HOW MARKETERS CAN UNDERSTAND CONSUMER CONTEXT AND BETTER POSITION THEIR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Consumers don’t choose brands in a vacuum. Instead, their decisions are largely influenced by the macro and micro context in which their decisions take place.
The macro context includes the social, societal, cultural, economic and political environment we live in. The micro context refers to our immediate environment such as our location, the specific task we aim to tackle, the time of day and the people we are with when choosing a brand.
These elements – the chaos consumers live with every day – are the context your brand needs to understand about consumers. The stakes are high: Ipsos research shows that these contextual influences account for half (51%) of the reasons people choose a particular brand.
Expectations/Context/Empathy
Three keys to unlock brand success
• • • • •
Direct influence
Indirect influence
Influence scores
R&D across various categories & markets illustrates how context can inspire growth opportunities in multiple ways
Source: Ipsos R&D 2023 (N=17,386). Category Users/Buyers in UK, USA, Japan, France, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, South Africa and Germany across streaming, banking, credit cards, sparkling water, beer, retail, analgesics, money management platforms, skincare, automotive and white goods.
Understanding core consumers’ macro and micro contexts is key to creating a brand journey that cuts through the chaos of the modern world.
Brands looking to understand their consumers’ context should ask themselves these five questions:
What are consumers’ current expectations regarding our brand and category, and how have they evolved in recent times?
What are the key societal, cultural, and economic trends that could impact our brand, and how are we addressing them?
In what ways are brands in other categories leveraging context in their strategies, and what can we learn from them?
How do our customers’ decision-making habits influence their brand choices, and how can we adapt our marketing to align with these habits?
What specific usage occasions offer the most growth potential for our brand?
Positioning SnackEase
As we bring SnackEase to market, we first looked at the macro and micro contexts of snack consumption to determine what it should be, what audience to target and how we should position it.
On a macro level, the rise of GLP-1 weight loss drugs is reshaping the snack market as people cut down on snacks; meanwhile, cost-of-living increases are hitting lower-income Americans harder, making things less affordable. Climate change is also convincing more Americans that they should eat products that are produced more sustainably.
On a micro level, snack consumption is changing as hybrid and work-from-home situations become more entrenched, giving people more choices if they get hungry mid-afternoon. Meanwhile, many Millennials and some members of Gen Z are having children, which caused an uptick in the U.S. birthrate in the years following the pandemic; this could drive an increase in demand for kid-friendly snacks.
Understanding this context, SnackEase might be best suited as a nutrient-packed treat for people who don’t eat as much but still need fuel. Because sustainability and affordability can be conflicting goals, we’ll likely need to pick our audience. It can be sold in a larger pack since people won’t have to lug them to work, and if the flavor is right, it could become a household staple that their kids will eat as well.
