What are consumers thinking, feeling, spending & not spending during COVID-19?

If you’re a business owner, you might feel a little like you’re suspended in time at the moment.

News, policies and economic adjustments are happening all the time. It’s a lot. It’s also a lot if you’re also working with a wider team, ensuring their physical and mental health are doing the best they can at this time.

Do you continue with marketing plans?

Is marketing appropriate?

When will my customers be ready to purchase again?

What are they purchasing right now?

What do I want to actively avoid doing?

Phew, that’s a lot of questions, isn’t it?!

Here we have compiled a few of our consumer data sources, a mix of global, UK and industry specific data to show you what people are thinking, right now.

1. Which verticals are consumers cutting back on, and when will they start to spend again? (or in other words…don’t take a drop in sales personally)

   
   Of the people that said they would delay a purchase, what’s interesting is when they would say they’d consider purchasing again.
   
   Now, the caveat is that consumer habits are shifting constantly, so we’d love to see if these still stand months into the pandemic.
   
   What’s interesting is the bouncebackability (soz…we know) of verticals like Luxury items, Concert Tickets and Sporting Events, where the draw, and the ‘treat’ is high if those are things that you love.
   
   Watching re-runs of games, live streamed theatre and gigs just aren’t the same, and don’t scratch the same itch. The same for luxury items - perhaps there’s a perception of self reward for getting through tough times.
   
   Some items - if your income has been stable - might now be in reach for some consumers, if their overall outgoings have decreased.

   
   
   2. Where are they learning about new brands?
   
   

   The dichotomy of the marketing budget.
   
   Cut the biggest expenses to save the bottom line.
   
   Totally. When it’s about preserving jobs, cutting those big ticket costs makes sense.
   
   BUT, and is so often the case when decisions are made in a boardroom not considering what the consumers are up to, consumers across the board say that they find out about new products from:
   
   TV Ads
   
   Social Media
   
   From TV shows
   
   Amongst others.
   
   While the media world adjusts to wildly edited schedules, consider how things may have changed for your brand, and how you may still be able to get out there, in ways otherwise not considered.
   
   
   

   3. What does life look like ‘after’?
   

   How long til we can go on holiday again. Do staycations look like more of the norm for now?
   
   What role does this situation play into the focus on sustainability? We can’t forget one in exchange for the other, so how do we strike that balance?
   
   For those of us in the UK, there’s also Brexit to think about.
   
   Do we knock the notion of the two weeks in the sun on the head for now?

   
   These charts, from Global Web Index’s trend report ‘The ‘new normal’: how consumers are planning to adapt’ highlight how different groups say they plan to edit their behaviour, but how these play out remains to be seen:

4. How you handle your brand now and in the short to medium term, may have long term effects

Initial research from Attest highlighted the impact seen from those businesses who were perceived to not be helping, based on their response to the pandemic.

Not just helping customers, but how they treat their staff has had a measurable impact on brand value in consumer’s eyes during this time, and a misstep will likely have an impact on brands for a while to come.

Sites like https://didtheyhelp.com/ have sprung up, attributing scores(!) to how helpful or unhelpful brands or those in the public eye have been during this time. As our approach is always about helping and educating rather than shaming, per se, we think this might be a little strong.. but that said, accountability is important.

And for those that have ‘carried on regardless’ putting their staff or their customers at risk, will likely see the impact on their bottom line, rather than being overly concerned about appearing on various shitlists.

5. How inclusivity is now much more achievable for many brands, if they choose it.

Brands forced to go online means those that could not engage with your brand previously, now can.

B2B SaaS businesses that have pivoted to share their knowledge, insight and research for free, where previously their model priced them out of many innovative startups’ reach, means they have built their audience and helped out their next potential big customer in the future.

Education courses going online means that for those that could not take the time - or afford the travel - to upskill themselves, now can when it suits them.

This new world has potential to be much more inclusive and fair than the world we left behind in 2019.

While we believe that things will not fundamentally change for the mass market - namely middle-class white, straight, cis gendered western society, if brands are now able to embrace a shift to inclusivity, for longer term gain and not pull up the drawbridge again, we’ll all be better off.

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Written by Victoria Scally

Founder & CEO of We Are All Marketing

We aim to help brands through this time using our knowledge and relentless pursuit to do better marketing.