How can you use consumer behavior to advance your Creative Strategy career?
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Creative Strategy is the art and science of crafting compelling messages that resonate with your target audience and inspire them to take action. To succeed in this field, you need to understand how consumers think, feel, and behave, and how to use that knowledge to create effective campaigns. In this article, we will explore how you can use consumer behavior to advance your Creative Strategy career in six ways.
The first step to using consumer behavior to your advantage is to know your audience inside and out. You need to research their demographics, psychographics, motivations, pain points, preferences, and values. You can use various tools and methods, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, personas, and segmentation, to gather and analyze data about your audience. This will help you create relevant and personalized messages that appeal to their needs and emotions.
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Tara Ladd
I help shift perceptions to connect brands with people by fusing creative strategy with design psychology.
We hear it time and time again; know your audience. Understanding consumer behaviour enables you to dive deep into insights and emotional motivators that influence a decision. When you really know your audience, you know the difference between someone spending money on Uber Eats because they want a lazy night in vs. a busy working mother spending money on Uber Eats because she is tired, and has spent all day making decisions in both the home and work. She would rather spend that extra hour spending time with her kids instead of cooking dinner. The motivator is to spend more time with her kids. The pain point is the lack of time. Once you know this intel, you can craft emotional messages that connect deeply in the comms strategy.
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Javed Iqbal
Branding Expert & Business Strategist | Founder, B&B Consulting | Elevating Brands with Creative Twist
It's important to have a deep consumer understanding, going beyond basic demographics to psychographics and behavioural patterns. Use advanced analytics and AI tools to process large datasets for more actionable insights. Incorporating research methods, like participant observation and in-depth interviews, can provide a richer, more empathetic understanding of consumer behaviour, leading to more resonant and effective creative strategies.
The next step is to define your objectives for each campaign or project. What do you want to achieve? How will you measure your success? How will you align your goals with your audience's goals? You need to have clear and specific objectives that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. You also need to understand how consumer behavior influences the customer journey and the decision-making process. You need to map out the stages and touchpoints where you can communicate with your audience and persuade them to take action.
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Chaitanya Bailey
Engineering Growth Marketing for SaaS companies.
Establish your campaign goals Define KPIs that matter. What is your strategy aimed at? Are you increasing brand awareness, engagement or sales? Do you want to attract new customers or nurture existing ones? Do you want to communicate key brand attributes or promote a new product? When your objectives are defined objectives, you can focus on what matters most to achieve success. Align creative ideas with business growth targets for maximum impact.
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Gabriel Coppola
Business Development | Business Strategy | Customer Experience | Consumer Insight | Service Design | Strategic Design
Begin by setting an objective to thoroughly understand the basics of consumer behavior. This can include learning about psychological principles, decision-making processes, and cultural influences that shape consumer choices. Gaining a solid foundation will empower you to apply this knowledge effectively in your creative work. Develop the skills to categorize and profile different consumer groups within your target audience. By understanding various consumer segments, you can create more tailored and effective creative strategies.
The third step is to generate insights that will guide your creative strategy. Insights are the key findings or patterns that emerge from your data and research. They reveal the underlying reasons, motivations, or problems that your audience faces. They also help you identify the opportunities, gaps, or challenges that you can address with your creative solutions. You need to use critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis skills to generate insights that are relevant, actionable, and unique.
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Chaitanya Bailey
Engineering Growth Marketing for SaaS companies.
Leverage behavioral data and research learnings to define actionable consumer insights. Identify patterns and emerging trends. Identify motivations behind behaviors and attitudes. Discover unfulfilled desires. Probe pain points Identify problems consumers want solved. Pinpoint opportunities to fill gaps, improve experiences and add value. Turn insights into creative base points to develop strategies that resonate.
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Gabriel Coppola
Business Development | Business Strategy | Customer Experience | Consumer Insight | Service Design | Strategic Design
Generating meaningful insights often involves a combination of data analysis, critical thinking, and the application of domain knowledge. To generate insights, it's crucial to stay informed, gather and analyze relevant data, and apply critical thinking to draw connections and implications that can drive informed actions or decisions.
The fourth step is to develop concepts that will translate your insights into creative ideas. Concepts are the big ideas or themes that will shape your messages and visuals. They should be original, engaging, and memorable. They should also be consistent with your objectives, audience, and brand. You need to use brainstorming, ideation, and collaboration skills to develop concepts that are innovative, diverse, and effective.
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Chaitanya Bailey
Engineering Growth Marketing for SaaS companies.
Ideate with the consumer at the center. Brainstorm innovative ways to appeal to their wants, interests and emotions. Craft messages and stories that speak directly to them. Use compelling ideas to bring insights to life, Grab attention and establish connection. Build you campaign activities to meet brand strategy. Refine options that suit your audience Choose one that has the highest likelihood of driving KPIs.
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Gabriel Coppola
Business Development | Business Strategy | Customer Experience | Consumer Insight | Service Design | Strategic Design
Begin by thoroughly understanding the project's objectives and goals. What problem are you trying to solve, and what are the desired outcomes? Knowing this provides a clear direction for concept development. Encourage creative brainstorming sessions with your team or colleagues. These sessions should be open and free-flowing, allowing all ideas to be considered without judgment. Consider using techniques like mind mapping, word association, or the six thinking hats method. Document your concepts in a clear and organized manner and be prepared to adapt and pivot as needed. Consumer behavior and market conditions can change, so the ability to adjust your concepts in response to evolving circumstances is essential.
The fifth step is to execute your campaigns and deliver your messages across different channels and platforms. You need to use design, copywriting, and storytelling skills to create impactful and persuasive content that captures your audience's attention and interest. You also need to use media planning, budgeting, and scheduling skills to optimize your reach and frequency. You need to ensure that your campaigns are coherent, cohesive, and integrated.
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Roq Cleo
Design Thinking | Branding | Top 30 Leaders on LinkedIn | Top Creative Coach in PH | Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Facilitator & Consultant | Conversational AI Advocate
The execution of campaigns is an imperative step in the process, as it is the ultimate test of the ideas put forth. It is crucial to utilize a combination of design, copywriting, and storytelling expertise to construct compelling and influential content that effectively captivates the audience's attention and piques their interest. Additionally, one must employ media planning, budgeting, and scheduling acumen to maximize the extent and frequency of their reach. It is of utmost importance to guarantee that the campaigns are harmonious, coherent, and seamlessly integrated across various platforms and channels.
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Chaitanya Bailey
Engineering Growth Marketing for SaaS companies.
Bring concepts to life through well-executed campaigns. Choose channels and formats that align with media habits of your demographic. Craft creative content that stands out. Develop prototypes and gather feedback. Invest in high quality production values that reinforce brand image. Amplify reach and engagement through paid ads, influencer marketing and organic promotion. Activate campaigns through memorable experiences that engage the senses.
The final step is to evaluate your results and measure your performance. You need to use data analysis, reporting, and optimization skills to track and assess your outcomes. You need to compare your results with your objectives and benchmarks, and identify what worked and what didn't. You also need to use feedback, testing, and learning skills to improve your creative strategy and adapt to changing consumer behavior.
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Chaitanya Bailey
Engineering Growth Marketing for SaaS companies.
Track performance throughout campaigns. Monitor metrics versus goals to identify what’s connecting best with your audience. Look at engagement levels, conversions, sales, and web traffic. Survey consumers for feedback. Continually optimize based on learnings. Document lessons and insights to build on for future initiatives. Demonstrate how your creative strategies contributed to driving business results.
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Samar Younes
Cultural Alchemist | Polymathic Artist | Futures Farmer | Founder + Chief Imagination Officer (CIO) of SAMARITUAL
Consumer behavior is the north star for creative strategy. By mapping out the journey from initial curiosity to brand advocacy, we can craft experiences that resonate deeply. Start by channeling consumer narratives into your storytelling; each touchpoint should echo their aspirations and address their pain points. Utilize data analytics to predict trends, but always leave room for the unexpected—innovation often lives in the margins of consumer feedback. Remember, a strategy that evolves with the consumer’s voice isn’t just responsive, it’s prescient.
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Chaitanya Bailey
Engineering Growth Marketing for SaaS companies.
Know when to break the rules and take creative risks vs adhering to proven formulas Balance data with artful intuition to bring breakthrough ideas to life Collaborate cross-functionally for broader input on concepts Design agile campaigns that can flex and adapt in real-time Make emotional connections through creativity that taps into human truths Infuse personality and storytelling into branding and content Leverage culture and current events to create timely, relevant campaigns Blend science and imagination to unlock innovation Continuously push the envelope on innovative formats and medium