Consumer behaviour is changing, but is brand tracking changing with it? Colin Auton explores why traditional measures of consideration can miss the situations, needs and barriers that actually shape decisions, and how Category Entry Points can deepen consumer understanding.
Consumer confidence is up. Well, sort of.
The latest GfK Consumer Confidence Index jumped six points in July to -17, its biggest monthly improvement since 2023. Barclays has also reported greater confidence in the economy and a rise in discretionary spending.
All encouraging.
But -17 is still -17. And beneath the improving headline numbers, consumers are continuing to make some pretty careful decisions about where their money goes.
That becomes particularly interesting when we look at leisure – and raises an interesting question for anyone running a brand tracker.
Are we measuring whether people would consider our brand in general, or whether they would consider it in the situations when they actually need something from our category? That distinction is becoming increasingly important.
Category Entry Points, or CEPs, offer one way of thinking about it. They are essentially the situations, needs, motivations and occasions that trigger someone to start thinking about a category. And those situations can change as people’s circumstances change.
In terms of the leisure economy, people haven’t suddenly stopped wanting to go out and enjoy themselves. If anything, there is plenty of evidence that experiences remain important, even when household budgets are squeezed. The question is increasingly how people make those experiences affordable.
This summer’s temporary reduction in VAT on family attractions is one very visible response to that pressure, with theme parks, zoos and other attractions able to offer families cheaper admission during the school holidays.
But there is another development that caught my attention this week.
You can now buy a day out on Klarna.
A number of major attractions are now offering consumers different ways of managing the cost of a day out. Longleat currently promotes Klarna as a payment option, Crealy actively encourages families to spread the cost of their visit using Klarna or PayPal Pay in 3, and Merlin Annual Passes can also be paid for using Klarna. Paultons Park has also introduced flexible Klarna payments allowing visitors to pay immediately, later, or across instalments. So a family can have the day out now, while spreading the payment across a number of instalments.
I’m not here to debate the rights and wrongs of Buy Now Pay Later.
What’s interesting from a research perspective is what its arrival tells us about the way people are making decisions.
Because someone’s barrier to visiting an attraction might not be: “I don’t want to go there.”
It could be: “I’d love to take the kids there. I just don’t want £150 coming out of my account this week.”.
Would your brand tracker be able to spot that?
So, would YOUR brand tracker spot that?
Imagine you’re tracking a family attraction. (We don’t have to imagine, we’ve got plenty of experience in this space!). You might measure awareness. Familiarity. Consideration. Likelihood to visit. Value for money. Perhaps a series of brand associations. All useful measures.
Your consumer tells you they’re aware of the attraction but wouldn’t currently consider visiting. What do we conclude?
- Perhaps the attraction isn’t appealing enough.
- Perhaps competitors are stronger.
- Perhaps the brand needs to work harder on its proposition.
But what if they really like the attraction? What if the kids have been asking to go for months? What if it is near the top of their list, but they simply can’t justify spending the money right now?
A conventional consideration measure could treat all of those things in much the same way. That’s because brand trackers are sometimes very good at measuring brands, but less good at reflecting the way consumers actually think.
Consumers don’t walk around with permanent consideration sets sitting neatly in their heads.
They think about what they need to do, why they need to do it and what is realistic for them at that particular point in time.
Ask someone: “Where would you consider taking the children for a special birthday treat?”, and one group of brands might spring to mind.
Ask them: “What could you do with the children this weekend without spending too much?”, and you might get a completely different set.
Or ask them: “Where could you have a really good family day out where you could spread the cost?”, and the answer might change again. Same person. Same category. Different situations.
This is where Category Entry Points become useful.
Category Entry Points, or CEPs, sound more complicated than they really are. They’re essentially the situations, needs, motivations and occasions that trigger someone to start thinking about a category.
For family days out, that could be:
- Keeping the children entertained during the school holidays
- Celebrating a birthday
- Finding somewhere grandparents and children will both enjoy
- Making the most of good weather
- Needing something to do when it’s raining
- Looking for a special treat
- Finding something enjoyable that still feels affordable
- Wanting a bigger day out but needing to spread the cost
Once you start thinking about consideration in those terms, brand tracking can become much more useful.
Instead of simply knowing that 42% of people would consider your attraction, we can understand more about the situations when they would be more and less likely to consider it.
- Perhaps you’re strongly associated with special occasions but rarely thought of for spontaneous weekends.
- Perhaps families see you as exciting but expensive.
- Perhaps you’re well placed when people want a full-day experience, but a competitor owns the “affordable family treat” occasion.
- Or perhaps offering flexible payment suddenly gives you permission to compete in a Category Entry Point where you previously didn’t feature at all.
That’s a much richer picture than a single consideration score.
Track the situations, not just the score
None of this means we should throw traditional brand metrics away. Awareness still matters. Consideration still matters. Brand imagery still matters. But how those metrics are designed matters too.
If consumers are increasingly having to negotiate between wanting an experience and being able to afford it, our trackers should be capable of seeing that.
And affordability is only today’s example.
Tomorrow it could be screen-free family time. Multi-generational days out. Experiences worth travelling for. Weather-proof activities. Last-minute plans. Or something we haven’t spotted yet.
Consumer circumstances change
The reasons people enter categories change with them. Which means the consideration set can change too.
So perhaps, when reviewing your tracker, the question isn’t simply: Are we measuring consideration? It’s a slightly harder one: Are we measuring the situations in which we need to be considered?
That is where the decision actually starts.
At Mustard, we help brands build trackers around the way people actually think and behave, rather than simply around the measures that are easiest to track. If you’re reviewing your brand tracker, or wondering whether it still reflects the way your customers make decisions, get in touch.