Future of Consumer series: Big data-driven consumer insights

Companies in consumer products and retail sectors often compete for market share through controlling channels and occupying shelves. In the era of new retail, consumers are exposed to various information touchpoints, which drives companies to figure out how to attract consumers' attention, shifting away from shelf competition. As consumers' attention is not equal to market share, competitive companies are considering how to deeply understand and influence consumers' perception based on consumer-centered strategies. Consumers' higher awareness of their needs stimulates consumer products and retail companies to implement "consumer-centered" strategies instead of "brand and product-centered" approaches, moving away from competing for shelves to attracting attention and influencing perception.    

Traditional research collects consumer information through questionnaires or focus groups. Although typical, these methods are increasingly questioned in terms of effectiveness and applicability, especially when it comes to consumer products and key issues of concern for retailers:   

• How to identify core and potential consumers?
• How to have a good knowledge of consumers' preference?
• How to understand consumers' experience expectation?

With years' experience in digital-driven new retail as well as big data development and application, Deloitte is committed to helping consumer product and retail companies combine internal CRM or marketing information and external data from e-commerce and social media platforms to obtain a better understanding of consumers and their unsatisfied expectation. Besides, Deloitte's "Future Consumer" Lab can assist companies in transferring consumer insights into practical strategies and action plans aligning to consumers' needs.  

The competition between brands will be multi-dimensional. Brands have to keep up with the change of consumers, competition pattern as well as the evolution of digital ecosystem, and actively build end-to-end consumer value chain, to truly embrace the "consumer-centered" strategy. To develop the value chain for consumers of the future, brands should focus on improving consumption experience from five aspects covering store, product, ordering, fulfilment and engagement. Undoubtedly, big data-driven consumer insights will become the most important step for brands to go through the whole process from comprehensive insights to strategic design and execution.