By Vox Ch’ng
Marketing in a Post-Pandemic World: How consumer behavior has changed due to the pandemic & how businesses can adapt their marketing strategies to address evolving customer needs and preferences |
You know something’s been a seismic shock when it’s got 92% of boomers successfully using the internet to do their shopping. While much attention has been paid to the social, political, and economic shifts wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, a more understated—and perhaps unappreciated—lasting change is one we’re all helping to drive: a shift to online commerce, and a greater demand for personalized and meaningful brand experiences.
Post-pandemic consumer behavior has become plain old consumer behavior.
White-collar remote or hybrid workers aren’t the only ones driving this change: greater acceptance of online time and phone usage among service and blue-collar workers—partially to facilitate their continued job functions, and partially as customer-facing functions in particular faced a slowdown—has also contributed to enlarging and emboldening what Microsoft’s advertising branch dubbed on Harvard Business Review a new class of “workday consumers.”
These consumers increased their demand for wellness and entertainment products, as well as services and experiences over material goods. Even older consumers (who enjoy a high proportion of nationwide disposable income) and lower-income consumers dipped into online shopping, home remodeling, and post-pandemic splurging on dining and travel. In fact, their demand for these services and experiences has stayed up against pre-pandemic levels.
Especially in the peaks of inflation, 75% of consumers tried new shopping behaviors, abandoning brand loyalty for better value. Among younger consumers in particular, that value went beyond price—more than ever say they found or are still searching for brands sharing their values on social and sustainability issues. Health and wellness brands, local businesses, and small/local and veteran or minority-owned businesses are also increasingly searched or filtered for on platforms like Yelp and Google Maps.
For businesses that haven’t yet caught up—or abstained, thinking these changes in consumer preferences would be transitory—the forecast is clear: an online presence increasingly means not just a website or social media presence but online ordering/pick-up/delivery, buy-now-pay-later options, and multi-platform accessibility (e.g., being findable on Amazon, social media, and in-person platforms). Increasingly, advertising entails building a relationship with the target consumer—understanding the consumer’s lifestyle and values, and emphasizing a personalized match with each consumer.
Post-pandemic marketers also have the deeper task of identifying which segments consumers fall into—and thus which products they are aware of, looking for, and willing to splurge on—and targeting these groups accordingly. Customers often demand personalized experiences from brand interactions and overwhelmingly respond to targeted advertisements on multiple platforms, e.g. products seen on both a short TikTok video and a Google search result.
Tools like engagement analytics and consumer profiling/tracking have become increasingly available to small- and medium-sized businesses through third-party firms like LiveRamp, which leverage access to large amounts of consumer interaction and purchasing data to identify and infer trends, patterns, and individuals, while larger firms are developing their own in-house data capabilities.
Search engine optimization is another growing service that positions brands to appear more frequently and attract greater engagement when related or relevant search terms are used: optimization may involve anything from buying placement on Google searches for “spicy food near me” to placing popular content tags on ecommerce app listings. Businesses must increasingly focus on optimization both on broader web searches (e.g. through Google) and online platforms (Google Maps, Amazon, TikTok Shop, Yelp, etc.).
The pandemic and resulting economic upheaval have wholly reshaped consumer behavior and preferences: across demographics, consumers overwhelmingly expect and reward businesses that embrace ecommerce to provide accessible and personally meaningful experiences. To understand and target individual consumers to meet this new demand, a full online service experience and embrace of data analytics and search optimization are just the tip of the iceberg. Businesses must stay agile and open to innovation to position themselves for long-term success in an increasingly digital and dynamic marketplace.
Microsoft Advertising, “Adapt Your Digital Marketing Strategy to Post-Pandemic Consumer Behaviors” Harvard Business Review, 30 Jun 2022.
Das, Sarkar, & Debroy, “Impact of COVID‐19 on changing consumer behaviour: Lessons from an emerging economy” International Journal of Consumer Studies, 14 Feb 2022.
Roth, “What retailers must know about consumers over age 50 — Part 1” Digital Commerce 360, 17 Jul 2020.
Robinson & Vranica, “Emerging consumer trends in a post COVID 19 world” WSJ CFO Network Summit, 7 Jun 2021.
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