The very idea of a loyalty program assumes that customers will stick around for a while. While few marketers, save perhaps for mortgage lenders, are considering what customers will be like 20 years down the road, there are trends today which will shape the business environment of tomorrow, according to Kelly Hlavinka, managing partner at Colloquy.
Such predictions come with caveats. Short-range disruptive trends are harder to predict, so accept that Hlavinka won’t be using demographic or lifestyle data to predict 2015’s Best Picture winner. But global trends are likely to keep following certain paths they’ve already started down.
For instance, on a global scale the middle class will continue to expand, especially as China and India become wealthier. This will lead to increased demands on natural resources, as well as a heightened market for services and infrastructure around the world.
Populations will also be aging, especially throughout Canada, Russia, China, Europe and Japan, where on average 30% of the population will be above the age of 60 in 2030. (The United States will lag this, but only slightly – come 2050, 27% of America’s population will have completed its sixth decade of life.)
The next two decades will also see more turbulence, economically. Boom and bust cycles will become more dramatic, Hlavinka said. In America, consumers will have accepted the deficit being a notable percentage of the Gross Domestic Product as a fact of life.
There will be other shifts within the U.S. as well. Hlavinka predicted “dramatic” population drops in city centers, as consumers move to the outer suburbs and beyond. The composition of individual households themselves will change, with multi-generational families – parents, children and grandparents – increasingly living under one roof. Consumers will also be working more under these same roofs, as communications networks allow for more telecommuting.
With work and family becoming increasingly concentrated, “localism” – a focus on the home and immediate surroundings such as community centers and other loci of suburban life – will carry more weight. Loyalty marketers wishing to take advantage of this change in attitude will need to reflect the benefits their offerings can have for consumers’ surroundings in their messaging.
How can they do this? A marketer who accepts the increased importance of a local community can allow consumers within that community to pool their resources – whether points earned or buying power – for the benefit of that community. Those operating retail outlets, especially as part of large chains, can realize the power of allowing even chain stores to customize offerings to match local sensibilities.
Hlavinka also said that communication will continue to become increasingly fragmented, and that consumers will expect ever-more control of their interactions. And as communications devices become increasingly more personal, bombarding consumers with ads will become a no-no. Instead, messages will have to be short, relevant and entertaining enough that they change from offers to things to which consumers want to connect.
The idea of connection is going to become increasingly important. The consumer of 2030 isn’t going to wait for – or desire – a marketer to pre-establish a marketing community or network. Instead, such networks will spring up around their priorities, or causes, or customer groups.
For loyalty marketers, this will ultimately mean the ideas of enrollment and opting in will become passé, Hlavinka said. When consumers choose to participate in loyalty programs in the future, the process will look more like “friending” than enrollment.
It will also mean that a brand’s “value proposition” is going to be supplanted by its “compelling cause”. Marketers will need a clearer sense of what customers’ passions and causes are, and what the triggers are that will cause them to connect those passions with a given brand.
By and large, brands will have to discover what these are on a one by one basis. But there are going to be some universal truths about human behavior that endure, according to Hlavinka. Consumers will always have a need for safety, a reassurance and trust in the relationships they have with the businesses they interact with. Additionally, the need for a connection, for bonding, will always be a human trait. And finally, Consumers will always strive to better themselves and to be recognized for their significance.
What can marketers do now to start preparing for the consumers of 2030? Shift their thinking from “marketing” to “magnetizing”, for one. Use magnetism – consumers’ desire to grow and learn – to attract, rather than conscript, customers.
To this end, when using online media consider downplaying the importance of “views” and “hits” in favor of “connections” as core metrics – and establish systems that allow connections to be measured. And as part of this, seek to cede more control to customers, such as putting in place platforms that allow their voices to be heard more effectively.
Hlavinka made her remarks during a keynote at Colloquy’s recent Loyalty Summit.
