BDO Transitions: Time to abandon consumer stereotypes

BUSINESSES need to abandon their old definitions of consumer types or face a difficult future, according to new research from BDO.

The Transitions to the New Consumer report also highlights that the changes in the way people view themselves is reflected in their attitudes to work.

According to the research, the older generation is one that is changing the fastest as people retire earlier and focus their time and attention on leisure.

However, this will change again in the future as retirement ages rise and people increasingly reduce their hours, rather than stopping work overnight, and are busier into their later years.

Businesses can easily find themselves viewing their customers through out of date stereotypes – expecting older people not to understand technology when recent figures suggest the over-40s are the biggest buyers of e-reader devices.
 
Young adult categories are also changing as people without work return to education and school leavers, once automatically bound for university, now questioning whether they want to incur all that debt.

The workplace and the classroom are drawing closer together, the report says, and the services and products required by both need to be carefully considered.

Even HM Revenue and Customs is finding that the certainties of old categories are under threat. Recent mistakes in personal tax have been part-blamed on the tax system’s self-employed and employed categorisation and PAYE tax codes failing to keep pace with how 21st century new consumers are now earning.

Buying behaviour patterns are becoming less predictable and consumers are becoming less easy to pigeon hole. As a result, BDO advises that businesses redefine their customer base and tailor their services to the evolving new consumer in order to deliver what the actually customer wants, not what a business thinks their customers need.

Over the course of this week, TheBusinessDesk.com is taking an in-depth look at the latest Transitions report from BDO.

You can read all the features and download a full copy of the report from our supplements channel. Click here.