For brands, convenience is non-negotiable

Life is hard – so buying your brand should be as easy as possible, a new trend report on WARC indicates.

Lowdown

OMD’s Signals 2021 covers a lot of the newly established norms now solidifying as the pandemic approaches its anniversary. But with so much life lived at home, the precept to make it easy stands out.

Think back to March: Buying toilet roll is a key example. It’s necessary, so the most important thing is that it’s in stock near you; the second most important aspect is that it’s available where you’re shopping. These are well-trodden marketing ideas of physical availability (once you’ve done all the branding work of making your product mentally available, you want it to be widely available).

Other signs

• Deloitte data finds that 41% of survey respondents would spend more for convenience.
• The adoption and penetration of contactless payments (even in the US).
• Ubiquitous home delivery, and comparisons with Amazon, mean that customers now expect fast delivery.
• Subscriptions for ever-necessary things – like loo roll – are on the rise.
• Social and streaming commerce, long popular in Asia, are growing in the west.