How does a more aware consumer affect the marketing approach?

Look at any product around you right now and ask yourself a question: “Why do I have it?” You’d either have an answer or you wouldn’t, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have it, and you bought it because you thought you needed it.

Now, whether that need is valid or not is a different thing and depends on the individual. But the fact that some brand was able to make you realise that need or induce that in you is a success in marketing.

We live in a world where all our necessities are met, and for the first time in the history of any species, we’re probably the ones who face a problem because there is an excess of food to eat and things to have. 

We know that we probably don’t need most of the things we possess, and that’s why minimalism is picking up so much because we’ve become smarter at telling the difference between essential needs and acquired needs. So the question I want to ask is, What does it mean for marketers?

I believe this brings forth challenges to marketing and, at the same time, makes it all the more important. A growth in minimalism indicates that people are getting smarter, and they know that they are being sold to. Maybe minimalism is just a bit more extreme of it. So the question then becomes, “How do you sell to people who know they are being persuaded?”

It’s hard, but it’s possible because some brands do it so well. I feel marketing nowadays needs to be upfront, straight-to-the-point, no bullshit, and at the same time, being subtle about it is so important. 

It’s a challenging time for marketing, and honestly, it is also the time when the meaning of marketing has just become so much clearer. If people don’t need you, then why would they want you? You need to give them something; you need to be unique in some way.

For most small brands and businesses, it’s so hard to differentiate themselves from their competitors. USP is a term that’s taken pretty lightly nowadays, I guess. It’s a challenge we need to face and figure out as marketers. I really feel the ideal marketing, wherein you’re super different from your competitors, doesn’t exist. 

Products are more similar nowadays than they’ve ever been, but yet so different in how they’re presented.

I have come to believe that you really can’t induce a need anymore, but you can induce a want. Customer experience is a good way of achieving that, and this includes great packaging or just amazing service. Always giving more than what’s expected. And there are many more things to it.

It’s complicated, but it’s simple. 

Everyone can find the definition of marketing in books, but what is it even exactly about? Different sources will give us different definitions, and that’s because everyone looks at it differently. But it’s quite easy to understand if we boil it down to its most natural and simplest form. 

I believe marketing is simply making people realise a need for your product and brand. If a marketer is able to achieve this, then he’s doing just fine.

(Originally written on 8 August 2021)