Brands must up their content marketing game

Nine out of ten consumers in the US and UK strongly believe that brands need to overhaul their content creation efforts in order to consistently keep them engaged, a new study published by advertising and marketing agency Wunderman shows.

Wunderman set about answering the question of what exactly makes a brand desirable to consumers in today’s digital world and came up with an engagement criteria called “wantedness” to outline how enterprises can achieve this desirability. It defined “wantedness” as “the degree to which a brand proves their commitment to earning a customer’s business across every touch point and throughout the entire path to purchase.”

Wunderman polled adults aged between 18 and 65 in the US and UK about the myriad of factors that are crucial to winning them over, and the main takeaway was that brands must up their marketing game to remain regularly engaged. The agency found that consumers are becoming more demanding and requiring the companies that they buy products and services from to demonstrate their commitment to service and how they will exceed expectations, every single day.

Content plays a major role in this, as 90 per cent of respondents in the UK and 88 per cent in the US want brands to supplement high-quality written content and videos with new tech such as virtual reality and augmented reality. More than three-quarters of consumers in the US claim that they will only consider buying products from a brand that shows it understands its consumers, which highlights the critical nature of content posted on social media, websites and blogs.

To achieve “wantedness,” 63 per cent of US respondents expect brands to connect with them during the entire customer journey and buying cycle. As with previous reports, Wunderman also found that mobile is a key factor during the process, as 90 per cent of US consumers believe that the use of smartphones helps them to make better decisions when purchasing something.

Wunderman Global CMO Jamie Gutfreund said: “With expectations at an all-time high, brands are required to operate in consumer culture and not just within their own category. It used to be that brands had the luxury of customers conforming to their business models, which worked for many years. But the tables have turned. Today, consumers expect businesses to adapt to their needs and our findings are consistent across all generations, geographies and genders.”