Consumers Archives - The Motherhood | A Social Media Marketing Agency

I (Nicole) recently painted a ceramic bowl at a paint-your-own-pottery studio. I’m no artist, but I enjoy challenging my creativity, and it was a fun experience with my two sisters. The floral design is definitely not perfect, but I still love it. The ceramic bowl sits in the middle of my kitchen table filled with fruit for both a cute and practical centerpiece. I have other bowls that I could use and was even gifted with a “banana hanger,” but continue to use my own hand-painted bowl.

I have fallen for what is known as the “IKEA Effect.” This phenomenon – rooted in the idea that consumers want experiences, not things – is when people place higher value on items that they’ve created or partially helped create. Perhaps you’ve felt this way after building a piece of furniture, finishing a blog post you spent hours writing or painting a room in your home. You appreciate that end product more because you contributed to its creation.

Michael Norton at Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely at Duke University have discovered that consumers will appreciate a product that they’ve built (or partially built) more than the very same product that was built by someone else. By building their own products, consumers feel proud and competent.

Research shows that all age groups (not just millennials) are happier when they buy experiences rather than items. This might seem a little counterintuitive at first, but the reality is that material things we purchase easily become part of the new normal of our lives. Suddenly there’s a bigger flat-screen TV, a faster version of the iPhone, a trendier wardrobe available – and we want it. Experiences, on the other hand, become a part of our memories, identities and connections to other people.

So what can brands do with this the idea that consumers want experiences? Ask yourself how you can make your product or service more of an experience for your consumers. As Dan Ariely says, “Labor is not just a meaningful experience – it’s also a marketable one.”

Here a few examples of brands we’ve noticed are on top of this trend:

We recently had the privilege of working with HelloFresh, a meal subscription service which provides subscribers the ingredients to make dinners that they can make on their own at home. Each meal box contains a recipe card and all of the necessary ingredients to make a dinner, eliminating the need for a trip (or several) to the store. Consumers still feel like they are cooking – and delicious, quality meals at that – but without the work of meal planning and grocery shopping. HelloFresh is not just selling a service, but an experience. Customers can enjoy cooking and trying new meals with ingredients they may not have otherwise tried.
Last year, Coca-Cola saw a rise in sales thanks to their personalized bottle campaign. The “Share a Coke” campaign featured names on cans and bottles, which gave Coke drinkers an opportunity to interact with friends. People took pictures with their personalized bottles, gave them as gifts, or even made them into baby announcements. A campaign brand executive shared, “We gave consumers an opportunity to express themselves through a bottle of Coke, and to share the experience with someone else.”
Chipotle is another great example of a company that creates experiences for their customers. The personalized experience is unlike any other fast food chain: customers can customize their meals with more than 65,000 combinations from the Chipotle menu!

Fraser Larock said it best with, “Products are 25% of what you sell. The rest is an intangible feeling.”

Do you think this trend will continue to rise? Tell us in the comments!

Have you made any dietary changes in the past year or do you plan to? If you answered “yes,” you are not alone: In a recent survey conducted by The Motherhood (full results to come!), we found that 55 percent of respondents had made or plan to make better-for-you, health-conscious dietary changes, including eating more organic and natural products, and less sugar and carbs.

Shoppers are paying closer attention to the labeling on food packaging, too, as they are increasingly concerned with what’s in the food they are feeding their children and themselves. According to Women’s Marketing research, 58 percent of consumers usually or always read the ingredients list. Most importantly, consumers are reaching for foods with no additives or preservatives, with real ingredients that they can recognize and that are minimally processed or natural.

Consumers aren’t the only ones reaching toward nutritious eating habits; big consumer brands are following that lead. To keep up with demand, many large brands are transitioning to more natural ingredients and expanded product lines. Consumer packaged goods brands are adopting new practices to appeal to health-conscious shoppers by removing artificial ingredients, expanding product lines into healthier markets, and giving priority shelf space to healthier foods. These practices are becoming a necessity to compete, penetrating the fast food and fast casual markets as a way to show intent and build sustainability.

heart_nutrition — Source: fleursvegankitchen.com

The government is also placing pressure on brands to eliminate harmful ingredients. Just this June, the Food and Drug Administration gave food brands three years to eliminate trans fats from the food supply! This effort is expected to save thousands of lives each year.

Bloggers and online influencers are fueling this trend of nutritious eating as they create content, share opinions and recipes and educate others on these topics via social media. In fact, 81 percent of U.S. women online trust Pinterest as a reliable source of information and advice, and furthermore, three out of every five boards on Pinterest are food-related, which creates a huge impact on formulating meal planning and food consumption practices.

Whole Food Blog: Fooduzzi - Pinterest — Source: Fooduzzi.com Pinterest

Social media and online platforms give brands a voice in the community to share authentically with consumers, which can have a huge impact on consumers’ opinions. Perceptions of brands and products are formed before shoppers even set foot in a store, through online and personal interactions — and more than 31 percent of food and beverage sales are directly influenced by digital.

Brands must connect with consumers on a level of trust regarding food ingredients as the demand for transparency increases. Not only do consumers want to know what’s in their food, they also want to know that it is coming from socially responsible sources.

Through the Balance Your Plate initiative, brands are educating consumers on how to make frozen meals more nutritious — providing families with tips on using frozen foods as part of wholesome, nutritious meals that meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. We’re happy to be working with California Pizza Kitchen, a brand involved in the movement, providing packaging and a website that highlights nutritious pairings as well as healthy sides and toppings for their delicious frozen pizzas.

Other brands are getting in on the action, too:

Kraft Mac & Cheese removed artificial flavors and preservatives. (Can you taste the difference?)
Jelly Belly will be releasing a line of fruit-flavored organic candies. (Yum!)
Target notified manufacturers that they would start promoting healthier options in an effort to project a healthier image.
Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Hershey’s, Smuckers, Arby’s and many more are all joining in the movement of including more natural ingredients in their products.
Chipotle became the first national restaurant chain to cook only with non-GMO ingredients.

With consumers’ powerful influence online and in person, brands are making the choice to build more health-conscious, socially responsible products in order to compete. I (Kahlianne) was lucky enough to grow up in a household where my mom was always health conscious and encouraged the development of good eating habits in my brothers and me. Have you adopted healthier eating habits in your household recently?

Featured image at the top of the post courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons user tsausawest.