How Consumers Choose Brands Today

In his 25-year journey in the marketing industry, Pete Stein has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to helping world-class brands deliver extraordinary customer experiences. As global president of Merkle and dentsu’s CXM Practice, Pete leads the development and delivery of its full breadth of capabilities that drive customer experience transformation. Pete partners across regions and practice areas to shape Merkle’s brand strategy and go-to-market value proposition.

Pete is responsible for global annual revenue approaching $2 billion and a workforce spanning 16,000 employees across 30+ countries, encompassing the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. His purview comprises a broad array of CXM competencies, including technology and customer strategy, customer data management, analytics and insights, enterprise AI, commerce and content platforms, digital experience design, CRM and customer service, messaging, and loyalty and promotions.

Influencing today’s fickle and unforgiving consumer on behalf of a brand can be difficult. As marketers, we have more opportunities than ever to connect with customers, but unfortunately budgets are not unlimited. If you’re living with this reality, it’s worth asking your audience directly for their preferences – where they want their experiences, what’s important to their decision-making processes, and how your brand can align to these expectations. 

In Q4 of 2023, Merkle’s in-house research team crafted a global survey of 2,100 consumers. Each respondent had interacted with a brand across one or more of 18 categories, including retail, healthcare, financial services, and automotive. Our aim was to discover how consumers select brands today, and what influenced their decisions. 

Influential Sources of Information

We asked which sources of information were most important to a winning (i.e., chosen, purchased) brand experience. On average, only 2.5 sources of information influenced a brand decision, and this number didn’t deviate much across industries. Top sources included a company’s website or mobile app (43%); the consumer’s peers (33%); direct communications from the company/brand (26%); and digital media (25%). The least influential sources included audio media (7%); outdoor advertisements (11%); and print media (13%). Sources such as comparison-shopping websites, sales reps, TV media, and social media ranked in the middle. 

Information sources’ impact differs across industries. For example, a company’s digital properties are significantly more influential to consumers in market for tech & telecom and media & entertainment than other industries. Peers impact decision-making for nonprofit consumers at a significantly higher rate than other sectors. Reviews/rating websites are unsurprisingly more influential in automotive and tech & telecom than in nonprofit.

Attributes of Winning Brand Experiences

When respondents were asked to rank the importance of various elements of their brand experiences, cost-effectiveness (55%), convenience (46%), and consistency (40%) rose to the top. Alignment to personal values and beliefs and fun/enjoyable ranked the lowest, at 22% and 27% of respondents, respectively. These attributes were, however, more likely to be selected by younger audiences – something brands should heed and monitor over time.  

Where Brands Can Improve Experiences

On average, consumers cite the post-purchase stages of their journey as needing the most improvement. Apart from those in retail & CPG, consumers in all other industries ranked fixing/maintaining as the first or second area for improvement for brands. Interestingly, consumers across all industries prefer human-led interactions when requesting support, indicating that brands may be too reliant on poorly executed post-purchase digital tactics. 

We see this as a huge opportunity for differentiation – ensuring that the calibre of experience remains high after someone has purchased from your brand. If you rely on digital tactics post-purchase, and you’re struggling to retain customers, it may be worth examining the tech you’re using and whether it offers the same familiarity and responsiveness one might expect from a human brand representative. 

Preferences for and Impact of CX Tech

We asked respondents to select customer experience (CX) tech they had interacted with in the past two-three years and how well it had impacted their brand experiences. High-usage/high-impact tech (i.e., >20% of respondents had interacted with the tech and of those, >75% found it impactful) included mobile apps, customer loyalty/rewards programs, and personalised product recommendations. 

Low-usage/high-impact tech (i.e., <20% of respondents had interacted with the tech and of those, >75% found it impactful) included smart home devices, voice commerce, natural language processing (NLP) platforms, and metaverse, AR, or VR experiences. 

Low-impact tech (both in high usage and low usage) included self-service checkout, personalised emails, chatbots, personalised ads, and video chat platforms.

Brands should pay attention to the lesser-used, high-impact pieces of tech. While some may be inappropriate for a brand’s audience, those that enable meaningful connections with consumers can be vital assets to CX programs. 

Concerns Around AI

There’s a lot of excitement and scepticism around AI. Some of the clients we work with are reluctant to adopt standalone AI tech (versus AI that existing software partners have used to enhance their products). This makes sense, as there are many unknowns around the limits of AI’s utility and its likelihood to cause harm. 

When it comes to AI use, consumers are most concerned with security and surveillance. 

A little under 60% of respondents were highly concerned about security, such as whether their data was protected and if the AI tech could be hijacked to cause harm. These respondents tended to be older (55+). 

Around 50% of respondents worried that AI tech could be used to surveil them. This could mean recording or tracking an individual using the tech. Surveillance was a more prominent concern among younger audiences (18-34). 

Any AI implementation must be met with a strategic framework to prevent these concerns from becoming reality. Brands should commit to the use of “ethical AI,” which is a set of guidelines that ensure AI is used in a way that respects fundamental values, such as individual rights, privacy, nondiscrimination, and non-manipulation. 

As consumers’ preferences continue to evolve, brands need to evolve their perspective on control. Instead, they must listen, anticipate, react, and adapt. There are plenty of tools to facilitate experiences, and many avenues to garner feedback from customers. It’s up to you to solicit preferences from your audience and deliver optimised experiences in kind.