Consumers During Corona: Recent Episodes
Stephen Kraus
Data, trends and insights about how people are living, thinking and buying in the Corona Economy. Hosted by Steve Kraus – veteran trend watcher, Harvard Ph.D., hacky comedian. Want to better understand the consumer lifestyles, attitudes and spending patterns that define this corona-driven “New Normal”? Tune in for these fun and fast-paced interviews with leading experts in psychology, economics, consumer insights, social trends, branding, marketing and more. Released every Monday.
Victoria Sakal is Managing Director for Morning Consult, one of the most interesting and innovative data intelligence companies to emerge over the past few years. She is also author of their Most Trusted Brands 2021 report, which we discuss in this episode. Among other things, we talk about why small businesses get the highest trust ratings, why tech brands score so well, what trust really means, and trends in trust over time.
Also worth checking out: Morning Consult’s Return to Normal tracking study.
~~~~~
Theme music courtesy of Tess Stevens, the world's most rocking content strategist. Thank you Tess! Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Menaka Gopinath is President of the Ipsos Social Media Exchange (North America), and is recognized as one the world’s leading experts on social media listening.
Among other things, we discuss today’s consumer mindset, the consumer trends that are emerging as The Corona Economy (hopefully) begins transitioning into the post-vaccine economy, and what kinds of brands are thriving at this time (“brands that are living out their purpose, and using that as their compass”).
Menaka can be found on LinkedIn here. Menaka and the broader Ipsos team have produced excellent thought leadership content on The Corona Economy, including content on vaccine intent, Americans re-emerging, and the Pandemic Wall.
Theme music courtesy of Tess Stevens, the world's most rocking content strategist. Thank you Tess! Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Randy Wahl is President of M/A/R/C, a leading market research firm. Randy has been conducting consumer research for over twenty years, and he’s consulted for many of the world’s leading brands.
Among other things, we discuss the latest data and trends related to consumer acceptance of the vaccine, tele-medicine, pet care, and how the post-corona economy is taking shape.
Randy Wahl can be found on LinkedIn here. The M/A/R/C website is here, and the M/A/R/C podcast is here.
Theme music courtesy of Tess Stevens, the world's most rocking content strategist. Thank you Tess! Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Alf Nucifora is Chairman of Luxe SF, the Bay Area’s premier industry association in luxury marketing. We discuss the latest trends in luxury, wine, real estate, and the SF Bay Area. He shares his insights on...
- Why the ‘work from home’ trend will have a lasting and profound impact
- How The Corona Economy has minimized impulse purchases and the consumer focus on stuff
- Why the existential dread of 2020 will likely persist into 2022
- How business is booming for many real estate agents and interior designers
- How the wine business, and luxury in general, is failing to connect with Millennials
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alf can be found on LinkedIn here, and his organization LuxeSF here
Theme music courtesy of Tess Stevens, the world's most rocking content strategist. Thank you Tess! Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Bob Lederer is veteran observer of the market research and consumer insights industry. He publishes several newsletters on the industry, and produces a widely-watched daily video series on industry developments.
We discuss the history of market research, and how the field has continued to grow during The Corona Economy as companies have been pressed to make more decisions with more speed and less information than ever before.
Bob’s Research Business Daily Report can be found here, and Bob can be found on LinkedIn here. His book “Beyond Broadway Joe: The Super Bowl Team that Changed Football” can be found on Amazon here**.
~~~~~~~~~~**
Theme music courtesy of Tess Stevens, the world's most rocking content strategist. Thank you Tess! Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Walker Smith is Chief Knowledge Officer at Kantar, and one of the most respected experts in the study of consumer trends. In this episode, he shares his takes on the most impactful, overlooked and interesting trends in The Corona Economy
- The most impactful trend: the increasing importance of the home
- The most overlooked trend: savings rates continue to rise
- The most interesting trend: rituals and occasions are evolving
He also shares why 2020 will (psychologically) be an 18-month year (yikes! It’s not over yet), and how he challenges brands to grow with a powerful question: “How do you help people live big in a smaller world?”
Walker can be found on LinkedIn here, and check out his new blog here
~~~~
Theme music courtesy of Tess Stevens, the world's most rocking content strategist. Thank you Tess! Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Leslie Wood is Chief Research Officer at NC Solutions, a joint venture between Nielsen and Catalina that features one of the industry’s most comprehensive databases of consumer behavior and media use. We discuss…
- Why spending continues to rise on consumer packaged goods, comfort food, and iconic brands (but not on private labels)
- Why the new wave of stay-at-home orders is unlikely to change consumer behavior
- How advertising is more effective for building loyalty than encouraging trial (and why loyalty is more important than ever)
- A common advertising mistake: brands get tired of their messaging and change it even when it still resonates with consumers
- How the quantitative analysis of advertising effectiveness reveals the importance of the “softer” sides of advertising -- messaging and creative (and how I am REALLY similar to Don Draper!)
- How The Corona Economy is analogous to the entire population going through multiple lifestage transitions at once
~~~~~~
Learn more about NC Solutions here, and reach Leslie on LinkedIn here
Theme music courtesy of Tess Stevens, the world's most rocking content strategist. Thank you Tess! Follow her on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Andrew Lipsman is Principal Analyst at eMarketer and was formerly SVP of Marketing and Insights at ComScore. In this super-cool episode, he shares how David Byrne’s recent concert film American Utopia serves as a metaphor for consumer trends in the Corona Economy. He also shares his top predictions for 2021, his take on what brands are really getting it right, and why so many predictions about future behavior go wrong,
Check out more of Andrew’s work at eMarketer
Lilah Raynor is CEO of Logica Research, and was formerly Director of Market Research at Charles Schwab. She publishes an ongoing study called The Future of Money, and we discuss...
- How people are more open to talking about money than ever before… and why she thinks that openness is here to stay
- How the younger generation has pivoted from savings to wealth building
- The latest trends in payment methods (and why PayPal keeps growing)
- How her neighborhood of Bernal Heights in San Francisco is re-inventing what community means during The Corona Economy
Find Lilah at Logica Research
Special thanks for the multi-talented Tess Stevens for the new theme music! Follow Tess Stevens on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Jack O'Leary is a Senior Analyst for Edge by Ascential, and is an expert on all things e-commerce, and on Amazon in particular.
We discuss where Amazon has been, where's its headed, and talk about...
- How (and how much) has The Corona Economy has accelerated trends toward ecommerce
- Omni-channel rising: “A rising tide lifted all boats, but it lifted the Walmarts and Targets of the world a bit more than Amazon”. And it’s been a “massive victory for Instacart”
- The deceleration of growth in sales from Amazon’s Prime Day
- Why he’s bullish on consumer spending overall this holiday season, although that spending will be less tied to specific days like Black Friday
- How Amazon is poised to leverage trust in their brand win the “last few feet” (forget about the “last mile”)
- How Amazon’s diversification into health care and gaming is contributing to their growth in The Corona Economy
Sign up for Jack's Amazon Brief: The Year-End 2020 Edition
Special thanks for Tess Stevens for the new theme music! Follow Tess Stevens on TikTok and Instagram @tessfstevens. Stream her EP Patient 139 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Michele Madansky is CEO of Michele Madansky Consulting and a former EVP at iHeartMedia. We discuss...
- Her latest research on trends among working moms during The Corona Economy
- How trends differ across segments -- in particular, the general population vs. affluent consumers
- Surprising findings about stress levels among working moms
- Trends among “Breadwinner Moms” -- including the single biggest predictor of relationship success in couples where women out-earn men
- The diaspora of tech workers from the SF Bay Area
- Her top tips for personal/professional success in The Corona Economy
Michele’s blog Elephant in the Valley can be found here; reach Michele at her website here and on LinkedIn here
Zach Klempf is Founder and CEO of Selly Automotive, a CRM startup that is "Salesforce for auto dealers." We discuss how car buying behavior is evolving in The Corona Economy.
We focus on how the supply-and-demand dynamics of the auto market are being turned upside down by a perfect storm of disruptive (and sometimes conflicting) factors:
- fewer people are commuting to work
- mass transit is less available
- ride shares are less trusted
- value-orientation is rising
- delivery person is a hot job
- gas prices are falling
- digitally-based auto startups are thriving
Learn more about Selly Automotive here; connect with Zach on LinkedIn here
Scott Johnston is SVP of market intelligence firm Numerator, and has his finger on the pulse of today's consumer. We discuss how the "panic buying" of the early Corona Economy wasn't exactly what it seemed, how purchasing behavior changes when it shifts from offline to digital, how click-and-collect is evolving beyond early-adopters, and more.
Dig into Numerator's insights here, and connect with Scott Johnston on LinkedIn here
In this episode, I discuss new data on The Corona Economy with two colleagues from online survey firm QuestionPro -- Vivek Baskaran (CEO) and Dan Fleetwood (President of Research and Insights). Topics include:
- The latest trends in consumer confidence (“bi-focal optimism”)
- Two-thirds of Americans are seriously questioning the American Dream
- What consumers have missed the most during the Corona Economy
- Consumer spending projections across different categories
The report on Americans Questioning the American Dream can be found here
Connect with Vivek or Dan on LinkedIn
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn here
Kathy Sheehan is an expert on consumer trends, with a particular focus on Gen Z and Millennials. She previously ran Roper Reports (a well-known study of lifestyle and consumer trends), and is now SVP for insights consultancy Cassandra.
In this episode, we discuss how...
- The corona pandemic accelerated the on-going pandemic of burnout
- The corona economy is shaping trends in categories as diverse as ecommerce, dating apps, influencers and education
- Corona will be the defining generational marker of Gen Z and beyond
- She believes empathy is the key trait to develop in 2020 and beyond
Read Kathy’s articles on Mediapost here
Learn more about Cassandra’s work, including their “Life Interrupted” report on Millenials and Gen Z during the corona economy here
Connect with Kathy on LinkedIn here
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn here
Chris Perry is an ecommerce expert and a good friend -- I particularly admire his ability to build a professional community, and to entertain while he informs.
In this episode, we discuss the Corona Economy and...
- The CPG marketplace, particularly the role of private labels and store brands
- The role of Amazon (“in 2020, every day has been Prime Day”)
- The incredible “shrinking shelf” -- with consumers seeing fewer options as the dominant channel evolves from in-person to desktop to mobile to Alexa
- Evolving consumer needs -- particularly, how his “COVID-19 Retail Response Pyramid” is a new take on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- Why major companies and brands continue to under-invest in digital channels
- His #1 tip for personal/professional success in 2020
Highly recommended: Chris's August 2020 eCommerce Career Summit -- a free webinar with great insights on eCommerce and tips on professional development and job hunting during The Corona Economy.
Learn more about his community for eCommerce leaders at https://www.firstmovr.com/
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn here
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn here
I’m Steve Kraus and I’m inviting you to check out the “Consumers During Corona” podcast
Each week I’ll take a data-driven look at the latest trends in how people are living, thinking and buying in a marketplace turned upside down by a global pandemic and the fight for social justice
I’m a Harvard Ph.D. and a hacky comedian and a long time trend watcher who has spent his career studying what makes people tick. I’m excited to be interviewing leading experts in psychology, consumer insights, social trends, marketing and more. We’re going to have a lot of fun. Check it out and tell you friends. Thank you very much!