Ipsos Chiefs Decode Consumer Trends & AI's Integration

In an era defined by dynamic global shifts and unprecedented challenges, understanding consumer behaviour is pivotal for brands. Ipsos, a global market research firm, has been at the forefront of decoding these complexities. Jim Needle, Chief Client Officer – Global, Ipsos and Suresh Ramalingam, Chief Client Officer – APAC, Ipsos, share insights on emerging consumer trends, challenges facing brands and the critical role of AI among more.

As consumer expectations evolve, Ipsos provides a lens into the intricacies of the market, offering valuable perspectives for businesses aiming to navigate the changing landscape effectively.

Excerpts:

What are some emerging consumer trends that you have noted on a global scale, that brands and companies will need to account for in 2024?

Needell: At a global level, the context of the world we live in has changed enormously. The pandemic has changed the way consumers think, how they buy brands and their expectations of brands as well. If you look at the way brands need to adapt, one of them is context, across different parts of the world, we all live within the context of our societies.

The only thing that pulls us all together now in society is price inflation. Some countries are worse off than others. With the context being about inflationary pressure and wage-price movements, consumers around the world are struggling to make ends meet and buy the brands they used to. The propensity to shop has fallen in almost every developed market in the world.

Post-pandemic, people are talking about brand values, ESG, what's happening in society, whether consumers care, whether the brand is good for the environment or has good governance or social aspects. Value brands are replacing brand values. Consumers care as much about the environment and social issues as they do about putting food on the table.

In what ways have challenges facing brands changed in recent times and what are some problems that your clients often come to you with?

Needell: I sense more of a hunger to understand consumers. Post-pandemic, we've seen a fracturing of society, where people blamed big brands for society's wrongs and refrained from buying. There are more and more brands that want to go deeper into consumers' lives. We find ourselves doing more in-depth research to try and understand exactly what is happening with consumers.

Ramalingam: A brand mainly wants to grow; it wants to be on the top of the minds of consumers. The way of reaching the consumer is now very complex. Ten years ago, if you had the money, you just go build awareness using mass media. Then five years ago, technology came in and companies started spending more on digital media, but the segments are different. The people who are on Facebook are different from the ones who are on TikTok or LinkedIn. Now there are many small pockets. It is now very important for the marketeer, to be where the consumer is, but it is very expensive to ensure that you're going to be in all those areas.

Word of mouth has become extremely important. Before checking whether you're good or bad, customers read the reviews. Customers also don't trust the reviews now because they feel that they’re generated by the company. They look at the number of people who have done the reviews. Now, consumers see an influencer talking about a product and there is a lack of trust there because the influencer is getting paid to praise the product.

With technology, access to premium products is a lot easier. Technology has removed all boundaries. Premiumisation is a growing trend especially in Asia because the size of the middle-class population is increasing.

How important is India as a market for these companies?

Needell: India is hugely important. By 2050, India will be the most populous nation in the world. India dwarfs China in terms of digital transactions through digital payment because of the way the country has democratised digital capability through mobile phones. Brands need to understand and operate strongly in the most populous markets in the world.

2024 is the biggest-ever election year for the globe. Elections are happening in 20-odd countries. Huge democracies are going to the polls and a lot of the work we do is not just with consumer brands, it's also with governments all around the world to understand how their citizens are feeling, how they behave and what their needs are.

How have consumers' expectations and demands changed with respect to brand transparency or corporate social responsibility that we talked about earlier?

Needell: The number one thing that worries the world, consumers and citizens in the world is the financial hardship that has hit most economies. About 35 per cent of the global population has these concerns. Brands that want to operate in that space, must see why consumers are behaving exactly as they're choosing to behave.

Since 2013, we've done a global trend survey across 50-odd countries around the world, of which India is one. We've done this survey every year and over the last 14 years, there is a steady uptick in consumers wanting to buy brands that share the same value system as them.

Will generative AI impact companies such as Ipsos by making direct inquiry and consumer interviews a thing of the past?

Needell: AI is an explosion of capability. I see a huge opportunity for businesses like Ipsos. These large language learning models are only as good as the data you put into them. That must be refreshed constantly. We have a fundamental belief that AI in and of itself is not enough. You need a human to understand and inform the AI how to behave. We've done an awful lot of research internally on this with clients and in innovation programs. AI is still, and for the foreseeable future, prone to hallucination. If you put in a huge amount of information, an investor report of 600 pages for instance, it is still prone to picking out rogue pieces of information and making them more important than they are.

Ramalingam: With generative AI, what happens is you give a response to the system and the system automatically summarises it and comes up with the important points. As a researcher, I just look at it and I’m able to add value on top of it, which you call human insights. Ipsos is using AI and human intelligence together to come up with solutions.

The second area where we're doing a lot of work is in social media analytics. We have something called ‘synthesio’, which is a great analytics tool. Synthesio helps us crawl and get all the social media chatter.  With AI, the picking up of chatter and the summarisation of key elements happens in an automated fashion. Now, the researcher looking at it can provide a lot more value because they don't spend too much time on the earlier part.

For predictive analytics, we have something called ‘inotest’, which is an innovation tool for companies. Whenever a company is launching something new, the program is used to test a concept, a product, or an idea and to help the client understand whether it will work or not work. We are using AI and co-creating a lot of solutions with our clients.