The End of Consumerism Part II

In August I posted on the End of consumerism.

How everyone laughed. Well, no one actually laughed. But no one actually read it either.

Environics Social Values data has shown the following in Canada. In 1995 51% of Canadians agreed with the statement "To spend, to buy myself something new is one of my greatest pleasures in life". That has steadily dropped to 37% in 2008.

The recession brings worries but it also seems to bring a real sense that justice is coming and that consumption and choice have become execessive.

The key is how Gen Y behave. The baby boomers have embraced consumerism as one aspect of the choice and freedom they cherished. They no longer need it. Gen Y appear to be less focused on progress through choice of products but on experience.

This Neuroscience Thing

Everywhere you turn in market research there's someone talking neuroscience and telling us how surveys blow and you need to read the brain to get the truth.

But when my daughter started her new science project, I knew this thing had done got out of hand.

What will happen?

Everyone is asking that, eh? And no one knows. I am preparing a presentation on changing Canadian shopper behaviour in economic hard times and am looking back to the last recession in 1990 to see what Canadians did. But so much has changed since then it is hard to call.

A couple of things are coming up - "health & wellness" will stay a consumer motive - because it is driven by demographics. Green consumerism ... not so sure. Partly because some of the data I have been looking at make it apparent that currently a lot of it is more consumerism than green.

So much of what is happening in the States ...the shift to private labels and general merchandise for grocery shopping is not relevant here.

How Canadians Shop

How Canadians Shop

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: shopper behaviour)

A presentation I recently gave to the Market Research and Intelligence Association Toronto Chapter

Rubbish

Sometimes you read some writing on a piece of research that is so awful that you want to give in.

This is such a piece:

Meanwhile, the percentages of consumers who indicated that they consider "brand name" among the factors they consider when buying food were eye-opening: U.S., 35%; UK, 24%; Germany, 16%; Argentina, 45% and China, 45% (for an average of 33%).

While this doesn't mean that brands play no role in purchasing decisions, it's clear that for growing numbers of consumers throughout the world, brand names lag well behind not only taste, quality, price and health benefits, but factors such as perceived value and convenience of preparation, according to Eatherton.

Wow. That's amazing, eh? Consumers do not line up to tell researchers that brands influence their decisions. And "taste" and "quality" are more important! What next? Consumers telling us that they are not influenced by advertising? How eye opening.

Let's abandon all communication on brand benefits. Unless of course ......wait a minute....maybe the benefits that the brand communicates are "taste" ..."quality"...."convenience" ....

This makes me dizzy

I am just getting used to the idea of dynamic, digital advertising in stores and now ....this. Technology "that could eventually bring low-cost streaming video to printed displays, packaging, direct mail or magazine inserts".

Amazing. I guess stores are on the verge of getting very entertaining ...or irritating.

Male Shoppers and Social Values

I recently presented some of our shopper research to a meeting of international colleagues at an Iris network conference and was showing the share of grocery trips taken by gender.

In Canada, we estimate that 39% of all trips (including personal care, quick trips etc.) are made by males shopping alone. My colleagues from Netherlands and Germany expressed surprise and assumed that these numbers would be different in their markets.

It was only our Australian colleague who suggested it would be similar in Australia. Canada and Australia and similar in many respects (although it is slightly colder here). But two facts would drive this in my opinion - both are highly urbanized (hence a higher incidence of quick trips) and both are fairly "progressive" in terms of social values. We often contrast with the relatively low % agreement with the statement that "the man is always head of the household" in Canada with that in the US. This could certainly impact shopping styles ...will investigate this further.