Consumers have gained increased power with digital disruption being the catalyst of people empowerment. Because of the shift from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism, the rise of the experience economy and the global pandemic, consumers have only gained more 'power'.

Brands have been struggling to adjust to this transformation, still focusing more on the value they gain from consumers than on the value they provide to consumers. According to Deloitte, consumers now trust their peers more than they trust brands as a result. And even worse, according to a study of Havas Media Group, most consumers worldwide would not even care if 73% of brands disappeared tomorrow.

Only 14% of CMOs and 17% of CEOs believe consumer centricity is a key strength in their organization (CMO Council, Accenture). As a result, brands suffer from many kinds of biases:
- an illusion of knowledge bias, thinking they know more about the consumer than they actually do;
- a false consensus bias, starting from their own perspective of the world;
- an observational selection bias, making brands find new evidence to support their own beliefs;
- an agnosticism bias, with brands not knowing what they do not know and focusing too much on things they already know.

It's clear from the above that a shift is needed from marketing to consumers, to mattering to people. From brand-centric, to consumer-centric. The gap between the consumer and the brand reality needs to be closed as soon as possible.

Taking a consumer-first perspective requires devotion, discipline and ritualization, rewiring organization culture in such a way that consumers are at the forefront of attention. With 68% of consumers agreeing they have the power to force organizations to change (2021 Edelman Trust Barometer), we see it as the mission of insights teams to make consumer centricity happen by bringing consumers and brands (closer) together.

We explicitly refer to ‘make consumer centricity happen’ as success really comes down to embedding daily consumer habits and rituals across the organization. Insight teams need to demonstrate their impact by measuring to what extent we are indeed changing the minds, hearts, and actions of business stakeholders, but also by assessing how the increase in reciprocal value exchange they realize because of it.

‘Together’ refers to the fact that we believe this mission cannot be realized with consumers and brands acting in isolation. Instead, both stakeholder groups need to work together, inspire, and learn from each other to be successful given their underlying reciprocal value exchange reality.

In this workshop we will outline what the 3 gaps between consumers and brands are that need to be closed ('empathy gap', 'relevance gap' and 'experience gap') and what the steps are one needs to take to make it happen.

For full details, please visit our Academy Masterclass page.