sales-trends-2021-trend-4-welcome-to-the-age-where-less-is-more

Sales trend 4 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2021 is about the unexpected changes that COVID brought about in relation to brands.

By guest author Ben Peacock, Founder of Australia’s sustainability and brand purpose specialists, Republic of Everyone.

Meh.

Sales trends numberEverything was going so well. Survey after survey was showing people’s concern for the environment was finally translating to sales of products that promised to help do something about it.

Recycled rubber sneakers, carbon neutral phone plans, cafes run by street kids…sustainability was seeing a boom the likes it had never seen before. The TV show, War on Waste had created a real war on waste. People who previously wouldn’t have recognised a Keep Cup if it had hit them in the cappuccino were queueing up to help them sell out.

As Australia’s first and foremost sustainability agency, it was a boom we had waited a long time for. Then meh. COVID hit. And, like everyone else, we wondered what to do.

Would people keep caring about these things or would sustainability go back out the door as people rushed to stock the shed with the cheapest toilet paper money can buy? In the quiet anonymity of online shopping, would the lure of a short term bargain overturn the desire to be – or at least be seen to be – a good human? Was this the end of the sustainability boom we had spent over a dozen years working so hard to create?

For a while, it looked that way. Work was put on hold. Jobkeeper was applied for. The agency website was (finally) redone as we sat in the same holding pattern as everyone else in town.

Then it happened.

The inbox started to ‘bing’ again. Jobs on hold were not just off hold but now urgent. Brands we would never have expected a call from were on the phone. Yes, marketing budgets had been told to take a pause but, for the smart brands and companies, sustainability, it seemed, was still priority number one.

As a mad scientist once said, why is it so? We can’t profess to know all, but we know a little (Maybe even enough to be dangerous).

For one, it seems that COVID, in all its global upheaval has been seen for what it is…a dress rehearsal for a far greater upheaval on the horizon. If COVID is a very bad year then climate change is a very bad rest of your life and the life of pretty much every generation to come. People get this and they don’t like it. The pandemic has given a window into how badly humans act when something as simple as toilet paper is in low supply. Imagine if ecosystem collapse led every supermarket shelf to be equally empty. If we keep going polluting our air like we do, that’s exactly what is predicted to happen, somewhere around the year 2070. Sure, I’ll be eating worms by then but those of us who care about our kids don’t want to see it happen to them, so we’re voting with our wallets like never before to do what we can to stop it happening.

For two, we’ve realised the value of local. Sure, cheap Chinese imports cost less in cash but they cost the country in employment. Simply put, imports export jobs. In the COVID downturn, one of the most wonderful things we saw was the re-rise of local. People going out of their way to support the local shop, cafe or restaurant. People choosing Australian and hoping others would too so we all reap the rewards.

And trend number three, a new realisation that best things in life aren’t things. Hands up who’s enjoyed time with their partner, family or dog in a big way over the last six months and never wants to give that up again? How about those of us who suddenly realised the value of our local park to escape the walls of our home office, to exercise or just breathe?

To my mind, these are the three big changes COVID has brought and they aren’t going away.

So what opportunity does this offer marketers?

First, if your product or service hasn’t considered its social and environmental impact and started on a path to not just doing less bad but doing more good, then you’re missing the next big consumer trend. In fact, it’s well and truly already here, it’s just not quite fully mainstream. Yet.

Second, if you can do what you do in a way that benefits local community or just the country, why wouldn’t you? It’s a great story and one people want to hear a lot more about from the brands they buy from.

And finally, ask yourself, if your goal is just to sell stuff for stuff’s sake, does your business really have a future? Or is it time to think about offering something that gives people less stuff but more health, wellbeing or connection in their lives?

If we all think like this then 2021 could turn a year to forget into a decade to truly remember. For the world and the wallets of the people who help make it just a little bit better every day.

Related topics

12 Sales Trends for 2021 – The Rebuild

Has coronavirus made us more ethical consumers?

Australian Consumers are for Australia

A year ago

How to stay open for business: Selling Better during this crisis and beyond.

One Comment

  • Don Sutherland says:

    So much to like about this article, Sue.
    If COVID was the dress rehearsal, we’d all better be equipped to excel when the curtains open on Premiere Night.