You want to buy a new jean jacket. What’s the first thing you do to get started in your process of finding that perfect jacket for you? The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone reading this because research says it depends on what generation you are part of. It also depends on which populations we look at around the world. For the sake of this article we will stick with the states. Let’s start by taking a look at each form of product discovery and how each generation takes part. According to HubSpot research, the most popular forms today, in order of usage are: web searches, retail store, television ads, word of mouth, online reviews, social media, and YouTube ads. It’s interesting to note that Boomers are the highest percentage in each category followed successively in the order of younger generations. However, once you reach the social media category and YouTube ads this trend changes. Gen Z takes the lead for highest percentage in each category followed by older generations successively (HubSpot). Looking to other statistics of overall sources of information on products in the U.S. this year, search engines still top at 55% of all people, customer reviews & online stores tie at 33%, 30% of people in the store, followed by 29% on brand websites and apps (Statista). There is some overlay here. Both contain that search engines at the number one spot. They both include online reviews and retail stores. Focusing highly on these for your brand to increase product awareness is a good way to for new products to hit the market. We could dive much deeper into this topic but the rabbit hole is quite long. We will leave you with this concise snippet of the top ways that people discover new products.
