Consumers in 2025: The Primacy of Personal remains a defining force
The supreme importance of personal emotional value — my safety, my security, my health and my happiness – was the most prominent finding of The Weber Shandwick Collective’s 2024 global research study “What We Value.” It was on full display in the 2024 US presidential election and elections around the world. And is likely to be even bigger factor in 2025, as the push and pull of decidedly different political, economic and cultural views once again create a period of heightened uncertainty and turbulence.
How do you earn a valuable place in the lives of consumers in this environment? Despite the obvious challenges, you must do one thing particularly well: contribute to their culture. Culture drives commerce. And as the saying goes, you have to be in it, to win it. But how?
Get closer
Sources of influence are increasingly personal – with individuals seeking out passion and point-of-view based communities and content creators as their sources (and sensais). Brands will need to identify, understand and activate their most important communities and those who hold the most sway over them. It will take a lot more data and a lot more digging to get right.
They need to know the language, the landscape, the norms and the no-nos as they seek to engage specific subsets of influence and interest. The conversation, the content, the polish of the pictures all need to be right for the community – whether it’s the manosphere or the mamasphere. This isn’t artifice. It’s recognizing what’s appropriate in what place. You wouldn’t show up to a backyard bbq in a cocktail dress.
Get emotional
Consumers enter 2025 feeling, yet again, off balance as the seeming permacrisis – and pocketbook pressure — prevails. Of course, consumers want good things at a fair price. But they also want to feel better — happier, safer, more secure, healthier, smarter. And, perhaps, even “righter.” No matter what, brands need to prompt consumers to feel enough personal value so they care enough to engage, share, click or buy. Contribute joy. Contribute peace. Contribute laughter, security, validation or swagger. Above all, the key is to contribute.
Get ready
Polarization, politicization, social media and AI are a just a few of the forces shaping and reshaping how consumers engage with brands and one another. Same goes for their employers. It’s hard for individuals to navigate the day-to-day. And even harder for brands. Getting the personal right is filled with pitfalls but pays dividends. You need a constant finger on the pulses that matter combined with diverse expertise, agility, boundless imagination and a stomach of steel.
When the personal is paramount, earning a valuable place in the lives of consumers is the priority. It’s an expertise- and creativity-powered art, a data-fueled science, and a dance that starts and ends with getting comfortable with the fact that the behavioral, cultural, technological and behavioral ground beneath us will be constantly shifting.