Bette Davis says: “Marketers, fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for consumers”

As an avid student of marketing to both business-to-business and consumers, I’ve been reading a lot about trends that will endure post COVID-19.

It seems that although consumers are embracing new behaviors and habits, they are also sticking to tried and true brands that have stuck with them in past crises. New brands have got to establish emotional connections with their audience even more quickly than in normal times. Zoom is an amazing example of this, as the word “zoom” has instantly become a part of our everyday lexicon.

Since we are all stuck at home, many of us are becoming excellent do-it-yourselfers, and learning how to cook, sew, bake, and fix things that we didn’t have time to fix before. Websites and You Tube channels demonstrating “how-to” are generating tremendous traffic and offer great opportunities for brands that understand our need to act and do.

I recently saw an amazing statistic that noted that nearly 40% of current on-line grocery shoppers made their first grocery purchase in March. I’m not aware of the exact numbers for telemedicine, but doctors and hospitals are also seeing a sea change in consumer behavior. Marketers and brands that understand that consumers are easily adapting digital offerings that used to be only available via old brick and mortar entities will be successful in the post COVID-19 era.

Privacy and safety have always been competing concepts in normal times. In the current COVID-19 and beyond, it is possible that the need for safety will surpass the need for data privacy. That being said, brands like Facebook and Google that start promoting safety over the privacy of their data may see a reversal of consumers’ perception of techs “bad boys”.

Ultimately, no one really knows how much our lives will change in the post COVID-19 era. To paraphrase Bette Davis, “Marketers, fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for consumers.”