Adobe has revealed new research revealing the growing importance of brands understanding customers at a personal level – and interacting with them as individuals, in real-time.
Rejecting age-based stereotypes, the majority (86 per cent) of consumers in APAC want to be treated as an individual with unique interests and preferences, with one in two consumers (57 per cent) saying they feel negatively towards brands that interact with them based on broad assumptions and labels, including age-based stereotypes such as “Millennial” and “Gen-Z”.
Adobe’s research shows the emergence of a new consumer who is not defined by age, refuses to be stereotyped, and expects to be understood as the unique person they are today. Brands seeking to meet consumer’s new expectations must ensure they are equipped with the latest customer data platform technologies, creating a complete single view of every customer capable of delivering personalised experiences in real-time.
Across Asia Pacific, customers are calling on brands to demonstrate that they know them, show them, and will help them in the moments that matter – not once, but all the time,” said Duncan Egan, vice president of marketing, Adobe Asia Pacific and Japan. “To meet that standard, brands need to unlock preferences in real-time through customer data and use it to deliver relevant interactions and content at the right moment. Scaling that across up to millions of customers is the next step.”
Time to get personal
The survey of 5000 APAC consumers (2000 Australians, 2000 Indians and 1000 Singaporeans) reveals three times as many APAC consumers feel closer to people who share their passions and interests (62 per cent) than those of a similar demographic (19 per cent). The vast majority (86 per cent) of consumers want to be seen and treated as individuals based on their unique interests and preferences. Australians felt more strongly about this, with half (49 per cent) rejecting the stereotypes of their generation and 91 per cent wanting to be seen and treated as an individual.
Change is constant
Adobe found that consumer preferences and tastes are constantly evolving, reinforcing the need for brands to move away from simple groupings based on age or other fixed demographic factors. Consumers’ collective experience over recent years and months has only added to that rate of change. Most consumers across Asia Pacific see themselves and their peer group differently from how they were pre-pandemic, and 79 per cent have adjusted their preferences and tastes even further in the past three months. The average person takes on a new interest or hobby six times a year, rising to ten times a year for people under the age of 25.
Brands’ ability to keep pace is also a significant expectation for Australian consumers. When asked, 62 per cent of Australians said they have changed their favourite brands as their tastes and financial situation has changed. Real-time visibility and delivering experiences in line with emerging preferences is vital to keeping even the most loyal customers on side.
Individuality is key
Today’s consumers have high expectations for the brands they engage with – they expect brands to see them as unique people, keep up with their changing habits and interests, and respect their privacy preferences. Almost half of Australians (46 per cent) now expect businesses to have a clear understanding of who they are as individuals, and only contact them with information relevant to what they are interested in at any given moment. More than one in two Australian consumers (59 per cent) think negatively of brands that use broad assumptions and stereotypes to engage them.
Over two-thirds of consumers (66 per cent) say they expect personalised experiences from brands they share data with, with more than half (50 per cent) wanting real-time offers relevant to them. However, 25 per cent of Australians say brands are not doing this well or are inconsistent in their efforts to keep up with their personal preferences. Regular efforts to engage consumers with bespoke offers related to their current interests is of the highest importance – more than three times as many people want frequent, thoughtful gestures (61 per cent) over bigger one-off moments (14 per cent).
