Don’t Label Me, Say Asian Consumers

Are you a millennial or a Gen Z? Marketers often try to pigeonhole their consumers into generational segments to make assumptions about their behaviors and create the right experience that can scale.

A recent Adobe research of 5,000 Australian, Indian, and Singaporean customers showed that APAC consumers detest this. While it is easy to see why consumers don’t like to be labeled, the research showed that the dislike runs deeper.

86% of APAC consumers want to be treated as individuals with unique interests and preferences. 57% said they feel negatively towards brands that interact with them based on broad assumptions and labels, including age-based stereotypes such as “Millennial” and “Gen Z.”

This makes personalization (some may even call it hyper-personalization) a primary concern for brands. Investing in the right real-time customer data platforms can help.

“As consumers’ expectations grow, brands must leverage data to fully understand their customers’ unique preferences and deliver significant information to them at the right time,” said Tony Ng, managing director of Greater China, Adobe.

This passion for personalization is shifting behaviors rapidly. 62% of APAC consumers felt closer to people who shared their passions and interests (62%) than those of a similar demographic (19%). 86% want to be seen and treated as individuals based on their unique interests and preferences.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact; no surprise there. But what is surprising is the unexpected impact on their pre-pandemic personalization expectations.

For example, the survey noted Asia Pacific consumers saw themselves and their peer group differently from how they were pre-pandemic, with 79% adjusting their preferences and tastes even further in the past three months. The average person now takes on a new interest or hobby six times a year, rising to ten times yearly for people under 25.

65% also wanted their brands to treat them as individuals and keep up with their changing habits and interests while respecting their privacy. 67% think negatively of brands otherwise.

APAC consumers are also becoming real-time focused. 75% of APAC consumers also expect personalized experiences from brands they share data with, with 67% wanting real-time offers relevant to them. 20% said brands were not doing this well or were inconsistent in their efforts to keep up with their personal preferences.

Meanwhile, the frequency of engagement is beginning to matter. 62% of APAC consumers thought frequent, thoughtful gestures (62%) were better than bigger one-off moments (21%).

For brands, keeping pace with all these changes at a personal level in real time is hard. But they also have no choice, not when 54% of APAC consumers indicated that they changed their favorite brands as their tastes and their financial situation changed.

This means real-time visibility and delivering experiences aligned with emerging preferences have become vital. Brands can no longer make assumptions that their loyal customers will remain so.

“The era when consumers were assumed to have similar backgrounds and interests based on age has come to an end. The new technology allows us to grasp consumers’ needs more accurately in real-time, catering to the new generation who seeks a personalized experience,” Ng said.

Image credit: iStockphoto/Arindam Ghosh