Brands and technology: The need to innovate and meet changing consumer needs

To win in the new normal post-pandemic, brands have to continuously innovate by using technology to create a frictionless consumer journey.

• Brands must rethink and redesign consumer experiences to meet buyers’ ever-evolving needs.
• Conceiving and delivering seamless consumer experiences is the key to driving business growth.
• Creating a frictionless consumer journey requires brands to innovate with technology.

Why it matters

Customers care as much about the experience as the product or service they are buying, so leveraging technology to design and deliver frictionless consumer experiences is imperative.

Takeaways

• Volkswagen Australia launched web sales during COVID-19, showing consumers are ready for big-ticket purchases online.
• Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation group, doesn't own properties but it owns the experience.
• Netflix anticipated changing consumer needs and transformed for the digital future by evolving into a streaming service.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, brands must create the right experiences for buyers in the absence of physical touchpoints and human interactions, with technology proving to be a great tool for selling and making the buying process frictionless during a crisis.

When COVID-19 hit the retail industry hard with the closure of physical stores, German carmaker Volkswagen was quick to deploy digital technologies to continue selling during the pandemic.

In 2020, Volkswagen Australia started online sales for the first time in the country. The manufacturer launched the “world’s smallest dealership” – an augmented reality (AR) tool for consumers to view vehicles in their driveways. Using digital tools, buyers can customise a VW before they click the “buy” button.

“The AR tool makes it more convenient, easier for the customers to experience Volkswagen products, and gives them greater confidence in purchasing immediately online,” said Jason S Bradshaw, former chief customer and marketing officer of Volkswagen Group Australia told the virtual NGCX Summit Asia recently.

Volkswagen rolled out the AR tool for two models – T-Cross and T-Roc

The customer-focused e-commerce solution enabled over A$36 million in sales for the carmaker in less than nine months following its launch.

Carmakers such as Volkswagen have reason to be optimistic about investing in an online push as over 30% of Australians today are willing to buy a car without test driving it. And these buyers are confident of completing the entire purchase online.

Rethinking the consumer experience

Bradshaw said brands are no longer in direct competition with just their nearest rival. Consumers are comparing brand experiences all the time, whether they are getting their car serviced or sitting in an airline lounge.

He added that with consumers forever benchmarking brands for the experience they deliver across product categories, creating and delivering seamless consumer experiences is the key to driving business growth.

“The world’s largest accommodation group, Airbnb, doesn't own properties but it owns the experience,” he noted. The American company has demonstrated that brands which make customers feel valued and safe, and help them achieve success, will prosper.

Customers look at their experience through three lense.

1. Did I achieve what I had set out to achieve? Did I end up buying that can of soda from the outlet?

2. In terms of effort, was it easier than expected to achieve success? Was buying that can of soda off the shelf a frictionless experience?

3. When it comes down to human connection, did I (the consumer) feel valued and were my needs anticipated?

To create relevant and unparalleled consumer experiences, brands have to evolve continuously. They have to innovate to keep pace with and meet changing consumer habits and preferences.

Netflix is a great example of how brands can succeed by evolving and anticipating changing consumer needs. The streaming service is a classic case for transforming for the digital future.

The company started in 1998 with DVD rentals by mail. A year later, it changed from pay-per-rent to a subscription model. Responding to the shift in consumer habits and their move to digital media, Netflix was quick to transform into a streaming service.

The streaming giant’s success proves that brands have to adapt and change fast to benefit from emerging consumer trends and disruptions impacting their business.

“COVID-19 has impacted several industries severely. However, the global health pandemic has also proven to be a business accelerator,” noted Bradshaw. Food delivery players such as DoorDash and Uber Eats have benefited from increased consumer demand for delivery.

San Francisco-based DoorDash, the largest food delivery company in the US, reported impressive results in 2020. In its filings, the company stated that “58% of all adults and 70% of millennials say that they are more likely to have restaurant food delivered than they were two years ago”.

According to DoorDash, COVID-19 led it to experience “a significant increase in revenue, total orders and marketplace (gross order volume) due to increased consumer demand for delivery”.

Both DoorDash and Uber Eats are tapping into emerging trends and catering to gain more customers quickly and efficiently using technology.

Five focus areas for brands to succeed in 2021

It is even more important now to identify consumers’ needs and provide a solution for their pain points.

The pandemic has allowed brands to create a frictionless consumer experience in a new world where more buyers are comfortable shopping online.

To be successful, brands need to intervene at every touchpoint in the consumer purchase cycle. They have to step in and assist people during their buying cycle to create a delightful consumer experience.

To create hassle-free and fulfilling consumer experiences for buyers, Bradshaw identified five big focus areas for brands in 2021.

Innovate to solve customer pain points: Brands have to look deep and wide for innovative solutions to solve customer problems. Listen to your customers, identify their key problems and then innovate. Brands have to design product and services in a way that would remove friction from customers’ buying process.

Delivering true value: Brands have to demonstrate true value and help improve the lives of more customers by identifying and showing the tangible benefits that a product delivers to the customer. Brands have to make it easier for customers to do business.

Drive post-purchase conversations: Brands have to create human connections through post-purchase conversations with their buyers. Brands have to make customers feel valued and seek their inputs after they have purchased the product. Post-purchase interaction with consumers help build connection, loyalty and familiarity. It’s the human connection that will get the customer to go for a repeat purchase.

Building a culture of connection: Brands have to create a culture of connection; it’s not a one-time thing. Brands have to innovate and communicate with the customers continuously. The Netflix we know today is not the same as it was before. They started out as a video rental service and then evolved by taking a humancentric approach to become the world’s leading streaming service.

Own the experience management: Brands have to own the experience management and make it a way of doing business. It pays to listen to the voice of the consumer, employee and community. Brands have to listen closely to consumers and use their feedback to improve the brand experience across touchpoints. Every time a consumer interacts with a brand, the brand has the responsibility of delivering a dependable, relatable and expected experience to the buyers, concluded Bradshaw.