I want it all and I want it now

Like the Queen song says ‘I want it all and I want it now’, that is the current consumer behaviour: a wide range of services, fast and in one place, almost nothing!

“How did we get accustomed to having it all and now, how did we move from a ‘multi-product’ vision to an all-in-one orientation? The new world leaders are very much to blame for that”

To start with, we need to define who the leaders are today, who the most valuable brands are today and how this indicator has shifted over the last 19 years.

The first conclusions we see in these graphs are: 

  1. The companies now at the top of the ranking have tripled the value of the leader 19 years ago and are expanding at a rate of +56%. 
  2. The current leaders were not even in the top 15 as recently as 19 years ago. 
  3. The 4 most valuable brands today are tech brands. 

“The new leaders have in common that they cover many customer needs, are technological, fast and develop trends to which the customer adjusts and not the other way round”

But why such drastic transformations in less than 20 years? The key is in the title of the article: The customer has changed and today’s customer “wants it all and wants it now”. Today’s customer has experienced (and is experiencing) three factors that in 2001 were not on the table:

Technology and internet boom

Since the turn of the century, we have gone from using the computer exclusively for work to it occupying a central place in our lives. We have access to the internet in an unparalleled way and with devices that are increasingly lighter, faster and more powerful (remember the beep when you connected to the internet?). We have access to a universe full of possibilities at the click of a button, creating… 

A more networked and informed society

We have found that we can work, talk or do any task from our couch by accessing the largest information network in history. For the first time in history, we can hold a conference with Hong Kong at the same time as we do our monthly shopping and invest in the opening of the US market… with a 100 gram device! But this whole universe of information is becoming more and more visible… 

Simplicity and integration of all services

The universe of possibilities we have at our fingertips is infinite, but we don’t want to waste time deciding or examining all the options one by one, we just want to say: “Siri, play me my favourite music” or “Alexa suggest a movie”. We want to access that information in a simple way that is fully embedded in one place. 

Finally, the question is: how are “multi-product” companies going to adapt to these behaviours and how are they going to compete with these customer attitudes? 

“The future of multi-product companies lies in adapting to these behaviours and improving their understanding of the new customer”

Following Darwin’s theory, it is not the strongest or the most clever animal that survives, but the one that best suits the change. 

Place your bets, but I certainly want it all and I want it now.