El blog de UMAAN

There is much talk about consumer needs that have been enhanced by the digital age, such as the immediacy , the personalization , etc. In this article I am going to focus on a social phenomenon that radically influences the speed of expansion of these needs that finally originate the digital wave. We call this phenomenon Liquid Expectation.

What is liquid expectation?

Liquid Expectation is a term that we use a lot in UMAAN based on the concept of Liquid Society or Modernity developed by the Polish-British sociologist, philosopher and essayist Zygmunt Bauman, to refer to a characteristic that is evident in today’s society, a society that more and more quickly can generate ruptures in the beliefs and fixed structures of the past, and where each individual creates their reality, in an environment where everything is temporary and unstable (it could be said that this concept was the precursor of the VUCA concept that so much we use today)

Liquid Expectation is a phenomenon of human nature and shows us how:

When a human need is satisfied with innovation generating a better experience, the human being naturally changes their expectations and expects this same level of satisfaction from other brands in similar problems.

This phenomenon is clearly manifested when a company provides an innovative solution (often applying technology) to a consumer problem. When this happens, from this new experience, the person extrapolates this expectation, expecting the same from the rest of the sectors, comparing them at all times and demanding the same level of solution.

An example: How Uber generated liquid expectation

To better illustrate this phenomenon, let’s remember the time when people lined up at bus stops to take a taxi. It was an activity that we considered normal in our day to day, until technology appeared, an application that allowed us to request a taxi from the comfort of our homes, without even having to leave it. When this consumer knows a service that elevates his experience to another level, he hopes that he will no longer have to queue anymore, not only when ordering a taxi, but also when using other types of services.

It is there when it could be said that the bases of the needs of consumers at the level of society begin to be upset.

Our conclusion

Finally, we could say that what puts companies in check is that change in the consumer’s need by wanting something new and different, and that many times, the competition satisfies thanks to a more agile operation and a better value proposition, providing them with a best experience. Competition that is no longer only local, but now, a product of globalization, is beginning to be foreign.

That is the urgency of transforming ourselves today as a company;   To adapt and be able to keep up with a fast-moving and unpredictable market. Where we have on one side an increasingly agile competition with a greater competitive advantage, and on the other, a digital consumer more demanding than before, and rapidly changing needs.