A global view of behavioural change

In an ever-evolving world, the drivers that change consumer behaviour are multitudinous and varied. They can change across regions and markets, but to help organisations better understand their impact, Nielsen has released an infographic going through their key trends that could shape our global future.

Some of the highlights include how customers are changing the way they live their lives. By 2025, an extra 14m Europeans are expected to move to and live in urban centers, which will take the total figure across the continent to over 550m. Potentially connected to this shift towards urban living is that 39% of global consumers now report heading out of home at least once a week – although this could also be related to the now 1.9 billion people around the world who are now obese.

Focusing on the data-driven economy and how customers engage with brands, the data reveals over a third of Europeans (36%) feel overwhelmed by the amount of information they are exposed to these days. It will be interesting to see what the long-term impacts of the GDPR will have on consumers views around data, as many within the industry already believe it has had a positive impact for both customers and businesses – according to the DMA’s ‘Data Privacy: An industry perspective’ report.

When asked about sustainability and environment, the majority of global consumers (73%) agree they would change their habits to reduce their impact on the environment. However, even more (81%) believe it’s important for companies to implement programmes to help improve the environment. Customers are increasingly demanding that brands are behaving in the right ways – whether that’s towards their staff, the environment or with customers – it's something we covered within the DMA’s ‘Customer Engagement 2018: How to win trust and loyalty’ research.

To see more of the trends Nielsen believes will shape our future, click here.