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Direct-to-Consumer Disrupts How Brands Engage with their Customers

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While Direct-to-Consumer Brands are not new, the way they are challenging retailers by radically reorientating consumer expectations is ground breaking. Big and small brands of all kinds have embraced this model as consumers seek authentic and engaging brand relationships in an increasingly virtual and digital world.

In our latest survey we look at how some of Asia’s Direct-to-Consumer brands have succeeded in reimagining relationships and changing perceptions of convenience, quality and trust.

Successfully cutting through the noise

A Direct-to-Consumer brand’s success depends on its customer acquisition strategies, these successful brands manage an online presence across multiple platforms, building and growing a loyal base of followers that both support and believe in the brands key messaging.

Direct-to-Consumer brands prioritise customer engagement combined with their ability to be far more agile than traditional brands when adapting to new trends among consumers.

Staying current and responsive to their consumers has allowed successful Direct-to-Consumer brands to grow rapidly and achieve the reach that most retailers lack.

From Yours skincare is a good example of this, 58% of our respondents were the most aware of this Direct-to-Consumer brand compared to Sugar skincare (25%), Saturday spectacles (25%), Pomelo Fashion (17%) and Mejuri jewellery (8%).

More is needed to reach audiences

There was a split between most of our respondents when asked how often they see advertising for Direct-to-Consumer brands, 42% claimed to not see them very often, while the other 42% did. Only 17% claimed to see Direct-to-Consumer brand advertising regularly.

The most popular channels were online ads (75%) and on social media (83%).

Larger and established brands have an advantage when dedicating more resources towards developing their Direct-to-Consumer channel, brands like Nike and Xiaomi have both seen enormous success in this area, with forecasts for Nike as high as 30% of all their sales will be coming through this channel by 2023.

Changing Consumer Perceptions

A strong preference for Direct-to-Consumer brands is suggested in our survey with 92% of respondents claiming a preference towards purchasing directly from the brand itself rather than going through a retailer.

84% reported that it was likely they would even try a new Direct-to-Consumer brand, however only 42% were somewhat trustful of new Direct-to-Consumer brands. New brands contending for market share need to be wary that 75% of the consumers we surveyed still regard that established brands products are superior in quality.

Reimagining the consumer journey in a changing retail landscape, with more customer centricity using a direct approach, simplifying purchase and logistic processes, while embedding social proof in multiple parts of the purchase experience is likely the recipe for success.  

To learn more about consumer behaviour and trends reach out to us. 

The effects of the Great Resignation felt in Asia

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What first began in the US with a staggering 4.3 million people quitting their jobs since January this year, a trend that can be described as a shift in our collective attitude and approach towards work. In our latest survey among workers aged between 18 and 50 years of age we found that while the trend has taken on in Asia, its effects are not the same as in the West. Our findings suggest that workers are conflicted between reconciling the pre-pandemic era’s status quo with today’s new normal. 

Just as businesses were forced to adapt to the new way of working (operating digitally and remotely), workers have also had to adjust to new demands and challenges from both their bosses and their customers. 

Retaining and engaging employees throughout these changes has been a particular struggle that many companies have yet to overcome. In our survey, only 30% of our respondents felt “highly satisfied” with their current job. 

Looking for a pay raise

40% of our respondents claim to be looking for a new job. The motivation for at least half of them is to “earn more money”. 

The level of inflation in most countries has been higher than the rate of increase for salaries. Even in the US, the consumer price index rose by 5.4% in 2021, but many Americans did not receive a 5.4% increase in their salaries. 

This could explain why financial renumeration is prioritised by most workers looking at changing jobs. 

Remote working preference 

We received mixed responses from those we surveyed about their views towards remote working. While 60% somewhat agree that remote working has made them more productive, around 50% showed a preference for working full-time in the office, the rest were also split between a hybrid working model and working fully remotely. 

Video conferencing and other digital tools that help us to collaborate remotely can only go so far to make up for the lack of sense of comradery and office culture possible when working together at the same location. 

Re-evaluating career and personal goals

Over 60% of our respondents claimed to have re-evaluated their career and personal goals in the past 6 months. 

Surprisingly 80% of our respondents would prefer to run their own businesses if given the oppourtunity. Perhaps the Great Resignation in Asia could result in a flare of entrepreneurial spirit with more small businesses and start-ups. 

To learn more about consumer behaviour reach out to us.

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Media Trends to benefit your brand in 2022

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As we round up our exploration into this years top Media Trends, here’s a summary of the trends that your brand should get onboard with to better engage with your consumers and extend your brand’s influence while improving the impact of your marketing presence. 

Privacy Matters

In this day and age, our digital footprint has become widely available to most companies and brands that collect our personal data. With so many cookies and trackers monitoring our search history and activity across websites, applications and other platforms, it’s hard to stay anonymous while browsing the web. Have you ever wondered why advertisements displayed to you change after searching a certain keyword? Perhaps, you were looking for a new vacuum cleaner one day and all of a sudden, you are shown the latest model available the next time an ad pops up on your screen.

Although most consumers agree with personalised ads, at the same time, our respondents told us in our latest survey that privacy matters more. 78% claimed that privacy is “very important” to them. Therefore, making sure that your consumers are aware of what personal data is being collected and how you are safeguarding their personal data helps to ease their concerns. 

Furthermore, 56% of our consumers reported that they were “not comfortable” with allowing websites to collect and store their personal data. This highlights consumer’s fear of their personal data being abused or misappropriated. In order to alleviate this fear, brands should be more transparent about the data collected and provide an opt-out option to protect consumer privacy. 

Improve your brand’s perception

We looked at 3 areas of how brands could promote a positive image to their consumers. With a rise in awareness towards socio-economic issues like sustainability, corporate social responsibility and fair HR practices, consumers want to support brands that not only care about these issues but are at the forefront with initiatives aimed at addressing them. 

56% of our respondents reported that a brand’s stance and measures towards ensuring sustainability, in the form of eco-friendliness, using green technologies or cleaner waste was “very important” when it came to their consideration of supporting the brand. 

An overwhelming majority of respondents (89%) view brands that donate or collaborate with non-profit organisations and charities more positively. Brands which are viewed as being part of the community, seen giving back by supporting meaningful causes attract consumer’s attention and make them more favourable than those which do not take part in these initiatives. 

Internal practices of the brand in the form of promoting diversity, inclusivity and fairness among employees was also deemed important by 78% of our respondents. 

More demographic representation in advertising

Only 33% of our respondents claimed that they felt represented “very often” in the advertisements that they saw. 

While representation in advertising and media has expanded over the past decade, there is still much more room for improvement. When consumers see relatable portrayals of themselves in advertisements, they are able to engage better and more effectively with the message of the advertisement and even begin imagining themselves using the brand’s product or service.

To learn more about consumer behaviour and trends reach out to us. 

Schedule a call with us…

Health Consciousness in the wake of the pandemic

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Fear is known as a good motivator, since the beginning of the covid-19 crisis, health and wellness companies have capitalised on the growing awareness of illness and the importance of health. After an endless stream of news reports, advertising and media campaigns focused on health, has it left an impact on us to become more health conscious?

With multiple brands promoting products that boost our immunity, how has our perception towards health and wellness changed? In our latest survey we explored the effects of this among consumers. Our respondents were aged adolescents through to 40 year olds, a demographic that is most unlikely to need additional supplements for chronic health issues. When asked their opinion of how important it was to take additional supplements, a significant majority of 75% surprisingly answered: ‘Very Important’. 

The main motivations behind taking supplements: 

The medical debate for taking additional health supplements has strong arguments on both sides, with expert claims that if you are a healthy individual that eats a good well-balanced diet that includes all your nutritional needs, you don’t need to take anything extra. However, if you’re not getting everything you need from what you eat every day, you can take tablets with concentrated amounts of the nutrition you’re missing. 42% of our respondents recognised that they were not able to get enough nutrition from their diet, another 32% were very physically active at sports or the gym which also creates a need for taking additional supplements. 

A competitive market: 

Hundreds of brands fight for their share in this fiercely competitive and growing demand-driven market. For example, Vitamin C demonstrates this, it’s a basic entry level product both in terms of usage and price, with 83% of our respondents claiming to take it on regular basis. How do brands stand apart in this highly saturated market? 

Seeking help from Health Professionals seems like the way to go for consumers, 71% of our respondents told us that they were advised by either a doctor or pharmacist to take supplements. 

Moreover, we found that Blackmores, Bio-Life and Vita Health were the most popular brands that our respondents were considering to purchase from. 

The changing perception: 

More of us are buying into the health and wellness trend, with growing consciousness and awareness, 59% of our respondents agreed that taking supplements improves their quality of life. 

This supports global data that suggests over the next 5 to 10 years the market is expected to grow another 8%. 

Currently, our findings showed that 83% of our respondents were spending between $10 to over $100 dollars a month purchasing supplements. 

To learn more about consumer behaviour and trends reach out to us. 

Schedule a call with us…