Blog articles about Technology

TL;DR

• 32% of consumers have cancelled a digital entertainment or fitness subscription only to rejoin later
• Nearly 1 in 10 survey respondents cancel because they could not pause
• Providing pausing options can continue the relationship with the consumer and makes it more likely for consumers to rejoin, or reactivate

In a recent survey of digital entertainment and fitness service subscribers, 72% of respondents considered these subscriptions to be discretionary spending. In an era of high inflation and fierce competition in the digital subscription space, it’s important to explore what’s driving consumer behavior related to churn: 

• Why are consumers cancelling subscriptions to digital entertainment and fitness services? 
• What do consumers expect from their experience with digital subscription services? 
• What does it take for consumers to rejoin after cancelling their digital subscriptions? 

Knowing these insights is key to helping your subscription marketing strategy and to decreasing customer churn. 

How do you best develop compelling B2B messaging that will motivate customers globally – in a crowded online marketplace?

Such was the challenge Google faced when it set out to improve its marketing communications for retailers last year – to make its messaging approach more consistent across its various channels.

In preparing for a global retail marketing campaign, Google realized it needed to make it easier for retailers to understand what the company could offer and why they were the best partner to help them grow.

Why do people choose one product or service over another? What needs or objectives are tapped into when you consider buying or recommending one brand over another?

Whether your brand targets consumers or professionals, understanding how decision behavior works and systematically applying its principles can help you build more effective strategies to drive customer acquisition, brand loyalty and continued growth.

We recommend you tap into “habitual” behavior to reinforce positive habits or break the ones that don’t benefit your brand and analyze “deliberate” behavior to assess how, where and when your brand can intervene.

Here we explain how decision-making works and the behavioral steps that are involved in making choices. Read on to learn how leveraging these insights to reinforce or disrupt habits can help your brand grow.

Consumer behavior is usually embedded in daily habits; sometimes consumers make more deliberate decisions. COVID-19 triggered a dramatic change in the context of consumer decision making: Many daily habits have come to an abrupt halt; more decisions are now deliberate.

Your company is probably feeling the immediate impact of these behavioral shifts and you may be charged with adapting short-term marketing strategies accordingly.

A real-world market research case study with Big Data

The market research industry is no stranger to consumer data. However, the scale of “Big Data” generated through online behavior brings a host of challenges and opportunities for insights professionals and marketers alike. As consumers leave an endless supply of digital breadcrumbs online, how can we most effectively analyze and act on this behavior at the individual level?

Such was the challenge ArchDaily.com faced after amassing 20 terabytes of Big Data over the past three years. As the leading architectural website worldwide, interpreting this data was much more complicated than it had anticipated. With 150-200 million-page views a month, the company could see behavior volumes. However, ArchDaily.com didn’t know what was driving user behavior. It wanted to better predict architectural trends for and identify key drivers to optimize its online content strategy.

Today’s subscription economy not only presents consumers with more choices, but also more personalized experiences. For telecom, tech and online brands these heightened expectations place even greater pressure on maximizing the revenue per user.

Whereas in the past you could position your products and services based on traditional demographic insights, those rules no longer apply today — especially when it comes to pricing.

Using a subscription pricing model to lay stable foundations

Funda is the top online real estate platform in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. It’s been described as the “Amazon of houses” in its homeland, because it’s said that almost every house that’s sold in the country will have been advertised on its platform first.

The online leader generates revenue by charging realtors to promote residential and commercial inventory on its platform. When there are more homes than buyers, properties are advertised longer and funda sees revenue soar. However, when the market is booming, properties sell quickly, listings come and go on the platform, and revenues dip.

Key takeaways on voice and digital assistants from ESOMAR Congress 2018

Artificial Intelligence, voice and digital assistants were all the buzz at ESOMAR Congress 2018. The promise is that when these technologies come together in digital personal assistants, they’ll make our lives easier, remove our “choice stress” and will become our trusted advisors. Sign me up! But, how will voice technology affect consumer behavior and how will brands tackle this new decision environment?

Our recent voice trends research included qualitative interviews with digital and eCommerce experts on this very topic. At ESOMAR, some of these respondents participated in our “Brands on Fire – How to adapt to the new market reality of AI platforms” panel. Danone, Wehkamp, Beiersdorf, Ericsson and SKIM had a lively discussion on the digital implications of AI for brands, marketers and insight professionals. I, along with Yasemin Ozdemir, had the honor to moderate the panel. Here’s what you missed and need to know.

Voice technology and Artificial Intelligence were all the buzz at IFA, Germany’s largest consumer electronics show in September. Established players launched new products in Europe and there were a few surprise offerings from new market entrants.

Google introduced its premium smart speaker -the Google Home Max- here in Germany, along with a bilingual voice assistant feature that responds to queries in English and German interchangeably. And telecom giant Deutsche Telekom introduced plans for its own smart speaker activated with the magic words “Hallo Magenta.” This introduction is the first smart speaker coming from a German company and includes Amazon’s voice assistant “Alexa” too.

As I was setting up our new office in the heart of Berlin, I reflected on how much technology has disrupted consumer behavior from the time I grew up here. Is Voice all hype in Germany? How and will German consumers embrace these AI technologies? What are the implications for brands?

My team and I recently set out to answer these questions in Germany, and also in the US and UK. We explored  from the consumer and brand perspective.

Here I’m sharing the Germany insights, which we unveiled at ESOMAR Congress 2018 in Berlin.

Originally designed for the desktop environment, conjoint research on mobile requires a more innovative approach

Ensuring your market research survey is mobile-friendly is no longer a “nice-to-have” for insights professionals. With more survey respondents opting for smartphones and tablets over computers, this requirement poses an ever greater challenge for conjoint analysis.

Conjoint is the go-to methodology for measuring customer preference for product features, to determine how pricing changes affect product demand and to forecast likely acceptance of new innovations. However, it was originally designed for desktop and doesn’t marry well with the smaller screen sizes and shorter attention spans of today’s mobile respondents.