Understanding consumer motives

Heading to social media sites you are confronted with an audience that is extremely vocal about their likes and dislikes.

Monitoring conversation about an industry or theme will soon allow you to track emerging trends emanating from the data presented to you.

Let’s take healthy eating, for example. 

It is a market that has a great deal of conversation, which can seem daunting in the collation of online data.

However, when you dive into the data you can see that certain themes emerge that can be of used by marketers when targeting their target audience.

If you look at this chart you can see that only 1% of consumers discussing healthy eating consider taste to be of interest to them.

Instead they are more concerned with their general health and how eating more healthily can assist in this.

Creating a marketing message that tells consumers that your product meets their wants and needs is an effective way of gaining trust from consumers.

Niche markets

Brands who conquer a growing market quickly will soon become the leaders and set the trends for those that follow.

Looking at the chart, which displays the conversation generated by consumers, it can be seen that Laraba dominates the gluten-free market. 

The emergence of niche products demonstrated how a market that may appear saturated can be further broken down.

These niche markets can quickly become a trend that grows expeditiously and become big business.

The gluten-free market, once a niche trend, is now worth over $4bn with an annual compound growth rate of 28% between 2008 and 2012.

Social media gives brands insight into a market that may seem over crowded.

However, by effectively understanding consumer interests and behaviors undiscovered trends could soon emerge.

It is essential the marketers continue to grow with their brands and the markets around them.

A trend normally ends so it is essential to know what the next big thing will be.