HUMAN BEHAVIOUR - A fundamental that matters, a constant that remains.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw presentations about how everything is changing so aggressively, but what is less exciting but as important (if not more) : what actually stays the same? Behaviours maybe?

Happy Friday!

And hello to the new subscribers this month too! It is great to see a growing community of marketing professionals that care about the fundamentals, and amongst the new and shiny things across the world we operate in, it is proof that there’s a clear appetite for evergreen truths, marketing done properly and in a way further validated my initial writing passion project. So thanks, also a big thank you to the other Substack channel recommend-ers!

A shorter post this time around (a hell of a month). But thinking back a moment on all these marketing fundamentals Front of Mind has attempted to discuss and convey the last (almost) 4 years, there is one which hasn’t had as much airtime and is the often tricky to research yet critical to understand; the ultimate decision maker, the person!

You know, the one who you are selling your product or service to. From consumer goods to global logistical solutions, the people who say let’s buy it. The human beings, the end users, the ultimate litmus test of how effective your marketing really is. They always have been and always will be the buyers of a product or service your marketing is trying to deliver.

I am not yet going to go into full Behaviour Science which I have touched on before (and there will be some useful stuff coming in the New year) but more about the understanding of them as a constant. As emotional decision makers backed with backup rationality. With changing fads yet backed with evergreen consumption habits.

Humans - the more they change, the more they stay the same…

A couple of weeks ago, I was at an excellent event in London called The Future of Media. It was an event that talks about all the different things for communications and advertising; the prevailing winds of big tech, of integration, of data and of course AI. The highlight for me was actually talk by Alex Brownsell of WARC and his talk 5 Forces Reshaping the Global Ad Economy, touching on global economic, category and effectiveness factors (some great stuff, you can download it here if you are interested, and you should be)!

But one bit in particular grabbed me. I bet we’ve all seen the pie charts, graphs, Month-on-Month, Quarter-on-Quarter and Year-on-Year changes. The segmented histograms of trend winds constantly blowing towards new shifts, from the declining use of some medias here - to the prevalence of AI searching there.

As a bit of a boring/consistency junkie there was a slide that stood out, and I am giving it the love here because these things rarely make the Linkedin and/or clickbait industry headlines :

%ge of behaviour with media over time. Source IPA Touchpoints via WARC Media

Look at it. A thing of beauty. Behaviours have remained constant. We (that’s me and you now I hope) love it when longer term data sets prove fundamental truths amidst all the trend report noise.

We are used to seeing things cut by channel, or madly digital vs traditional, or brand v performance. Media focused views. But this, a nice new cut. Broken into behaviour types. Watching. Listening. Social Media. reading etc. Activity states.

And guess what? It’s barely changed in 8 years. That is because human need states and behaviours are` pretty constant. We can serve an ad in Spotify versus Radio. Or a YouTube ad on a Smart TV versus a linear TV commercial spot. On the planning side it may feel fragmented, but the inputting eyes and ears are pretty much a constant in terms of their time spent.

SO WHAT?

There is no doubt that the consumption of media channels have changed, the relative usage of social channels for video consumption, or the prevailing use of LLMs and AI for search queries as 2 examples off the bat. But the behaviour of watching things, and listening to things, is pretty constant, and the use of ears and eyes and our need to placate them . When you think about it, we only have so many consumption hours a day, and given the nature of our day it is unlikely to overly change. Therefore, the role of marketing communications remains fundamental, but does not diminish in importance :

• Create work that people want to watch,

• Sounds, words and music that people want to hear

• Games that people want to experience

• Content that folk want to consume.

Forget the delivery mechanic, the platforms have seduced us into thinking they are the be all and end all for the whole comms experience, or ‘funnel’. Creating polarising either/or narratives. This is dead / this is the future. The outcome is still there. YouTube or TV, people still watch.

Now this is a fundamental for us to get behind.

Final note - good luck for the sale season if you are ensuing your Black Friday or Christmas sale readiness (or like some of us - a Boxing Day launch). Sending out my thoughts - and to say it will all be worth it in 3-4 weeks. Please reply or shout if you want to discuss anything, need a virtual shoulder to cry on.

Back in December for the annual Annual Summary, before I down tools on Thursday 11th. Until then!

SA

P.S. I really hope you are getting a semblance of value out of this. If so, and you think any other marketer or business owner would, feel free to share/forward this to them. Also, follow me on LinkedIn, personally or on my company page. If you want to discuss anything, you need some marketing advice, or you just want to discuss something I’ve said, drop me a line. Thanks and happy reading/marketing!