The world of VUCA has a direct impact on both sides of a sales process. It means, companies and buyers.
Businesses need to understand how to behave and change in order to maintain stability and growth in the difficult conditions of VUCA.
They should definitely survey its effects on the consumer and their reaction to the existing conditions.
Based on the design thinking process, to find the real problem and the basic question, the user and the end consumer must first be examined.
Moreover, we discuss the effects and living conditions of customers in VUCA conditions.
In a world full of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, people change their way of life and management under the influence of circumstances.
In such situations, the planning and management of people’s financial resources are affected, one of the parts that change in lifestyle is related to the ability, habits, and shopping priorities.
Prioritization
People make their purchases based on the importance of different products in their lives in critical situations.
First, they buy products that are a constant priority and meet their basic needs, such as food and medicine.
What is clear is that people will have stricter control and management to save and spend money in their own lives.
Of course, it is worth noting this issue, the manner and quality of resource management at different levels of society.
After meeting the basic needs, people focus on buying the second and third-level products for their less essential needs.
The next point affects the priority of buying people in the family. In difficult economic conditions, the priority of meeting the needs of the family goes back to children and then the elderly.
In fact, the basic needs and levels one and two of these two groups are the priority of purchase.
Then we can talk about the priority needs of levels one and two of other family members.
Businesses that are involved in meeting basic needs in the form of products and services are now less affected by market fluctuations and damage.
Financial resource management and selection
If you think of your family and their life as a small business, the amount of liquidity and savings in the family in VUCA is the same as normal, and in some cases may even be less income.
But what changes the situation is managing risk, reducing purchases, and turning to more savings to deal with unpredictable and critical situations.
In such a situation, the criteria for selecting products and services become stricter.
Based on the cognitive ladder, people’s criteria for purchasing go beyond product quality, and functionality.
They try to choose products that give them more value and reduce the percentage of purchase risk in reality.
Values that customers may have paid less attention to under normal circumstances are now becoming more important due to their greater purchasing sensitivity.
Market
In a situation where customers’ buying habits are changing based on priority and financial resource management, the market size is also changing based on the following points :
1) The overall size of the market is smaller than before. It means the decline of people who no longer buy.
2) For people who remain in the shrinking circle of the market, their number of purchases decreases.
That is, the size of the market shrinks on both sides. As the size of the market shrinks, so does the competition for customer acquisition between brands.
As the purchasing power of people in the VUCA world changes, so must the relationship between brands and customers to persuade them to buy.
Fluctuations and inflation that occur in the market have other side effects.
The position of individuals in the percentages and categories of society changes based on purchasing power.
Conclusion
In VUCA conditions, not only businesses are stressed, but also consumers, who constitute the main market, based on these tensions, changes in the way and priority of their purchases.
These changes are signs for businesses that should be approached. Customers in the world of VUCA no longer buy like normal conditions.
And without studying them, a new strategy can not be considered to advance the goals of organizations in VUCA conditions.
By: Majid Ahmadi Khoshbakht
