influencers aren’t as influential as they once were
&
the creation of modern content experiences is shown to be one of the most effective ways to build trust
But
Only 5% said they’re more likely to purchase new brands instead of brands they trust.
Is owned media the new influencer channel?
Is discovery dead?
What makes consumers trust brands?
I think this is the shine coming off TikTok.
Consumers know influencers are the new sales people and they’ve been burned one too many times by crap products, which makes them wary of unfamiliar brands too. So they’ll check out the brand’s channels to see if they’re legit, which means investing in content.
According to Etsy the trends of the season are all about whimsy, comfort, and nostalgia.
I consider this a post-pandemic rebound trifecta.
Sephora’s recent biannual sale snafu carries two good lessons.
It may be time to rethink the mass drop model since serve scaling is expensive. Ticketmaster has been getting blasted for the same thing. But if you’re going to drop, at least have decent messaging ready for when things crash.
Maybe sales can become brand holidays instead of just accounting exercises. Sephora runs two sales a year and shoppers plan for them. They don’t need to align with a shopping holiday, they are a shopping holiday for the stans. And that’s much more valuable.
Generations are garbage but the rise of dupes amongst younger shoppers is probably a sign of mainstream shopping behavior to come.
“Dupes,” short for “duplicate,” are cheaper alternatives to premium or luxury consumer products
Inflation and rising interest rates has destroyed weak brand loyalty and could make it more common for people to buy a dupe as a proof of concept purchase before shelling out for the name brand version.
The OpenAI carnival did give us marketers an early holiday gift, a reminder:
In today’s world, the story matters. You’ll either tell your story or your story will get told for you.
Being able to tell your story before someone else tells it is so important.
Who is telling yours?
(Letting the customers tell it is not a bad thing, as long as their story matches yours (or is close enough))