Brands alienate customers with bad content

Every brand experience begins with inspiring content. In other words, brands can only score points with their customers if the right content is delivered to the right customers at the right time. Germany's consumers see it exactly the same way: almost one in two has already bought something simply because they liked a brand's content. However, if the content is not right, 67 percent immediately abandon the purchasing process. As a direct consequence of poor content, around one in four (24 percent) describe a drastic drop in brand loyalty. Just as many consumers (24 percent) would no longer recommend this brand to others in the future. For 12 percent, the brand would even have done away with once and for all. These are the findings of the latest "Adobe Consumer Content Survey 2018," for which a good 1,000 German consumers were surveyed.

"Content continues to be one of the hottest topics in marketing. After all, successful customer experiences can only really be implemented with the right content on the right channel," says Axel Schäfer, Senior Manager, Product & Industry Marketing EMEA at Adobe. "The message from consumers is abundantly clear in our latest study: good content and the associated experience is more important to them than the brand. The quality of content makes all the difference and ultimately determines customer loyalty and revenue. Brands must adapt to this if they want to remain relevant and successful in the future."

The quality of the content makes all the difference and ultimately determines customer loyalty and sales.

What satisfies consumers

According to the study, it should primarily be informative (82 percent), correct and precise (74 percent) and simple (53 percent). Entertaining (37 percent), interactive (30 percent) and beautifully designed content (24 percent) are less important to German consumers. They find it particularly annoying if the content is too long or poorly written (44 percent), too poorly designed (37 percent) or not of sufficient value (36 percent). To put it in a nutshell: good content must have personal relevance for the consumer. To create relevant content, however, it is necessary to bring together content and customer information. This is because it is only the data that makes it possible to tailor content to customer needs and thus make the content relevant. From a technical point of view, problems with interaction due to non-functioning links (46 percent), excessively long loading times (44 percent) and poor display on the respective screen (30 percent) in particular prove to be true content killers.

From a technical point of view, problems with interaction due to broken links (46 percent), excessively long loading times (44 percent) and poor display on the respective screen (30 percent) in particular prove to be real content killers.

Informative, authentic, funny

Compelling online content is shared daily by 15 percent of Germans with their community. Content delivered by brands can't keep up: Only 7 percent regularly share branded content. According to the consumers surveyed, brand content that is informative and not too promotional (45 percent), authentic (34 percent) and funny (31 percent) has the greatest chance of being shared. Branded content is seen as particularly helpful if it provides tips and information on how to use products or services (48 percent), makes it easier to choose between different products and services (46 percent) or if it introduces a service or product that the consumer is not yet familiar with (30 percent). In general, Germans are most likely to share content that comes from their friends or family (52 percent) - followed by content from online news sources (33 percent), YouTube or social media stars (29 percent) and brands from which they have purchased a product (24 percent). In times of fake news & co., however, 78 percent of Germans are significantly more cautious than they were five years ago when it comes to sharing online content.

Multiscreen - but two devices are enough

Overall, the consumers surveyed spend an average of a quarter of their day (5.8 hours) engaging with online content. 41 percent regularly use several devices at the same time for this purpose, but most rarely use more than two (65 percent). In addition to laptops and desktop PCs (75 percent), smartphones (69 percent) and tablets (37 percent) are the preferred channels for accessing content.

In addition to laptops and desktop PCs (75 percent), smartphones (69 percent) and the tablet (37 percent) are the preferred channels for accessing content.

Even in brick-and-mortar retail, just under one in two (49 percent) use their smartphone to obtain information before making a purchase. Wearables (6 percent), digital displays (3 percent) and IoT devices (2 percent), on the other hand, have hardly played a role so far. Over the next five years, consumers expect to see increased use of home entertainment streaming devices (76 percent), smart speakers and home assistants (58 percent) and digital displays (51 percent).

Brand website and the stationary store

When looking for a product, the brand website and the brick-and-mortar store remain the first port of call for customers (50 and 49 percent respectively). However, recommendations from friends and family (34 percent), online blogs, forums or news (19 percent) and social networks (15 percent) are also important to them. The mobile app or emails from the relevant brand rank far behind in consumers' product research (10 percent each).