Faced With Cautious Affluent Consumers, Nimble Marketing Matters. At the start of the year, it’s generally standard practice for marketing organizations to do a postmortem on the previous year and think about how they’re going to apply their learnings to the year ahead. It’s possible that consumers may take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to major purchases such as luxury goods, homes, and autos at the beginning of the year. Even if an analysis of 2016 indicates that marketers should be aggressive in their ad strategy and spending toward affluent audiences, it could be better to take a realistic approach, based on the consumer climate. Rather, a key for marketers right now is to take the steps that will help them to maintain flexibility throughout the year to respond to changes in the economy. This includes examining the kinds of data they already have, as well as what they’d like to have for campaigns in the year ahead. Do they have the right tools and the right data? But if the brand builds a flexible strategy, the retailer can adapt its messaging and pivot its audience targeting to another segment with more proclivity to spend. Rather than aim its messages at new buyers, these retailers can adopt messaging that says “change your home to the one you want,” to target existing homeowners. Having the right tools, staff, and data in place will allow marketers to adapt quickly if they need to.
At the start of the year, it’s generally standard practice for marketing organizations to do a postmortem on the previous year and think about how they’re going to apply their learnings to the year ahead. But 2017 has the potential to be a very different year, as the U.S. undergoes a political transition that could have a wide-ranging impact on the economy.
It’s possible that consumers may take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to major purchases such as luxury goods, homes, and autos at the beginning of the year. As a result, marketers might want to exhibit some degree of restraint as well. Even if an analysis of 2016 indicates that marketers should be aggressive in their ad strategy and spending toward affluent audiences, it could be better to take a realistic approach, based on the consumer climate. That doesn’t mean abandoning any form of assertive marketing. Rather, a key for marketers right now is to take the steps that will help them to maintain flexibility throughout the year to respond to changes in the economy.
A practical assessment of existing marketing data and tools is the best place to start, as it can help illustrate any additional data and strategic resources needed to better react to, and capitalize on, change, while also potentially reducing risk. Marketers have a great opportunity to look across the landscape for multiple strategies they may want to adopt as the year goes on. This includes examining the kinds of data they already have, as well as what they’d like to have for campaigns in the year ahead.
What other adjacent data sets might be related to their business…
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