Consumer Behaviour
How does shrinking Consumer Attention Span Affect Marketers?
Understanding the Consumer Attention Span problem
We are surrounded by a gigantic heap of information, be it social info from Instagram or Facebook or political info from Twitter & Inshorts. Our first reflex action is to hit google whenever we have any doubt or confusion.
Also, we are shelled by distractions every moment from notifications popping up now and then in our smartphones and smartwatches.
We are surrounded by a gigantic heap of information, be it social info from Instagram or Facebook or political info from Twitter & Inshorts. Our first reflex action is to hit google whenever we have any doubt or confusion.
Also, we are shelled by distractions every moment from notifications popping up now and then in our smartphones and smartwatches.
Today, multitasking has become an essential skill for productivity & success. Multitasking/simultaneous behavior or impulse generation in marketing terms has fundamentally changed our way of operation.
As a consequence, the Average Consumer Attention Span is 8 secs(Divided attention or mindful attention), a steep fall from 12 secs back in 2000, which is even lower than the ill-focused goldfish by a sec. I have read many counterarguments like, how are we able to binge-watch a series or watch a 3 hrs movie at a stretch?. I this post I am specifically talking about Divided attention or Mindful attention.
It has been proved that a reason for the decrease in mindful attention is multiple concurrent thoughts, which not only restrict us to attend one problem at a time but prevents us from unconsciously thinking about other problems.
According to Daniel Goleman, an author and science journalist-
“It’s not the chatter of people around us that is the most powerful distractor, but rather the chatter of our own minds”.
Effect of diminishing Consumer Attention Span on Marketers
With each passing year, human attention span is decreasing by a massive 88%. For marketers, diminishing attention span is a big challenge in this age of multitasking and multiple engagement options.
This paradigm was somewhat predicted by Steve Jobs back in 1999.
According to him -
“Marketing is about values. It’s a complicated and noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.”
Among various reasons responsible for the lowering of average overall attention span, too much information is one of the major reasons. We have so much information to consume that our brains can’t keep up with the amount of information and distractions around us.
Researchers have shown that, because of our digitalized minds and high levels of internet usage, we have trained ourselves to focus on things for a very short period, and also it encourages us to hold divided attention. Apps like Tiktok or features like Instagram reels or youtube shorts bank on our short attention span.
How to deal with it?
To survive in this generation’s marketing, Marketers need open-mindedness and technological expertise more than complicated ads, flashy websites, or hyper-inflated ad-copy. But, new-age marketers believe that there is no better time to be in marketing. Marketers have adopted new ways to thrive in this market, which we will discuss in the upcoming posts.
According to Marketing Professor at Harvard Business School, Sunil Gupta-
“Market has dramatically changed in recent years, It has become much more data-driven and real-time.”
Now, researchers have found out that there isn’t a single process for holding attention. Such as -
Sustained attention (while watching a movie or binge-watching any Netflix series)
Selective attention (While reading a book or chatting with our friends)
Divided attention (While using Instagram or Facebook or watching TV)
One of the ideas for capturing consumer’s attention can be to target customers when they are applying sustained attention. It is not impossible to market in today’s age, we have to use modern technology like data analytics, real-time analysis, inbound techniques, simplistic marketing techniques to market our products and services.
