As digital transformation continues to accelerate, consumers are evolving too. The brands and advertisers that can connect and understand their audiences will be the ones that flourish, writes Ellie England, Commercial Director at Microsoft Advertising.
The way we work and where has undergone a transformation like no other, not only in accelerating the digitisation of our lives, but also the merging of work with our personal life, giving a new outlook on ‘work-life’ activities. With flexibility now firmly embedded into consumers every day, the ties that bind have loosened.
Many individuals have left the capital for alternative cities and villages both on and off our shores. Whilst some might claim a North / South divide still exists in the UK, the cluster of talent and skills has been firmly displaced around the country, proliferated even more so by remote and hybrid work. Alongside this, consumer behaviour and buying patterns have also adapted.
The boundary between work and life has blurred, with a fundamental and permanent shift in how consumers spent their time online, introducing to us the new ‘Workday Consumer’.
For advertisers, this has meant they have had to find ways to keep up with this change in consumer outlook and ensure their business evolves in line. This has been seen both in strategies to retain and attract staff, as well as reach consumers with their newly forged behaviours and buying cycles. Pre-pandemic tactics now no longer work as consumer journeys have been flipped upside down.
Say hello to the Workday Consumer
The Workday Consumer was identified by surveying over 5,000 employed consumers who had made an online purchase via their PC throughout this past year. This new individual unapologetically switches between employee, personal and consumer modes throughout the days: 62% regularly researched or purchased products and services during their normal working day.
Fueled by the collision of work and personal lives, 63% spent more time on their work PC than before the pandemic with almost 60% noting they typically mix work and personal tasks in their work time to-do lists.
As a result, this presents a big opportunity for advertisers who must connect with this individual as they shift seamlessly between work and life tasks. That’s a big change in how they need to do business. Advertisers will need to re-evaluate their platforms, personas, as well as budgets and how they’ll do that depends on their business objectives, brand, and acquisition goals.
This month we will see football frenzy hit the UK, with many of the matches due to air during office hours. Businesses should expect an increase in PC usage time, with many expected to keep their emails and spreadsheets on one screen, while following a match in the background on another, or they may even use the time to multitask and do online Christmas shopping.
It’s clear the Workday Consumer will play out predominantly in the months and even years ahead and the reliance of the PC will become ever more prominent as we seamlessly switch between work and life tasks. There’s an opportunity here for brands to tie into these cultural moments, but also add a local or regional flavour to their advertising campaigns to further meet consumers where they are at.
Marketing with purpose to a new modern identity
Marketers and brands must consider the Workday Consumer within the audiences they are trying to reach today. This is the same person that has found new ways to care for their family, relishing the flexibility that has come with remote working and they are located all over the UK.
As the Workday Consumer becomes the new modern work identity for many, research also identified this individual is seeking purpose, shared values and balance, with an expectation of the brands they buy from to stand for something more than just their products and services. Here we see ‘the empowered activist’; consumers who make purchase decisions and spend money with companies that align with their own values.
No matter what task they’re accomplishing, this persona is seeking purpose in their personal and work life. The decision drivers for how they decide which brands to use has largely focused on authenticity and standing up for what they believe in, ultimately going by the mantra, “doing what you say you will do.”
Purpose is personal. Brands must consider that employees are also consumers of their company too and they are “buying-into” shared values, purpose and meaningful work. Work has become a place where people not only serve the customers they are reaching out to but also a place where they should feel empowered to live out their purpose and the impact they wish to have.
Who we’ll buy from, who we’ll work for, how we’ll work and who we’ll do business with, guides our purpose and it’s our reason for being. Brands should consider the Workday Consumer as not just people they market to, but also people they can employ. So what does this really mean to the culture they provide and the organisation they run to maintain and attract talent?
We have all seen that the ability to work from home for at least part of the week has led some employees to move away from big cities, and specifically London in search of more space, or lower overheads, or both.
However, on the flip side of this, it has also exacerbated the challenges for recruitment in the North. Before the pandemic, it wasn’t possible to live in Manchester and work in London, but now if you only have to be in the office for one or two days a week then it is possible to live further away from the workplace.
This means that employers in the North can feasibly take job offers in London, which often comes with a salary weighting, therefore rethinking flexible working through the lens of productivity rather than presence in the office is critical.
The best marketers know that new consumer behaviours will give them a chance to build better strategies. Brands have an opportunity to stand out by understanding that consumers now intertwine work and life. They must also consider the engagement opportunities that exist across the media landscape in order to connect with consumers wherever they are, in a way that resonates with them.
Despite this requirement, there is still a lack of optimism. More than two thirds (67%) of global advertisers rated their own brands as novices or intermediates in building in-depth understandings of different personas – so it’s clear there is still work to be done to ensure real success.
The brands and advertisers that connect and understand their audiences as they shift between work and personal tasks, will be the ones that flourish. Life has been shaping how people prioritise things.
It’s shaping how we spend time and what we spend money on, in other words, what we value. Those who lead with purpose driven, authentic marketing that connects with this changing consumer behaviour and show they understand the values of the people they strive to serve will gain trust, loyalty and commercial resilience in these challenging times.
