Brands Must Consider “Wantedness” In Their Approach to Customer Engagement

Caring about customers, understanding their needs and desires, and trying to fulfill those expectations can loom as daunting tasks for loyalty marketers. Customers, now more than ever, want to be loyal to brands that clearly show them they care.

According to a new study from Wunderman, a leading global digital agency, today’s marketplace is defined by increased transparency and decreased trust, which means that brands must prove that they will commit to earning their customer’s business.

In fact, the study revealed that 79 percent of consumers between the ages of 18-65 in the U.S. say brands must actively demonstrate “they understand and care about me” before they consider purchasing. To succeed in this environment, brands need a new approach to customer engagement identified by the research as “Wantedness.”

What’s more, the study defines 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. Traditionally, the study says, marketers have primarily focused on developing consumer loyalty to their brands but the data shows that brands now need to demonstrate their commitment to serving the consumer and exceeding their expectations every day.

Evan Magliocca, brand marketing manager for Baesman, told Loyalty360 that most brands really do care about their customers, but “they simply show it in an outdated and unaligned way. Today, customers are more interested in fast shipping, one-click checkout, pick up in-store, and easy returns than they are brand image. That’s why Amazon is so successful because it shows it cares through obsessive innovation for the customer.”
The research also identified that the competitive landscape has changed as 87 percent of U.S. consumers now evaluate brands against leading companies like Amazon, Uber, and Netflix, which have raised the bar and set new standards of excellence that extend beyond traditional product categories.

“With expectations at an all-time high, brands are required to operate in consumer culture and not just within their own category,” said Wunderman Global CMO Jamie Gutfreund. “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.”

Another key concept tied to Wantedness is a requirement for a data-driven approach to understanding what consumers expect to drive engagement and sales.

According to the research, brands today must do more than just provide a good quality product or service. Simply being “at par” is not enough; 88 percent of American respondents say that brands must “push boundaries” to be considered.

Here are some other key study findings:

90 percent of American consumers believe mobile empowers them to make better purchase decisions.

89 percent of American consumers say that they are loyal to brands that share their values.

74 perent of consumers in the U.S. say that brands can set a new standard by how they serve customers 

Recent Content

Membership and Pricing

Videos and podcasts

Membership and Pricing