One fine morning, you woke up, you found headphones had become a trend. Earlier than that morning, earphones were widely accepted, and you also had a pair of earphones to use. Although they are not extinct yet, headphones are the current fad.
The experience that comes with a product or service is relative, and it varies from customer to customer. It is highly likely that most of the customers might have found a product easy to use but eventually end up switching to some other product or service because the particular product or service couldn’t earn the trust factor in them. Another reason could be the interest factor that didn’t last with those customers for a longer period of time.
Technologies and trends work hand in hand. If a technology strikes the right chord with the end user, it is highly likely to become a trend. Now in this scenario, it is also necessary to understand that people are just looking for an experience that is easy and long-lasting. And on top of it, it should be interesting.
It also happens that users find interest in the product or services initially but gradually lose it with time. Although there are various reasons behind it we can not zero in one good reason to confirm the rationale behind it. Sometimes, users want to give a completely new technology a try to experience something new, and at other times they are just bored and stop using the thing. iPod is one such example that lost its customer base gradually.
One can say, anything that keeps winning customers in terms of fulfilling their needs as well as keeps their interests alive becomes a trend and stays there for a longer time. Let’s try to understand why some things trend and others don’t.
The Basic behind What Stays with the User
Ever since the smartphones came into existence. Users have become aesthetically sound in a much better way because they are exposed to a bulk of audio-visual content on a daily basis. And more often than not, it is involuntary. This Internet trend has urged the users to look at these content with judgemental eyes.
So what happens, we look at so many things on the internet that stays there in our subconscious. So, out of all the information users are exposed to, only some of it stays and rest all vanish away from their cognition. What stays has already grabbed the attention of the user.
Research suggests that people remember 10% of what they listen to, 20% of what they read, and 80% of what they see. It means what stays with a person is usually an imprint of visuals on the brain. It’s true in many ways as well because we remember and recall things in the form of images. If I say ‘tiger’, you recall a visual image of the animal as to how it looks like, and don’t think about the text, the way it is written in the language you know.
So, if we pick some insights here, any platform that gives space and preference to the visual ideas and pushes the user to express through images is highly likely to become a trend. In a way, it is the best practice to utilize the visual perception of Internet users and also communicate with them through some purposeful, visual engagement.
In today’s times, Google Doodles is a very good example that engages its users through visuals, and the experience stays with them even later. People talk about it with each other, and some websites publish articles on the same day for the trending Google Doodle.
However, another research done by Buffer app suggests that the user-engagement has decreased on Facebook, substantially. It shows that over the years, Facebook has stood out as the most reliable visual medium to share content in the form of visuals as well as text. But despite that users have thinned down.
Such unexpected declines make us question the ongoing trends, and this is how the needle settles down to the factor of quality vs. quantity. In the middle of the huge amount of content, a user cannot consume all. So, one important factor behind trends coming into existence is about engaging customers with quality content.
Quantity Pushes Quality Aside
In the bulk of information over the Internet, only a few of them are useful, but it is a matter of maintaining the quality with the information that leads to loyal users. Because there is a limit to how much customers can see and assimilate online at a time.
It has been found in research that an average consumer may see a maximum of 5000 or more ads on a daily basis, and they notice only 153 ads. Every customer has an attention span that has a threshold, if it is crossed, the customers can not withhold the information.
So, do not attack your customers with the bulk of information, the frequency of communication with the customers should be kept regular, and the practice of consistently relevant content update works better than just throwing randomized content to the consumers.
Keep asking your customers about the quality of experience they have while using the product or services.
Social Media & Marketing Communication
Nowadays, Facebook and Twitter are used by customers for product research, verifying credentials, sharing experience and give feedbacks. If we just focus on the customer support process that is done through social media, it has been found that it is immediate and effective.
Another reason is the customers use it very much so it is easy to involve a number of people and share individual experiences and make an impression of their words.
Social media has also come up as a good medium for marketing. And if utilized well it produces some immediate results. Today, most of the customers are interacting with companies on social media, and they also give feedback about their experience with the product and services.
Customers visit the social media pages of the product or the company and check how people have responded after using them. It helps them in decision making.
A single prompt response from the company about customer issues leads to a better image building of the company. Social media works very well for the role of marketing. There have been instances when people have put their grievances on the company’s social media channels.
They do it so just to catch more eyeballs for their respective issues and get an immediate response from the company. It has now become a trend, gradually. And every time a customer has to communicate, they prefer to do it on social media.
For example, Twitter has become a common platform for unhappy commuters to complaint about their experiences. It started with few unhappy customers, and then a trend followed.
I Want to Experience it Too
Most of the users want to experience a product or service on their own, and this thought itself leads them to give it a try for the very first time. The urge of ‘I want to experience it too’ makes a user to go for it and experience it. If the experience is plausible then it is more likely to become a trend because now there are many platforms that one can share about their experiences without any hindrance.
Once a few users start using it, others follow it because they have gained faith in the product or services because of the word of mouth and a sense of cumulative assertion about the product or services.
And with a greater number of usage other users follow suit. If this type of customer behavior stays there for some time, it can be an offing for a trend that could last for a few months, a year or maybe a decade.
