5 ways to bridge the consumer-marketer divide

Trust is the currency of marketing, and the best way for marketers to establish trust is by understanding their audience’s beliefs, values and motivations. A new study conducted by Morning Consult and Advertiser Perceptions, and commissioned by iHeartMedia and author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries, explores the growing disparity between consumer values and behaviors and marketing priorities in the U.S. The study, “The New American Consumer and the Marketing Divide,” was presented at iHeartMedia’s AudioCon 2023. The report stressed the urgency for marketers to realign their marketing and media plans with American consumers to ensure the success of campaigns in an increasingly polarized post-COVID-19 economy. The biggest surprise was how different consumer and marketer motivations are in terms of family, friends, fear and fame, which can affect the performance of creative or media strategies. Here are five ways to bridge the consumer-marketer divide. 1. Inspire more, scare less. First, check your biases at the door. Consumers have different motivations than marketers. For example, they’re twice as motivated by family and friends than marketers are, whereas marketers are three times more motivated by fear and fame and twice as motivated by fortune. Marketers overindex on things they care about, but the marketer is not the market. Marketers are 12% more likely to find climate change important than consumers are, and marketers are four times more likely than consumers to drive EVs. If I show an EV in a campaign about a road trip, am I unintentionally pushing my aspiration onto a consumer? Make sure you don’t create a dynamic where someone feels alienated from your message, simply because they don’t think like you. 2. Lean into the data and go where the consumer is. We’ve never had more data, but are we letting human bias creep in? The presentation at AudioCon urged marketers to think about the socioeconomic and geopolitical experiences that Americans witnessed over the last few years. The nation has had to adapt, and who we used to be in 2019 is not who we are in 2023. 3. Don’t get out too far ahead or behind consumers. Focusing on the fun and trendy new thing won’t make consumers think you’re listening. Think about NFTs. According to the study, 100% of marketers have heard of them, while 40% of consumers have never heard of them. And whereas 97% of marketers know what an Aperol spritz is, half of consumers do not. The study asked both groups to assign “cool” and “cringe” factors to different subjects. The top two activities that scored the highest as “cool” for consumers: traveling around the U.S. and barbecues. For marketers: They prefer traveling to Europe and going to the gym. When it comes to cringe, consumers cite NFTs and being vegan/vegetarian. Marketers cringe at making a recipe using cottage cheese and watching the long-running hit procedural TV series “NCIS.” Don’t get too far ahead of your consumer. Remember, you’re not always the target for the marketing decisions you make. 4. Rely on media that excels at both reaching and engaging new and existing consumers. Audio, particularly broadcast radio, reaches 9 out of 10 consumers with higher engagement and more trust. Podcasts have the lowest ad skip rate in all media. “There’s that emotional intimacy [with audio],” Gladwell said at AudioCon. “When you’re in someone’s ear, you’re in a different position than you’ve been before, and that’s exhilarating. When you’re talking, people understand the context.” In fact, the research showed that the hardest thing for consumers to give up is podcasts. But marketers don’t seem to be getting the message. According to WARC Data, GWI, while 31% of media time is spent with audio, marketers spend only 9% of their budget on it. If you want new growth, go where consumers are: audio. 5. Lean into the theater of the mind. Be relevant to every consumer in every message using theater of the mind. Just ask a question, and let the consumer fill in their own image of family, holidays, cars, dreams. What did you have for lunch? Audio allows the consumer to imagine that meal. Audio delivers that added relevance with a fraction of the production cost of video. The brain is the fastest production machine in the world. Don’t be afraid to let the consumer create the images that are most relevant to them. The ultimate takeaway: Just listen to what’s important to your consumer. It’s not about you or trends, but who you’re trying to reach. This is the key to the growth you’re looking for. Don’t leave the new American consumer behind. Watch AudioCon2023: The New American Consumer for more. About iHeartMedia iHeartMedia is the leading audio media company in America, reaching over 90% of Americans every month. iHeart’s broadcast radio assets alone have more consumer reach in the U.S. than any other media outlet; twice the reach of the next largest broadcast radio company; and over four times the ad-enabled reach of the largest digital only audio service. iHeart is the largest podcast publisher according to Podtrac, with more downloads than the next two podcast publishers combined and the only fully integrated audio ad tech solution across broadcast, streaming and podcasts. Visit iHeartMedia.com for more company information.

5 ways to bridge the consumer-marketer divide

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