenty. V době prudkých změn tržních podmínek jsou zákazníci ochotni bryskně měnit své návyky. Významnými segmentačními kritérii jakékoli funkční práce s trhem by měly být reflexe reakce a dopadu Covidu-19 na danou skupinu zákazníků. Vývoj velikosti a vlastností jednotlivých segmentů pak dříve než kdy v minulosti musí být předmětem pravidelné aktualizace.
Kontakt na autorov/Address
doc. Ing. Pavel Štrach, Ph.D., Ph.D., ŠKODA AUTO Vysoká škola o.p.s., Katedra marketingu a managementu, Na Karmeli 1457, 293 01 Mladá Boleslav, Česká republika, e-mail: pavel.strach@savs.cz
