{"id":2477,"date":"2013-07-12T12:53:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T16:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.epictranslations.com\/?p=2477"},"modified":"2013-07-12T12:53:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T16:53:36","slug":"developing-a-fine-grained-look-at-how-digital-consumers-behave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.epictranslations.com\/ger\/developing-a-fine-grained-look-at-how-digital-consumers-behave\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing a fine-grained look at how digital consumers behave"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Consumers are changing the ways they use digital platforms at lightning speed. To benefit, companies must take a refined look below the surface to understand who is doing what.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s hardly news<\/strong>\u00a0that consumer behavior is changing fast\u2014digital activities are growing rapidly in every sphere.\u00a0Almost half of all video viewing in the United States, for example, takes place in ways that barely existed a generation ago\u2014either time shifted (using digital video recorders or video on demand) or device shifted (onto laptop, tablet, or mobile-phone screens). Music is even more digital: upward of two-thirds of usage involves streaming services, MP3 files, or satellite radio. And mobile-phone usage has overtaken landline voice among every age group.<\/div>\n
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To benefit from changing consumer behavior, companies cannot rely only on headline numbers and the trends they suggest. Today, the dramatic reversals suffered at the hands of digital media\u2014think of falling newspaper-ad revenues and the sales swoon of compact discs\u2014may seem obvious or easily foreseeable. In reality, understanding and acting on the probable contours of change requires reflection and a deep knowledge of customer behavior, industry dynamics, and feedback loops. These insights can help players reshape their business models to exploit structural changes and cushion potential shocks.<\/p>\n

Our experience is that within broad consumer movements, small groups of users (often overlooked in cursory analyses) actually drive the economics. Achieving a more refined understanding of who is doing what requires a thoughtful segmentation\u2014incorporating data about consumers\u2019 demographics, household characteristics, usage patterns, spending, attitudes, and needs\u2014supported by \u201cbig data\u201d analytics.<\/p>\n

For example, in our iConsumer research,\u00a0we identified four kinds of European mobile-phone users and their usage patterns. Our analysis illuminated that market\u2019s underlying value-creation potential. We called consumers who largely use voice, even with their smartphones,\u00a0traditionalists<\/em>\u00a0in our study.\u00a0Data practicals<\/em>\u00a0use very little voice but lots of data.\u00a0Data entertainers<\/em>\u00a0also use little voice but are heavy users of video, music, and games.\u00a0Mobile omnivores<\/em>\u00a0are superusers of both voice and data services (Exhibit 1). While the omnivores and entertainers collectively represent just 23 percent of the population, they consume more than 85 percent of all data traffic\u2014and pay roughly the same monthly service fees that the other two groups do.<\/p>\n

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Exhibit 1<\/h4>\n

Different mobile-phone user segments behave quite differently.<\/p>\n