Non-Obvious Consumer Behavior Shifts for 2025 and How to Adjust Our Marketing Strategies

Non-Obvious Consumer Behavior Shifts for 2025 and How To Adjust Our Marketing Strategies

In this episode of the Vera Shafiq podcast, Vera dives into three major consumer behavior shifts anticipated for 2025 that franchise marketers must understand. Instead of predictable topics like AI and personalization, Vera explores under-the-radar changes including: (1) 'The End of Ownership' where consumers prefer access and flexibility over ownership, urging marketers to create on-demand services; (2) 'The Return of Boredom' as overstimulated consumers seek offline experiences, presenting unique engagement opportunities for brands; and (3) 'The Death of Trust' with declining consumer trust in ads and influencers, pushing brands to prove their value in every interaction. Vera also provides innovative strategies for brands to adapt, emphasizing the importance of flexibility, discovery-driven experiences, and proving trustworthiness. Tune in to rethink your marketing strategies for a successful future.

00:00 Welcome to the Vera Shafiq Podcast

00:32 Exploring Consumer Behavior in 2025

01:59 Shift 1: The End of Ownership

03:47 Shift 2: The Return of Boredom

05:50 Shift 3: The Death of Trust

07:56 Adapting Franchise Marketing Strategies

11:40 Bonus Strategies for 2025

15:11 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Transcript

Vera: 0:14

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Vera Shafik podcast, real and relevant discussions on business and marketing in the franchise space. I'm Vera Shafik, your host, and this is the podcast where we cut through the noise and get straight to what matters for franchise marketers today. Now today's episode is a pretty interesting one in the sense that we're going to take a fresh new look at something and that's consumer behavior in 2025. So how are consumers changing in terms of their behavior? But not in the way that you've probably been used to hearing this topic discussed. So we're not going to talk about the kind of the cliche topics of AI search optimization, personalization, or meeting the customer where they are. Because let's be honest, we've been hearing those topics spoken about ad nauseum a thousand times already. And I think we're ready to kind of take a fresh new perspective have a little bit of a twist on the topic, and talk about some real shifts that are happening in consumer behavior right now. But, ones that are flying under the radar because we're not really focused on them because there's so much other noise going on in our marketing day to day. So hopefully today is going to be a little bit interesting in terms of the topics that we discuss. Maybe you'll think about things slightly differently and get a little bit more insight into some of the ways that consumers are actually. doing things differently as we head into 2025 and beyond. And I think these trends are going to really define marketing success for franchise marketers and marketers in general. So let's get into it. So shift number one, the end of ownership, we're seeing a fundamental shift in how consumers think about ownership. People just don't want to own things anymore. They want access to things, they want flexibility, and then they want fluid experiences. So look at how this has already played out in industries like transportation. People don't want to own cars anymore. They want to ride on demand. So Uber and Lyft, you know, the way that we use those. services have kind of really exacerbated and really grown over time People don't want to own software anymore. They want a subscription service that they can cancel anytime. Even in industries like home services, we're seeing this mentality shift where people don't want to commit to an annual cleaning contract anymore where they can just book and go, right? Book it as you go and do kind of appointment by appointment bookings. So for franchise brands, this really means rethinking the long term customer relationship. How do you stay top of mind when customers are no longer locked into your brand? So here's what you could be doing. And what some smart franchises are already doing is building access based marketing models. Instead of pushing subscriptions or long term commitments, they're creating an on demand service or a tier of service. They're creating fractional memberships or pay as you go engagement models. And this is all about flexibility. So, you know, I think customers have realized that this is an option for them across the board. And so they go out and they're searching for flexibility in the way they do business with brands. Consumer behavior shift number two. And I'm going to dub this the return of boredom. The reason that I'm calling it the return of boredom is It's pretty interesting for years, you know, we've been seeing people just become junkies to their, mobile devices, their TVs, their audio devices. And as marketers, we've been cramming more and more content into their lives, right? With hyper personalized ads, and then we have constant notifications. AI generated recommendations. People are constantly looking for that dopamine rush of that little red flag on their phone that shows that a new message came in or a new notification came in. But I think here's the thing, consumers are exhausted and they're really overstimulated and What's happening right now is a shift to where they're actively seeking out boredom. What do I mean by that? I think people are putting their phones down or putting their phones on do not disturb spending time in silence You know, look at the trend towards more mindful practices such as meditation relaxation, doing things that involve friends and family and kind of being in the moment. And I think people generally are craving offline moments of discovery now. And this is a massive opportunity for franchise marketers because brands that figure out how to engage a consumer who's deliberately disengaging from digital noise. are going to have a huge advantage. So instead of trying to insert your brand into every digital moment, think about how you can create slow marketing experiences. And this could mean designing unexpected real world touch points, creating discovery driven experiences, or even just dialing back digital engagement and making your brand feel more intentional. Let's move on to consumer behavior shift number three. This is going to be dubbed the death of trust. So consumer trust is at an all time low. And I mean this across the board. So people don't trust ads anymore. We've seen the movement towards privacy and doing more ethical and respectful marketing because people are just fed up of the constant bombardment of ads. People actually don't trust influencers anymore. Studies have shown that, consumers are now turning against or, ignoring this influencer marketing, kick that we've been on for quite a while now. And so now that they don't trust that, They're even getting to the point where they're not trusting authentic, in air quotes, brand stories anymore. So I guess they're kind of wising up to the fact that, hey, this is just a lot of noise, a lot of people in my ear telling me what to buy, telling me what to do. I know it's not authentic and I know it's not real. And I'm tired of it. I'm going to shift into, a different mindset. And so the shift is now kind of translating into consumers no longer buying into a brand. They want brands to prove themselves every single time they interact with them. And so this means that traditional loyalty doesn't work anymore. People aren't sticking with a brand out of habit. They're constantly reevaluating their choices. So if you think you're building brand equity, the old fashioned way, think again, consumers aren't giving brands that benefit of the doubt anymore. And I think the brands that are going to win in 2025 will flip the funnel. Instead of trying to convince people to trust them, they'll focus on proving their value in micro moments. This means radical transparency. Try before you buy models and upfront proof of credibility before a consumer ever clicks the buy button. So what does this all mean for franchise marketing? All right, so we've talked about these big consumer shifts. What do we actually do with this information? I think first of all, we need to drop the traditional marketing funnel. Consumers don't move in a straight line from awareness to conversion anymore, and we've known that for a while now. I think we've been talking about the nonlinear funnel and, you know, the fragmented way that people discover brands and purchase products and services. We've been talking about that for a while, but I think this is going to be an inflection point in the way that we as marketers allow people to interact with our brands instead of these kind of regimented funnel experiences, people are discovering brands now through unexpected some of this is through AI generated recommendations, which is now possible with all that, you know, technology that we have, but then there's also things like niche communities and real world word of mouth. So instead of focusing on traditional digital ad funnels, let's start thinking about how our brand can show up where people aren't actively looking, but are passively discovering. And this could mean tapping into unconventional channels like, local WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups, hyper niche, online forums. Things of that nature rather than just relying on paid ads. And I know it's really easy and very tempting to just go to our staple digital channels, put ads on there and just hope and pray that those are going to move the needle for us. But I really do think that if we can. Put ourselves in these white space places, where our competitors are not necessarily focusing right now. I think we can move the needle even more. Second, I think we need to design for the uncommitted consumer. If people don't want long term contracts, don't fight it, right? Let's give them commitment free ways to engage with us. Let's give them a drop in service model or a short term subscription, or even a pay per use option. And that all depends, obviously, on your business model and the way that you sell your product or service. I think finding ways to create that flexibility for consumers is going to be key. And third, I think we need to use AI for unpredictable scenarios. Not just personalization. So we are, all familiar with the way personalization happens on platforms such as Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, you know, the algorithms learn our behavior and then provide us personalized recommendations of what we should be buying or what it thinks we should be watching or listening to. And I think that is kind of table stakes right now. And it's almost old hat for a lot of people. I think if we can use AI to create unpredictable moments, we are going to delight and surprise our customers and consumers even more so the trend, I think, and the big win in 2025 is going to be using AI to create moments of what I call serendipity. So instead of just recommending the obvious to a customer or consumer, use AI to deliver something unexpected or delightful that feels fresh to the consumer. And I think this is what's going to catch their attention and really get them hooked onto your brand. All right. So I'm going to add a couple more out of the box strategies as a bonus here. And this is something that I've been thinking about. And wanted to come at it from a completely different angle. So as local marketers, especially in the franchise space, the near me. advertising movement is something that we focus a lot on. And don't get me wrong. I'm not saying shut off all your Google ads near me, search keywords or anything like that. But I really think that we're a little bit too obsessed with the near me type of mentality in terms of we've got to get to our consumer and let them know that, Hey, I'm near you. I'm closest to you. Come to my business. Right? I think for years, brands have been focusing on these optimized near me searches. Pizza near me, dry cleaners near me, fitness centers near me. But I think in 2025, proximity doesn't matter if availability is an instant. So I think this is now catering to a customer that wants things right now. And I think that if you're close in proximity to a consumer, but you can't give them something that they want right now, I think you're losing. So, because we know that consumers want what's available right now, So for example, if they search for a fitness class, they just don't want to be able to see what's nearby. They want to know which ones have open slots for the next hour. Or if they're looking for a plumber, they're not really calling around for estimates. They're booking the first available slot online. That's super urgent for them, right? So I think this is a fundamental shift in how we think about local marketing. Cause everything is urgent right now. I think when people are searching for something, they want it now and they want it immediately, right? And they want it convenient. They want it flexible. And if your franchise doesn't have real time availability or instant booking built into the marketing strategy, I think you're already losing customers. And then the final bonus of how I think consumer trends and consumer behaviors are changing is what I'm going to call invisible loyalty. I think the consumers in 2025 don't want to sign up for loyalty programs anymore. I think they're fed up of that. They expect brands to remember them and track their behaviors invisibly and then reward them without them having to lift a finger. So, you know, rather than me pulling out my phone and scanning my QR code every time I buy something or me having to remember. That I have points or I have loyalty rewards. And instead of making me opt in to the program, I think the best franchise brands are going to start tracking loyalty in the background, invisibly. And AI is going to help do this undoubtedly. I think we can call it memory marketing or something like that, where AI has a memory and can recognize past customers and proactively offer them perks without them having to do anything. So I think that loyalty in 2025 and beyond isn't about points anymore. It's going to be about brands making customers feel seen, valued and heard effortlessly...... So here's the bottom line. The biggest mistake franchise marketers can make in 2025 is assuming that consumers think the same way that they did in the past. I think it's time to shift and innovate and realize that consumers are dropping commitment, they're seeking slow moments, they're questioning trust, and they're rejecting old school loyalty. If your brand is still marketing the way it did, Five years ago, three years ago, two years ago. I really encourage you to rethink that strategy. If we can build for flexibility, create discovery driven experiences and focus on trust through proof. I think that we will win the next generation of customers. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this. And whether it resonates with what you're doing. Let's continue the conversation. Please reach out email me or hit me up on LinkedIn. And if you found this episode valuable, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's coming next. Thanks for tuning in. I'll catch you in the next episode.