数字化和大流行病的一个持久影响是消费者选择的激增。 从可以在网上购买汽车和家具，到大流行病将更多的购物推向无限的虚拟货架，消费者面临着更多的选择。 大量的选择和供应链的紧张在一定程度上影响了品牌忠诚度，但影响程度并不像你想象的那么大。而对于希望通过获取新客户来发展品牌的营销人员来说，所有这些选择都意味着对新买家的竞争更加激烈。
Though wooing new customers is a major focus for marketers, consumers are not inclined to start a relationship with a new brand. Research from Nielsen Commspoint Journey, which helps clients understand the attitudes, motivations and behaviors that lead to purchases, shows that 85% of consumer purchases in over 80 categories involved a brand the consumer had tried in the past. High levels of repeat purchasing might be expected in categories where buying behavior is highly routinized, and consumers are shopping on auto-pilot. But even in high-consideration categories, defined by purchase journeys that are typically longer than a week, hesitation with trying a new brand is still high. Nielsen data shows that in these high-consideration categories, 75% of consumers still buy from a brand they’ve bought in the past.
重复购买率高的一个可能原因是，对消费者来说，尝试一个新品牌是有风险的，因此消费者会设法避免这种风险。Commspoint Journey 的数据显示，近四分之一（22%）的美国消费者表示，在购买新品牌的过程中感到担忧或紧张。这一比例是重新购买以前购买过的品牌时焦虑程度（11%）的两倍。不出所料，在成本因素较多的品类中，消费者的焦虑感更强，如科技、汽车和金融服务。
品牌可以通过建立消费者信任来减轻消费者的犹豫不决。信任是任何品牌与消费者关系的核心，对于新的品牌关系而言，信任更为重要。根据尼尔森 Commspoint Journey 的数据，正在考虑购买新品牌的消费者比普通消费者更有可能将他们理想中的品牌关系描述为包含信任的关系，而这一比例要高出 25%。
Consumers evaluate multiple sources of information along their purchase journeys to assess a brand’s trustworthiness. A brand’s reputation, reflected in reviews and word of mouth, certainly carries significant weight. Nielsen’s U.S. Trust in Advertising survey found these sources to be among the most trustworthy among more than 20 sources considered. But it might surprise marketers to know that ads are cited more often than reviews or recommendations as useful or influential resources along the journey. According to Commspoint Journey, just 18% of new brand triers recall using reviews in their journey. By comparison, 30% used recommendations and 45% say they found advertising useful or influential.
鉴于广告的关键作用，营销人员应仔细考虑广告的投放位置。我们的美国广告信任度调查发现，在建立信任方面，赞助、报纸广告和电影前广告等营销投资最值得信任。 相比之下，出现在移动文本、在线横幅或社交媒体上的广告则被认为不太值得信任。而融合了赞助和社交元素的 "影响者"（Influencers）则被认为是其他营销投资中表现一般的。
对于那些拥有特定受众的品牌来说，了解这些受众认为哪些渠道最值得信赖，将对他们的品牌产生重要的媒体价值。例如，X一代消费者最信任广播广告，而老年人则更信任他们订阅的电子邮件广告。
对于某些类别和行业来说，选择能增加与消费者建立信任的渠道的重要性更大。消费者对政治、医药和金融服务广告的信任度最低，这意味着这些领域的广告主应选择最有可能获得消费者信任的营销渠道。
