Name: Brainstorm Tech 2023: Frommer’s Guide To The New Consumer
Uploaded: 2023-07-12
Duration: 11 min 6 s
Description: Dan Frommer, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The New Consumer

Dan Frommer, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The New Consumer 

Brainstorm Tech 2023: Frommer’s Guide To The New Consumer 

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As we reflect on the discussions held today about the ever changing landscape of the tech industry. It's clear that one of the driving forces behind its evolution is the needs and wants of the end user understanding consumer behavior is a multi faceted task and a reflection of many factors, both macro and micro, some of which are too difficult for companies to decipher in real time to shed light on this complex subject. We are thrilled to welcome Dan Frommer, the editor in chief of the New Consumer, a publication that specializes in analyzing how people spend their time and money and why with his expertise in understanding consumer behavior, Dan is here to provide valuable insights into this intricate landscape. Please give a warm welcome to Dan Frommer. Hello, good afternoon. I'm Dan Frommer. I am the founder of the new consumer. I'm going to be launching this giant new report next week and I'm very excited to give you a sneak peek here at brainstorm Tech. This is the world debut as soon as it comes up. All right, titled Ai Ozempic and the Economy. The three things that matter right now A I is the obsession of the year. The media can't stop talking about it. News articles have spiked this year. You also can't stop talking about it. This is a massive rise in mentions on earnings calls just this past quarter tracked by Bloomberg. Why now for a I of course, another decade of technological process progress, useful and novel products finally coming to market. And the truth is many companies just need a new growth narrative. So it's a I a big part of our research is what we call the consumer trend survey. We just wrapped one up a few weeks ago, 3000 us consumers performed by our partner to Luna. We spend a lot of time thinking the new consumer, digital natives. And in this case, more than half of gen Z and millennial consumers say they already consider themselves ai experts extremely or very familiar with AI in terms of awareness, Chat GPT is winning. More than a third of us consumers have heard of Chat GPT followed by products from Google, Microsoft and Adobe trillions of dollars of economic impact coming from AI. According to mckinsey. According to our research, more than a quarter of us workers say they're worried AI will replace them at work within five years, slightly higher among higher earners and lower earners. However, most 100 K plus household income workers say they are already using A I tools for work. Lower earners say they haven't but certainly trying to harness the productivity there. Most humans still want humans as their doctors and lawyers. In our research, only 12% of people said they would trust an AI doctor more than a human doctor. Same for lawyer and really seem for assistant financial advisor a little more interest in AI tools there. However, the more someone says they know about AI, the more willing they are to trust an AI doctor. And in fact, the people who are extremely familiar with Ai already more than a third of them say they would trust an Ai doctor, more than a human ai and culture. Half of Gen Z and millennial consumers say they consider A I to be art slightly different for older demographics. The question is, will AI come to dominate entertainment? And here 41% of Gen Z and millennials at least somewhat agree that 20 years from now, most movies, art, music and books will be created by AI and almost 40% somewhat agree that the best media will be created by Ai within 20 years. Of course, what will A I do to society? Key question here in our poll, more than half of consumers within 20 years expect a total lack of trust in visual or audio content acceleration and scientific advancement, which is great math transformation and evolution of jobs. Only about a third of consumers think that A I will turn on us and that robots will take over. So we'll see about that How does A I make you feel younger consumers chose? Excited, hopeful and then worried, older consumers immediately jumped too worried. More than half of Gen X and Boomers scared was second place and then hopeful. Excited lower on the list there switching gears. More Americans in our research would rather feel 25% healthier than earn 25% money. This is consistent across all household income groups, weight remains. America's top health concern. More than a third of Americans are concerned about their weight, including half of those who have self identified as overweight in our research. This is prescriptions for Ozempic and other diet drugs have soared in popularity especially since around two years ago. The FDA approved their use for weight loss. Almost 40% of Americans last month, say they've heard of Ozempic lower awareness for some other drugs including we go, which is the one that is actually approved for weight loss. But the bottom line is these drugs are very appealing. 56% of our consumers who want to lose weight and are familiar with the drugs say they are extremely or very interested in using one. It is much higher among millennials among men. Urban consumers, those with income over 100 K and of course, those who self described as very overweight. However, there are lots of to consider here, what will these drugs do to society, a positive impact or a negative impact? And here's where we see a generational difference as well. Millennials, the highest positive impact, 60% of millennials think these drugs are great. And then the next generation, Gen Z actually had the highest proportion of those saying it's going to have a negative impact on society. Still more positive than negative. But interesting to see that. Now, of course, the economy, even as inflation has cooled, 60% of our survey panel still says it feels like prices have increased a lot over the past six months. The good news is that that's down from 73% when we asked the same question in February right now, consumer spending is actually tracking down year over year. This is true both online and in store. This is earnest analytics, credit card and debit card data. As of yesterday, one category that is still doing well are restaurants taking the lead again from grocery spending after those pandemic years and restaurant delivery apps. Actually one of the few industries that has maintained its COVID growth or at least the bump that it got the COVID bump still here into mid 2023 half of Americans in our research say they order food delivery or take out at least weekly that is much higher among younger consumers, urban consumers and those with one or more Children and interesting, it actually seems to have very strong product market fit. We segmented our audience into those who order delivery at least once a week and those who do it less frequently and the people who it love it, 63% of them say food tastes as good as it does in the restaurant. I'm not sure I would say that, but these people really like it more than half enjoy the take out delivery experience more than going to a restaurant much lower among those who don't use services. And they even think that doordash and Uber are good companies more than people who don't use these services. Almost two thirds. And another interesting thing is that these apps have opened a wider range of food options for a lot of people including digital only virtual restaurants. And another generational difference here, more than 70% of Gen Z and millennial consumers say at least sometimes they order food from restaurants. They've never been to physically much different among their parents and grandparents. Zooming back out. Good news. Consumer sentiment is up from this time last year, still below its pre COVID levels. And in our research too, the consumer is more optimistic than they were this time last year, 47% say they feel moderately or very optimistic about their financial situation over the next 12 months. That's up from 35% when I was here last year. Speaking of bank crises, as we talked about yesterday, most Americans trust banks with their money. But interestingly, Gen Z is not so on board with that actually, 30% of our survey panel says they do not believe their money is safe in the bank among Gen Z. How about a net promoter score for being alive? We ask people just how satisfied are you with life right now? On a scale of 1 to 10, the average is 6.6 in June higher among millennials and the silent generation, the oldest Americans, one of the highest demographics we've seen higher for men, more than women higher for urban consumers, more than suburban and rural, highest among 100 K plus earners. And then this is one of my favorites. Higher. If you have one kid, then higher if you have a second kid. But if you have a third kid, it starts to go down after that other good news though, life satisfaction is on the rise last last year, it was 5.8 and now 6.6. So good, good thing. One thing that returned to work seems very much stalled. This number has not risen above 50% in the castle, return to work Ammeter. And again in survey last month, 79% of consumers say they believe they should have the legally protected right to work remotely if technology and the nature of their work permits. It that is up from 75% this time last year, even higher among women, Gen Z and millennials and people with Children. Of course, more weird times ahead. As I say, we are thinking about banning tiktok in this country. In our survey, there is a vast difference in opinions between monthly active tiktok users and people who don't use Tik Tok. Only a quarter of active users think tiktok should be banned. Two thirds of non users think it should be favorable perception. Three quarters of tiktok users think Tik Tok is great. Only 5% of non tiktok users have a favorable opinion of the company. Interesting and then in terms of banning it, support for banning it rises with age, only 20% of Gen Z thinks tiktok should be banned and almost two thirds of boomers do. And then we also have another, we have an election coming up next year. 40% of our survey panel says they would vote for Donald Trump if he runs next year, 12% is undecided. And then only 2% of our consumers say Elon Musk would be the best leader for the United States today. That is down from 4% last year. But what's neat here is if you look all the way at the bottom 10% of Gen Z and granted, many of them are not legal voters say Elon and AOC combined are their leader of the choice. Thank you so much to my partners at Coefficient Capital. My partners in this project. Thank you to Fortune for having me and thank you so much for your attention. Appreciate it.