Even in 2026, necessity and value beat novelty way more often than we want to think.

I see a contrarian signal hiding in plain sight right now.

Despite all the noise around emerging tech, retail reinvention and AI-driven everything, consumer buying behavior is staying stubbornly grounded.

Value first.

Essentials prioritized.

Discretionary buys and upsells getting swatted away like pesky flies.

McKinsey’s latest consumer research confirms what many founders feel but few plan around.

Households are increasingly cautious, seeing their spending power chopped lower and lower by inflation.

Price sensitivity is super high, driven by real pain.

Spending is careful and folks are forcing themselves to suppress their impulses.

This is not a blip tied to one news cycle.

The longer it goes on, the more it becomes a structural behavior pattern.

Just like the way my wife’s grandmother washed and re-used plastic bags because she’d lived through the depression, people are NOW being molded for the long term.

That matters because most product launches assume buyer optimism.

Excitement.

Curiosity.

Eagerness to experiment.

But your real buyers are asking a tough question:

Do I NEED this, and will it earn its place?

Innovation has to justify itself faster.

Products win now when they frame themselves as sensible, stabilizing, or cost avoiding.

If your product lives in a discretionary category, your positioning has to borrow gravity from necessity.

If it already solves a real problem, say so sooner and more plainly.

The mistake is chasing excitement when the buyer is seeking reassurance.

Trends come and go. Budget psychology sticks around, and evolves with the times.

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing consultants at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.