Global consumers have new motivations beyond price and quality following the pandemic. They are ready to abandon brands that don’t support their values, and pay more attention to those that do.
A majority of consumers have reimagined their values and purpose over the past 18 months. Consumers will leave brands that don’t recognize their new priorities—and they will pay more for those that do. It’s time to ask: What will motivate consumers to stay? What will motivate them to pay?
Accenture recently surveyed more than 25,000 consumers across 22 countries, with follow-up focus groups in five countries. Just 17 percent of consumers—those dubbed the “Traditional”—said they were unchanged by the pandemic. Fifty percent of consumers say that the pandemic caused them to rethink their personal purpose and re-evaluate what’s important to them in life. These consumers—dubbed the “Reimagined”—are changing their buying habits accordingly.
According to the survey, 50 percent of the Reimagined say that many companies disappointed them by not providing enough support and understanding of their needs during challenging times, versus 14 percent of the Traditional. Seventy-two percent of the Reimagined expect companies they’re doing business with to understand and address how their needs and objectives change during times of disruption, versus 27 percent of the Traditional.
While price and quality have been the dominant motivations in consumers’ decision-making, they have lessened in influence among Reimagined consumers. Among the Reimagined, 66 percent said they now expect brands to take more responsibility in motivating them to live by their values and to make them feel more relevant in the world, versus 16 percent of Traditional consumers.
Seventy-two percent of the Reimagined expect the companies to understand how their needs and objectives changed during this time of disruption and to address those new needs, versus 27 percent of the Traditional. Consumers also expect to see faster response times and more attention to their individual needs. More than half of the Reimagined say they would switch brands if it doesn’t create clear and easy options for contacting customer service.
Nearly half (46 percent) of the Reimagined say they would pay more to support a retail brand that takes visible actions to have a positive societal impact. The Reimagined also want to see that companies stood for something during the pandemic, that they are clear about how they want to contribute to society, and that they treat their employees well. Consumers want to avoid residual guilt about a purchase, and ensure that the company they are buying from is aligned with their values.