Carrot crunch makes us feel good
There's no escaping the impact of the recession; it's been affecting everyone. MMR Pulse (our syndicated trend-tracking service) takes a look at how ordinary consumers are responding to the challenging economic climate. Here's just a few of the main trends we have been sharing with our clients over the last few months.
Less disposable income has increased consumers' engagement in the shopping experience. Where before they would go round the supermarket on auto-pilot, now they actively seek promotions and bargains and spend longer on the shopping process to seek out the best possible value. Comparing prices online has increased as has visiting more than one supermarket. Many believe their money-saving behaviour will continue post recession; we find a reluctance to revert back to the old ways just in case the economy downturns in the future. Once the economic situation improves and they continue to shop carefully, some feel the spare money they have can be spent on better defined "proper" luxuries e.g. holidays, rather than be diluted across a large number of food and drink treats.
Eating out is not recession-proof. Consumers say they are doing it less frequently and switching to takeaways or supermarket 'meal deals' e.g. from M&S/Waitrose to still get a treat. General treating behaviour is decreasing, being swapped in favour of foods which go further or fill you up for longer such as pulses, beans, bread and more fruit & vegetables (for example carrots!). As a side benefit of economising, many consumers feel they are increasing their healthiness by eating more of these foods and less of the 'baddies'. Organic and ethical foods, on the other hand, are struggling to retain customers down to their premium prices and less tangible benefits.
Most intriguingly, we see evidence of a 'feel good factor' coming through despite the economic downturn - an emotionally satisfying bi-product of economising. Consumers are proud of being so thrifty. That makes an interesting change from the days when people said they could not afford to buy healthy!
Published on 06.04.2009