Konsumverhalten im Wandel – Trends, Zielgruppen und Technologien

to talk about the consumers as much as possible in real time, when the consumer is on the festival site and our product is consumed or is there to celebrate the success of the use of the product and also to celebrate social media, to expand this and bring it closer to a larger group. That's the high cost and who is there now in the front with "Künstliche Intelligenz" to start their teams, a great chance to take the appropriate fruits here. In a way, Gen-Z is more open for it, to apologize and give you money for clothing, beauty and other luxury and fun categories. And with that, Gen-Z sets doubts without the tone for it, which is considered to be worthwhile and defines the strategic game field for the company. That says, Reni Schmutzler is a partner in our office in Hamburg and Konstantin Habernoll is a partner in our office in Munich. And I am the moderator in today's lecture. In this episode, we want to analyze the development of consumer behavior and explain how companies can deal with it. In economic uncertainties, many consumers hold the money together. We distinguish the younger generation, like for example millennials and Gen-Z, from the older generation. We now talk about it and much more with Reni and Konstantin. Konstantin, we have changed consumer habits since the Covid-19 pandemic and which of these changes is probably permanent? The way we buy money and live has changed fundamentally in recent years. What the reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic began has developed to a sustainable change in our opinion. The focus is not only on what we buy, but above all on why we buy it. That is the core point we want to highlight in this podcast. We have brought two examples to make the whole thing more tangible. We have brought an example to this. We call it "only online" and "on-call". We have found out in our surveys that people spend more time alone and online. In comparison to the comparison of 2025-2019, giving US consumers more than three hours of free time per week, they use it for 90% of their solo activities, such as hobbies, fitness or social media. Now let's talk about why we buy various things. What influences the whole thing? We can clearly see that comfort is crucial. The fact that food delivery is booming is very beautiful. We can see that the total number of global gastronomy figures increased by 9% in 2019 to 21% in 2024, which reflects the comfort and significantly increased the online affinity. Regarding online affinity, we also see that 52% of the German consumers have used food delivery in the last month and 41% even say that they have used food delivery. Our conclusion is that consumers want to deliver everything faster, easier and directly before the house. This brings me to the mentality that it has come to stay. Another example are the digital channels. On the one hand, they are loved, on the other hand, they are very mistreated. Of course, they bring consumers and that also shows our survey. There is a lot of time on the screen, on the mobile phone and similar devices. At the same time, they trust what they do not see right there. People spend their time there. However, they estimate that social media is the least reliable source of sales for them. Interestingly, this applies both in the USA and in Europe, where social media is very far down on the trusted sources for my purchase decision. At the same time, social media has an impact on the purchase decision. A short look into the world. In India, half of the consumers research the products in the social media before they make a purchase decision. In Europe and especially in Great Britain and Germany it looks a bit different. About a quarter of the consumers who were asked to say that they use social media to compare products or to read reviews before they make a purchase decision. There is also a quarter of a market to buy, which they actually discovered on social media. At the same time, half of the consumers, the social media, do not have such a strong influence on the purchase of a brand or on the purchase of a product. For the brand leadership and the implementation, this is of course a real challenge. On the one hand, you have to be represented on social media. At the same time, it is a good art to talk to the consumers as well as possible with authenticity and personalization. And to get the half of the consumers, who have at least looked at how the product is rated and how others talk about it, or who discovered social media and then became the buyer of the product. In any case, thank you for watching. Let's take a look at consumer behavior. Is there a difference between the younger generation and the older generation? And how can the companies, especially those who address a broad group, such as individual consumers, deal with it? And now it's exciting for me. At the beginning of the podcast, I said that we have three central prognoses. We have more free time, but we use it completely differently. Local means global. And Gen Z as a game changer. And Gen Z is, I think, the one trend that is in everyone's mouth, which is also as obvious as the other two trends, but is significantly underestimated in its size. We have a few facts that are really impressive. But maybe before that, Gen Z, a short reminder for all of us, born between 1996 and 2010, we are all almost over it. Gen Z is on the way to become the well-being of the generation of history. To be honest, that sounds a bit too epochal for me, but if we see that until 2035, Gen Z will bring almost 9 billion dollars to global economy, then it will be completely fine. Why is it so relevant for our podcast? Why is it so relevant for the core consumer trends that we look at? Especially because the output of Gen Z grows twice as fast as those of the previous generation in the same age. We have seen that Gen Z just gives out significantly more than generations in the same age. And what does that mean? That's a particularly modified priority. Gen Z no longer strives for this traditional milestone like marriage, property, the classic. And the focus is no longer so much on financial security. Despite all these worries and inflation that we see today, which everyone is dealing with, Gen Z is very aware of something. And now let's talk about a few facts that are nice to stress. In Germany, 38% of Gen Z, I buy what I want, even if that means that I have to apologize for it, compare it to 23% in the average over all generations. At the same time, we also see that 20% of the asked Gen Z in Germany say, "I'm more of an outsider than a savings." That's a bold statement, compare it to 14% in the average. For the millennials, this amount is also high, but next week for the 20%. In addition, the Gen Z says 38%. It's really more important for me now to lead a good life than to plan for a financial future. And compare that to 27%. And that also fits in with my last fact, that only 25% of the Gen Z consumers live for money for savings compared to 42% of millennials. So, that was a lot of numbers, I've bombed you with numbers. But in particular, the last fact, 25% to 42% of the millennials pay back money, I think it's a absolute signifier. We wouldn't have expected that if it were to come true in the difference. But we really believe that the consumer behavior, with the view of these growing expenses, that significant higher spending potential is one of the core trends. Of course, you're asking the question, why is it being given out? What's special about the focus now? That's again, comfort, my point from before. So, especially food delivery and demand. Then it's also clothing and beauty products that are special in the focus. And it's important for companies, in our opinion, because Gen Z puts the tone there, what it really wants to earn, or what it will take as a value to earn. And that's why we say that Gen Z is also a part of the other generation, an absolute game changer, because this perception will naturally expand over time. Yes, of course, that's totally exciting how Gen Z behaves accordingly. At the same time, we also see great economic insecurities, which have also raised higher prices for themselves. And therefore, many people rather keep their expenses back. But if you give out money, what's special about it, Brene? Yes, the challenge and what Konstantin just said is that the generation Gen Z saves a lot on the one hand and also saves a lot on the other. For the food producers, it's especially challenging, because many Gen Zs assume that they want to take the savings in the area of daily needs. Because there, in relation to that, it's not about the value of a loan, or the value of a B loan. It's important to give out money. That means a manufacturer of their luxury articles, or let's say, a slightly more optional category. Then they profit from it, because in the end, they give out more money. At the same time, they cover it, and that's what I think it's about as a company. Of course, also in the daily needs, with clear communication, moments of the profit and the value of the Gen Zs. And I think that's the crux of finding it, through good consumers, research and deep understanding of this generation and the consumers in the corresponding product category. Where is the willingness to spend money in the goods of the daily needs? Yes, René, you have already said that it has to feel worth it. It has to stand behind a value. That means, how can companies strengthen trust in their brand and their products to increase the purchasing motivation, Konstantin? What we observe is that consumers set local and authenticity. And that doesn't mean that it really just has to be local companies. It doesn't have to be the Munich, the Münster, the Hamburg company. Of course, it can also be a global company, but the local needs and the authenticity are absolutely decisive. We see that 47% of consumers, almost half of them, put a high value on it to buy from local, reliable companies. Especially in the USA and Canada, the preference has been significantly increased by 2025. That means, we also expect that this effect will continue to land here. Always gain more relevance. What are the reasons for the preference of this local market? It's quite exciting. We have broken it all down. We see that only 13% believe that it is cheaper. The whole price point and the price sensitivity are not outstanding here. The whole thing is more emotionally connoted. We see that 36% of homes and companies want to support them. We see that 20% believe that local brands are better at determining their needs. I think that 20% are still a bit lower than the other markets. I have two nice examples. They show that the other international markets are already expanding. Consistently, we see that Heritage Legacy is an absolutely important role in the market. That's why the established players are well positioned here to continue to act in the face of this. As I said, the two examples. In China, 6 out of 10 beauty brands with the largest market share growth since 2020 are Chinese companies. The beauty industry in China is increasingly Chinese. Of course, we already see that in the entire auto industry and with the producers there. And the whole thing is also coming into the consumer industry. It's still not French before 2020. Sometimes it's also German or from Switzerland. But the whole thing is becoming Chinese now. And in Japan, it's also a nice fact, there are 9 out of 10 snack brands in Japan. In the meantime, also Japanese. And the snack market has often, of course, been designed internationally to be diverse in many different flavors. But here we see, of course, two extreme examples. We believe that these examples are very representative, which could be expected in Germany as well. The conclusion is relatively simple. Also global markets, but also quasi local, global active markets have to think locally, have to act like that and long-termly stay in the face. In any case, and then let's take a look from the bird's-eye perspective on this whole development. How can companies, technology and data analysis capabilities improve in order to position themselves in this fast-changing market competitively and to remain competitively? I think that first you have to realize that we probably never have so much information even over a relatively long period of time over the consumers. Because social media has now become so established that the traditional consumer research methods continue to exist. And that the consumers have also left a lot of new information in the loyalty platform of the trading partner and so on and so forth. At the same time, you have already let it sound, we see a lot of clearly faster developing trends where it is about being a manufacturer in the forest and going as early as possible to discover and to understand whether that is a trend that has potential to develop a corresponding value or a product and so on and so forth. And that is also the crux and also the possibility and a little surprising, but at the same time very challenging in the implementation is the use of artificial intelligence by Agents to spread this relatively unstructured data, some of which are incomplete data, through forces, patterns, trends, to long-term changes in consumer behavior, in consumer needs and so on. Because the better you are at it, the better you are at the manufacturers, not in excess of resources for the subject of consumer research, we have a clear view of the top three trends, the top two, three changes in the way and how consumer needs our products, our products also party on the social media and to be able to talk to consumers again and again and to talk about it as much as possible in real time when the consumer is on the festival site and our product consumes or is there to celebrate the success of the use of the product somewhere on social media, to expand that and bring it closer to a larger group. That is the high art and who is there now in front, with artificial intelligence, to expand his teams and to build up the corresponding abilities, has a great chance here also to carry the corresponding fruits. Thank you very much Rene and Konstantin for the insights into consumer behavior and how companies can go around optimally. And that was a McKinsey podcast again tomorrow. McKinsey is a world-famous company announcement to help organizations to tell sustainable and integrative growth.