During the pandemic lockdown, people relied heavily on the images and dynamic videos when buying products. Yet, many of these products were not as expected to be in reality; and that made people more caution when selecting a seller. The following figure shows how sellers can deceive buyers through the product presentation vs. reality.
Although sellers do put a long page of description to their product on the online shop, but what they write is different from what they have. It has been an on-going distrust issue with the online shopping and that some people have already stopped shopping online due to this reason. Of course, nobody wants to spend their money on products that have high chance of being unrealistic. Fact, in the marketing and advertisement industry lies does not work; yet buyers still get deceived through decoding the buyers message.
I remember I have ordered a rug from AliExpress for my living room, the images were convincing as well as the dynamic video. In fact, the images had dimensions for the sizes of the rug. However, after placing the order and patiently waiting for 17 days, I finally received my rug. The palm of my hand was bigger than the entire rug, I wish if I still have the product to put the images.
In any case, with the advancement of the technology and great use of social media, the marketing industry has been adopting to those trends throughout the mix of social media and technology in its advertising strategies. The new trend is going to be collaboration between celebrities, social media platforms, and marketers. Marketer will establish partnership with influencers or collaboration with social media platforms.
For instance, Amazon has launched a Tik-Tok style feature allowing shoppers to explore variety of products, based on the feed, through videos of “real people” using those products. This trend will help sellers to build trust with buyers through transparence representation of products. People will no longer rely on fake images or having difficulties imagining what the product will look like on them. Audiences will be able to watch the videos of many people using same products, so that they will see the product in different angles, positions, ideas and then become convinced. This feature will also customize the audiences’ feed based on their ads interests that they spend more time watching and searching for similar products. Adopting and implemented such strategy, not by with Amazon but through all online stores, will result in a new shift for the marketing industry. Actual videos of actual people convince more than the product itself.
In the same way, marketers conduct a partnership with influencers. The heavy presence of influencers on the social media have made an impact on the marketing industry, as influencers are able to change audiences’ purchasing behavior. It is a powerful tool that every marketer wish they had. Also, influencers have the ability to establish trends, such as specific outfit, dish, and service. The strong connection and trust between influencers and their audience is important to consider.
Let me explain in depth how this is going to impact the marketing industry. First, let’s recall that influencers are also consumers/audiences. However, they have different personalities such as curiosity, luxury lovers, travel lover and so on. Influencers share their experiences with product and services with their audiences. When audiences view their experiences, they can get an idea of what the product might look like to them. Also, audiences can express their personal opinions and ask the influencers to try a product before they buy it. Influencers often react to these opinions and do what their audience ask. Once the audience watch the videos of their favorite influencers try the product or services, they would become excited to try them too. Scott Cook claims that “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is — it is what consumers tell each other it is.”
The marketing industry has become heavily depending on digital marketing. Firms have already taken steps toward planning for their marketing campaigns through finding their perfect platforms or influencers to market their products or services. It is the time to set back and think which partnership or collaboration would be beneficial for the marketers by understanding who’s their target audiences. Adopting this trend will help the marketers to make the most of their marketing goals.