Marketing Consumer Insights

Trend - Brands are launching platforms that automate media and customer outreach campaigns with AI. These platforms streamline lead detection, determine the optimal method to reach out, and send the message at an effective time. These enable AI marketing for brands without technical backgrounds.

Insight - Digital marketing continues to grow in competitiveness each year, with more businesses, channels, and voices reaching out to customers each day. In this competitive sector, businesses continually search for a tool that can give them an advantage over competitors. Businesses prioritize freeing up worker time for more intricate tasks, automation of simpler tasks, and reduction of expenses. These businesses are gravitating towards AI platforms to automate a large range of marketing tasks.

Trend - Adult Gen Z are frequent travelers, having grown up with social media that normalized travel and escapism. Their travel preferences are shaped by cost and personalized experiences--and brands are responding by aligning themselves with Gen Z's interests and/or helping them finance trips.

Insight - Social media has played a significant role in shaping Gen Z consumers, which is why they prioritize travel despite being early in their careers and in an uncertain economy. As more Gen Z enter the workforce, brands in the travel industry must adapt to cater to younger travelers. This includes experiences that align with their specific interests, low costs, and planning apps that cater to Gen Z's tech-focused and more impulsive approach to travel.

Trend - Products in fresh food aisles tend to come in single-use plastic packaging, but F&B brands are now offering paper-based packages, trays and sealing wraps for these items. These packages are recyclable or biodegradable, and don't contain the polyethylene film that's common in paper packaging.

Insight - Eco-conscious consumers are becoming more mindful of the fact that seemingly small consumption habits, like buying single-use plastics, make a difference on their environmental impact over time. Though more consumers are opting to shop sustainably, most are still choosing to make changes to their day-to-day purchases and habits on a micro scale for reasons like cost and efficacy. This gives brands the opportunity to align their sustainability goals with consumers' rituals and routines.

Trend - New artificial intelligence (AI)-powered startups are launching tools that create detailed custom videos from detailed text prompts. These tools use generative AI to quickly create and edit videos to the users' liking, which is excellent for creative expression and advertising alike.

Insight - With the influx of artificial intelligence services, consumers and businesses alike are becoming increasingly familiar with integrating this technology into daily tasks. These generative AI tools offer near-instant results for consumers with creative ideas, individual startups, or even large-scale businesses working on ad campaigns. The promise of fast, affordable, personalized products from generative AI has led to consumers gravitating towards these services over alternatives.

Trend - Brands in the men's health space are launching sexual health products with discreet packaging and branding. These treatments are for conditions such as erectile dysfunction without exposing the consumer. From the shipping packaging to the branding, the products are masked for privacy.

Insight - While research suggests that one in ten men in the United States are faced with erectile dysfunction-related challenges at some point, most men are hesitant to discuss the topic as acknowledging these conditions can make men feel embarrassed. However, these men still desire treatment and solutions, as they don't want to be inhibited by symptoms in the most crucial moments. As a result, these men are gravitating towards discreet products that hide the treatment purpose on the package.

Trend - Startups are combining multiple artificial intelligence (AI)-based services into comprehensive platforms that generate custom advertisements. These use image, video, and text-generation to create entire marketing campaigns, streamlining the process for clients, and saving on time and budget.

Insight - Brands are often tasked with creating marketing campaigns with heavily limited time and budgets, leading to less-than-ideal outcomes in order to deliver on time. These brands desire more efficient services in each aspect, as increasing the ROI on advertising is a top priority for marketing departments. However, these brands cannot sacrifice decision-making control, margin of error, or quality, creating a demand for low-cost, customizable, quick marketing services powered by AI.

Trend - In recent years, brands have adapted to demands for inclusion by incorporating it into their core values. Inclusion is taken even further by brands that are adopting intersectionality into campaigns or business models--offering a more nuanced and thoughtful approach to DEI.

Insight - Calls for inclusion and equity within a wide range of North American industries have been heavily influenced by Gen Z and Millennials' social impact. These generations are informed consumers, socially conscious, and generally hold progressive values--resulting in them being more discerning shoppers. As consumers, they're more likely to trust brands that demonstrate an understanding and appreciation for their experiences, needs, and personal values.

Trend - Gen Z-focused brands are launching menstruation-inspired products and campaigns that uplift and empower women, aiming to destigmatize menstruation through wholesome branding and marketing. This helps younger women take more pride in their bodies and not resent the menstruation process.

Insight - Marketing practices for menstruation care products are traditionally subtle, using codewords and drawing attention away from the menstruation process wherever possible. This causes young women to feel ashamed and feel they should resent menstruation. These young women want to be knowledgeable and aware of their bodies while feeling empowered, placing pressure on brands to create more uplifting products that do not shy away from the reality of being a woman experiencing menstruation.

Trend - Shoppable short-form video content and ads are becoming increasingly prominent digital strategies among brands across industries. This content merges traditional ads with modern tech habits--offering customers more engaging and convenient forms of online shopping.

Insight - The ecommerce industry's growth has been heavily influenced by the convenience of shopping online. However, what's kept brick-and-mortar relevant is that it lets customers test, sample, and see products in person--reducing hesitancy during purchase and making consumers more confident in what they choose to buy. Now, consumers are turning to brands with platforms that offer the convenience of online shopping, while using interactive tech to more effectively showcase product features.

Trend - Retailers are seamlessly integrating text message shopping services into their business models. This allows customers to browse, purchase, and pay for products directly through a text message rather than using a mobile storefront application or website. This reduces online order friction.

Insight - While many consumers are familiar with mobile storefront applications, these apps often present barriers to customers that aren't intimately familiar with the technology. Additionally, navigating and shopping on small phone screens is difficult for these groups as well. As a result, retailers are offering seamless shopping services via SMS messages, allowing customers to interact with chatbots that will navigate the online shopping ecosystem, reducing friction and increasing retention.