August Pick of the latest Consumer Trends
Car Experiences, Conspicious Comittment, Retail for Body & Soul and Pop-Up Everywhere
Experiences: They’re now motoring
Ford Motor has created a new business unit to spearhead the carmaker’s customer experience strategy across its software, hardware and online products.
They will build a new team to bring together hardware, software and services for three Ford vehicle brands, oversee the Ford Next venture studio, and manage some ‘out-of-vehicle’ customer experiences beyond operating a vehicle.
The news comes as more carmakers reorganize to become technology service providers in the electric era. The pivot is from focusing on smooth and powerful drives to automating services such as breakdown recovery, creating dashboard displays that resemble the user interface on laptop screens, and offering subscriptions to features such as heated seats.
At the same time, car companies are reconfiguring showrooms and bolstering their websites to sell more cars online.
Some have named customer or user experience leaders to handle the complexities of designing, marketing and managing multiple customer touchpoints outside dealerships and auto shops. In 2021, GM hired Mastercard’s Donald Chesnut as its chief experience officer, and Volkswagen followed and created the same role.
A few months later, Ferrari said it had a deal with LoveFrom, the design studio owned by former Apple design chief Jony Ive.
Ford hired an Apple product design leader as its chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer in September 2021. He is joined by the former VP of services at Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Books and Apple Arcade.
‘Everyone is so focused on the EV transformation,’ Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said on a call with reporters, ‘but I keep saying the biggest change in our industry is to go to a digital product and physical services’.
The imminent arrival of self-driving vehicles brings nearer an immersive media and entertainment experience within cars. Audi cleverly referred to the free time that will become available to people in autonomous vehicles as ‘The 25th Hour’ when the automaker revealed its partnership with The Walt Disney Company to develop new media types to include in its future cars. With Tesla again taking the lead, video streaming is already part of the in-car media experience for some consumers following the innovative company’s addition of Netflix in a software update last year.
Although the precise timeframe varies depending on who you ask, self-driving cars are becoming mainstream. Once autonomous vehicles are commonplace on our roads, drivers and passengers will be much more likely to seek out video streaming to provide entertainment while their car drives to its destination.
With its fast connectivity speeds, 5G allows automakers to take in-car gaming to a new level, opening up the potential for vehicle-to-vehicle games to gain popularity amongst drivers. With self-driving cars coming sooner rather than later, playing games will likely become a significant portion of what commuters spend their ‘25th Hour’ on during daily commutes.
From music and video streaming to listening to podcasts and playing immersive games, the new era of in-car experiences will be led by media and entertainment offerings. With self-driving and 5G, we’re beginning an in-car experience revolution, with endless possibilities for innovative and fascinating entertainment to enjoy while on the road.
Conspicuous commitment
When the rules of status change and social equity are suddenly up for grabs brands can get lucky.
We’re in the midst of one of these shifts right now, moving from the self-indulgence of ‘conspicuous consumption’ to the self-denial of ‘conspicuous commitment’.
Conspicuous commitment, it seems, is becoming the next era of status.
Many consumers are devoting themselves to difficult new experiences, diets, spiritual quests, life practices and ideologies. All around us, wellness brands, food brands, medical brands and lifestyle brands are tapping into self-denial (it’s the new flex, and, no surprise, kicked off on the West coast of the US).
Flaunting material possessions and extravagant experiences is no longer an obsession; instead, we’re seeing the rise of consumers showing their focused dedication to self-work, vulnerability and personal growth.
In a time when nihilism is everywhere, when pessimism gets clicks and when post-capitalist hopelessness is trending on TikTok and every meme deals in absurdity, conspicuous commitment stands out.
There are two main hallmarks to conspicuous commitment.
The first is it’s very Me-focused. I’m not trying to change the world. I don’t have a socially altruistic angle here. I’m merely trying to better myself. At the end of the day, this is all about me, an individual, isolated.
The second hallmark is Challenge. I’m setting up challenges. Society isn’t giving these obstacles. I’m putting obstacles in my way to overcome them. I’m putting these obstacles deliberately in my way to experience what it feels like to beat the challenges.
So What?
Brands are tapping into this.
Commitment is really suitable for finance, wellness, food, athletics - actually, any sort of hobby pursuit where there’s an element of mastery. Think about it. If your category is such that somebody can get better at something, then why can’t commitment enter into the picture? Providing experiences that give people rituals, help them feel that they’re going from point A to point B, and that things are changing in their life. You’re offering them a journey. You’re framing your experience as a journey of transformation to make it feel like you’re committing to something. And another, you can give people opportunities to experience new kinds of discipline. Every brand out there and generally in culture for the last 20 years, easy, easy, easy. We want to make things as easy as possible and eliminate as much friction as possible.
Instead, conspicuous commitment says friction is good. I want to overcome the friction. So if you’re a brand that says, ‘We’re not easy, we’re difficult but worth it,’ that helps you stand out and it gives people something to believe in and to buy into. That feels like a commitment. The ways we are seeking to distinguish ourselves are evolving to prioritise discipline and personal growth over material success.
New rules?
Wellness Oasis: Retail for Body and Soul
In the year ahead, look for retail to lean into nurturing and wellbeing in a big way. Think Lululemon turning its flagship stores into mini-yoga studios, offering free classes for customers: How Sephora’s Beauty Insider community not only guides consumers through makeup trends but also offers meditation and self-care tips. Expect to see a lot more of this type of engagement that will seek to bring consumers through the door for something they won’t be able to get in a virtual or distant setting.
Pop-Up Galore: Limited Time Only
Pop-up stores are, er, well, popping up everywhere, transforming shopping into an event. In the second half of 2023, Pop Up is an ongoing strategy not just about PR but part and parcel of ongoing consumer engagement tactics.
Many brands that have yet to jump onto the Pop-Up bandwagon will finally do so, revealing Pop-Ups of their own during the 2023/2024.