14.05.2020

Get ahead by getting inside the minds of your consumers

With consumer purchase journeys becoming increasingly versatile, knowing which channels and which retailers are relevant for consumers – as they move from research to final purchase – is always a winning strategy.

Consumer purchase journeys are not what they used to be. And that’s not harking back nostalgically to the simplicity of the pre-online days – it could easily apply to even a few years ago. The fact is, the number of digital channels that consumers have at their fingertips is ever-increasing – and even going beyond their fingertips as voice-commerce begins to emerge. For example, 31% of recent buyers in the UK intend to use their smarthome device to track orders and delivery updates but only 7% intend to use it to actually make a purchase 1.

Couple that with the fact that when it comes to technology and durables products, the “ROPO effect” (Research Online Purchase Offline) is still going strong. In the Germany TV market, for example, over half of those who researched a TV online actually went and bought one in an offline retailer 2.

This all goes to say, as touchpoints increase so too does the versatility of purchase journeys:  consumers are channel hopping more than ever to search, browse and eventually buy products. This increased complexity presents certain challenges for businesses looking to drive sales in such a demanding and fast-paced environment. The choice of where to focus your efforts when it comes to marketing, sales, product and category management may seem overwhelming. Having an easily accessible, holistic view of purchasing behavior that delivers immediate answers will allow you to decode the purchase journey and stay ahead of the game

1 GfK Consumer Insights Engine- sample of 519 recent buyers in the UK who had purchased a smarthome device between Oct.-Dec. 2019

2 (Source: GfK Consumer Insights Engine- sample of 7,993 recent buyers in Germany who had purchased a TV in 2019).

Getting inside the mind of your consumer

Making the right business decisions requires a deep understanding of consumer journeys: from purchase triggers to which channels and brand/product touchpoints consumers use during their search and evaluation to moment of purchase and beyond. But waiting weeks for traditional ad-hoc studies to give you some behavioral insights leaves you behind the curve.

Decision-makers in the tech and durable product categories need instant access to up-to-date global insights in order to make quick and reliable strategic decisions. This is where the GfK Consumer Insights Engine will prove invaluable in delivering immediate answers to questions like:

Which consumers do I target?

Which choice drivers should my messaging and product design focus on?

Where do I prioritize spend to maximize my brand visibility?

Which retailer relationships should I prioritize?

How the GfK Consumer Insights Engine adds the who and why

As Rudyard Kipling wrote in The Elephant’s Child: “I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How And Where and Who.” Well, whether sales, marketing or product teams, these six insights can also teach you all you need to know to build a winning strategy. The what, where and when are taken care of via GfK’s robust POS insights - the GfK Consumer Insights Engine enhances the where then adds the who and why.

In practice, that means sales managers will be able to optimize product offerings across key retailers thanks to insights at a retailer level. Marketing teams will have the insights to better understand consumer profiles and identify the right targets (the who) as well as insights to leverage purchase drivers and influence purchase decisions (the why). And here’s the how: by harvesting quarterly data from millions of consumers around the world.

The GfK Consumer Insights Engine combines active and passive data sources to capture consumer insights across 13 markets worldwide focusing on 18 tech and durable product categories. It survey screens approximately 500,000 consumers globally each quarter to find recent buyers in any channel, calibrates to point of sale data unique to GfK and collects over 1 million online reviews from the world’s biggest retailers. All insights are then collected into one integrated digital platform, providing trusted and actionable insights to key business needs at speed.

An easily accessible, holistic view of purchasing behavior

So whether it’s retailer partnerships, targeting and opportunity sizing, product features & messaging or touchpoint guidance, as the industry’s most comprehensive and integrated source of consumer insights, GfK’s Consumer Insights Engine will help your business answer a wide range of crucial needs. All by getting inside the mind of your consumer.