iSense Modern Consumer Trends Tracker: 84 percent of the people in urban in Romania would choose a brand that cheers them up

Romanita Oprea Consumption Habits, Marketing

Among the most important trends that will influence Romanians behavior in 2019 are the responsibility towards the environment, the interest for gamification and the preference for interacting with the brands through technology, shows the study iSense Modern Consumer Trends Tracker,  done annually by the market research company  iSense Solutions. The data were taken in January 2019 and are representative for the urban population.

The responsibility towards the environment

Romanians start to pay attention not only to the quality of their life, but also to the impact their actions have over the environment. Therefore, in 2019, 8 in 10 persons reuse the stores’ bags (compared to 74 percent in 2018), while the percentage of those who recycled grew from 51 percent in 2018, to 58 percent in 2019. Moreover, 28 percent of the consumers bought products from the companies that get involved in protecting the environment, the trend being significantly bigger among the youngsters between 18-23 y.o. (41 percent).

Gamification and interactivity 

The consumers of our days got used to not being bored. In 2019, they want brands to make them happy: 77 percent declared this in 2019 compared to 71 percent in 2018. Moreover, 84 percent of the people in urban in Romania would choose a brand that cheers them up. The percentage grew significantly compared to last year (79 percentage) and it’seven higher among the young people between 18 to 23 years old – in their case, 88 percent would choose this type of brand.

Brands friends with technology

Romanians embrace the usage of technology in relation with the brands – 58 percent consider useful the augmented reality in interaction with a brand. The consumers would use the augmented reality for: choosing the holiday destination (60 percent), choosing a house that is in project state (51 percent), choosing a hospital / clinic before contracting  (45 percent), choosing the furniture (45 percent), viewing the locations from which the products come (43 percent), choosing a car (35 percent).

The percentage that used the voice search apps on the smartphone grew significantly in 2019 compared to 2018 (51 percent versus 38 percent) and from the ones that used them, significantly more consider them useful (88 percent in 2019 vs. 79 percent in 2018).

Consumers would use a vocal app to search information (58 percent), activities in the household for turning on / turning off the TV (54 percent), starting some applications (45 percentage), for conversations (29 percentage), for buying some products (17 percent).

The behavior of the Romanian consumers is changing and the brands need to take that in account. They can win a good part of the consumers over by making recycling easier, helping at acknowledging the food waste and using technology in order to ease the consumer’s life. In 2019, brands can attract the attention over them and can prove the utility by interacting and creating engagement in interactive and fun ways for the consumer,” said Traian Nastase, Managing Partner iSense Solutions.

The data were gathered in January 2019, the research being done online on 1011 respondents and is representative at an urban level in Romania, with an error margin of +/- 3,1 percent, at a level of trust of  95 percent. The data are compared with similar research conducted between 2014-2018 and are part of iSense Modern Consumer Trends Tracker, the tool that monitors over 25 behavioral trends of the consumer in Romania.