Witnessing the big reset of today’s world?

 

Brands and trust

According to the 2017 Meaningful Brands survey, 74% of consumers would not be bothered if the brands they buy were to disappear. That also certainly applies also to the pet food industry. Our pets are occupying an increasingly prominent place in our lives. In spite of all the new media, a huge number of us feel lonely and are turning to our beloved pets. Urbanization is also leading to more attention to pets.

This is also having consequences for the increasingly critical attitude of consumers towards pet food and pet products.

Modern consumers are put off by superficiality. They have little time for popular catch-all terms such as ‘sustainable’, ‘best for your pet’ or ‘natural’. Consumers get their information and knowledge from their own immediate network, so for organizations it is crucial to become part of that trust network.

A technological rat-race

Contact between consumer and organization will change radically in the years to come, and technology is the biggest cause of this. The accuracy of voice commands has increased to 95%, and it is expected that 50% of searches on mobile phones will be conducted by voice in 2020.

More and more devices listen to us and everything will be connected and smart. The era of ‘mobile first’ is seeing its last years and will now be replaced with ‘AI first’. Bots are the new browsers and sensors will bring an entirely new dimension to customer contact and service. How long will conscious purchasing decisions be made when the environment of customers and pets is getting increasingly smarter? Who will decide what the animal gets to eat: the owner, the animal or the container that the animal eats from?

The future is that of smart software that represents consumers online. Terms such as conversational commerce, ‘speakularity’, visual listening, predictive data and ambient intelligence are just the tip of the iceberg in the technological rat-race in which organizations and society are now embroiled.

Digitizing trust

In a world in which people’s trust of organizations and institutes is under pressure, we are even digitizing our trust. We are witnessing the birth of the review economy. In this, we trust our immediate network above every form of authority. However, consumers must have the knowledge and skill to handle the information available online. The challenge for organizations is to once more be regarded as a sincere expert or authority that wants the best for people and animals.

A technological Holy Grail?

Technology has now become the ultimate solution for all challenges in this modern digital era. But, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Organizations frequently fail in implementing new technology because they lack the skill to dispense with learned assumptions and behaviour. These are assumptions and behaviour from the time of mass communication, when organizations controlled the message that they wanted to communicate.

This is no longer the case. Today we are seeing the end of control and the beginning of influence. What is probably most important: the customer is changing from a product searcher to a simplicity searcher. Simplicity is the key to every good service experience. It fosters trust and the will to allow organizations into the consumer’s circle.

The organization’s focus is on reach instead of impact. Marketers must use technology to give their customers convenience by having an impact at the times when they want that, and by simplifying and enriching their lives. This will be a major challenge for the marketing and strategy of organizations.

The need for a change in mindset

Exponential technological change combined with a change in mindset and the increasing impact of consumers will bring the need for a radical revision of assumptions regarding market strategy. Far-reaching transparency in an increasingly volatile market means that every organization must develop into an anticipatory organization. That is today’s reality in the world of pet food.