The Importance of Innovation

It can be tempting to shut down new and risky projects when economic conditions are tight, and you must use your resources wisely.

Research shows that tough times are precisely when you should continue to innovate and change.

Value-focused innovation and growth can make businesses stronger than ever in a recession and this helps position them for brighter days. Manufacturers who choose to innovate are 1.8 times more likely to grow overall sales. More telling is that those who innovate during times of crisis outperform those who don’t.

Consumers also appreciate the efforts of businesses to hear their needs when money is tight, with 63% of purchasers willing to buy a product that has used innovation to make it more affordable.

Sales Trends of Consumer Goods

Five trends are shaping innovation in the consumer goods market.

1. Consumers are becoming more conscious of consumption, so companies must attempt to be sustainable and deploy ethical sourcing practices. Adopting these practices helps develop brand loyalty, but there is the risk that rising inflationary pressures will weaken this.

2. Companies that successfully embrace digital transformation will be well-positioned to rise to the consumer's demands of convenience, flexibility and speed of purchase.

3. Personalised health and wellness products that meet specific health needs are in demand. Buzzwords such as plant-based, free-from, organic, clean, natural, non-GMO, vegan, allergen-free, low sugar, whole grain, superfood, and probiotic are all used to attract health-conscious consumers.

4. Everyone wants to feel special and unique. AI and other technologies will help drive this personalisation by offering custom options to suit individual tastes and needs. For example, Samsung's Bespoke Home lineup of kitchen appliances includes a refrigerator with panels that can be customised with artwork or family photographs.

5. The rise and rise of influencer marketing means that brands collaborate with on-trend influencers to reach new audiences and develop brand loyalty. The global influencer marketing market is expected to reach US$91 billion by 2030, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.7%, according to a report by Market Research Future. Just choose your influencer carefully and have a plan to deal with any crisis should this go wrong!

Barriers to a Sustainable Lifestyle

A new report from Nielsen highlights barriers that consumers are facing to be more sustainable. As the graph shows, it’s still comes down to dollars and cents preventing us buying products that are better for the environment. With a tight economic outlook predicted for 2023 and households watching their spending, where will that leave our planet?

https://nielseniq.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/01/NIQ-2023-External-Sustainability-Report.pdf

Home is Where the Hub is

Homes have become classrooms, gyms, workplaces and bakeries. Sadly, despite multiple attempts, a 'fail' at making a sourdough starter for my family, though! People want to support their community financially with their purchasing plus there's safety by buying local - fewer hands and distance involved in the logistics. Some will always want to be in an office, but working from home and the ability to work when you wish gives a level of flexibility that will be hard to give back. There's also comment that there will be a push back to disposable products such as consumers will want 'clean before green' for a little while. And who hasn't noticed how much cleaner the air was without the rush hour commute? Now that we've experienced how nice it was, clean air activism is expected to be much more on the consumer minds. Businesses will need to reassure consumers that they are mindful of how life has changed and want to protect their customers well being.

What Christmas Shoppers Want

With the holiday season almost upon us, McKinsey has released an excellent synopsis of what consumers want when shopping this year. In short, personalise shopping offers, use an omnichannel promotion approach, and consider the challenge of shopping for others by consumers and give recommendations of what to buy earlier, rather than later in the shopping calendar.

Fastest Growing Types of Businesses

It's interesting to read what business offerings are the top 10 fastest growing in the USA right now. They include companies that offer a better sleep experience (mattresses), provide health services for older adults, give weight loss and self-confidence coaching, help deploy IT services in times of emergency, produce noodles made of veggies, and services for credit-challenged individuals. All clearly understand what the pain point is for a consumer and then provide an excellent solution to meet that unmet need.

Keywords for Consumer Preferences

Searching for research about consumer preferences and feeling frustrated that the right stuff isn't coming up?

Try using these keywords in your search such as...trends, choice, choose, demand, motivation, sentiment, outlook, forecast, attitudes, response, perception, habit, barrier, touchpoint, experience, behaviour, innovative, novel, review, and case study.

Don't forget to try American/English spellings, and the various permutations or suffixes on Google too. Note any keywords or jargon that are specific to the industry you are researching and incorporate those. There's nothing like finding that perfect piece of information you need to back up your research!

Poll and Survey Market Research

With country or regional-specific sites, You.Gov has self-selecting polls on a variety of topics from how many of us fear robots taking our jobs to how many of us eat dinner in front of the TV each night. The results aren't scientific, but the information can present some really nice jumping-off points for doing more rigorous research. Here's a diagram below featuring the countries in the APAC region which feature in the surveys.

Consumer Preference Analysis

The saying that if you build it, they will come, is an adage that as marketer researchers we simply don’t believe. Identifying a buyers' need or pain point first is crucial and then build your product or service around that by understanding what is happening in the marketplace. One of the best tools I’ve found to identify rising trends and consumer digital behaviours is the Think with Google collections of studies, analysis and reports. For example, this month I found data from Google as to what Gen Xers are watching on YouTube (turns out it is nostalgia related videos and commercials); and, the declining trends in skincare (skin bleaching, seaweed lotion and coconut oil body wraps) are all losing popularity!

New Zealand Food and Beverages

New Zealand is well known for the quality of the food it produces.

Surveys show that around 70% have a clear preference to buy food such as vegetables, meat, fruit and milk which are produced in New Zealand. Around 14% of Kiwis buy New Zealand food products because they are proud of what their compatriots have gown, but 59% strongly or somewhat agree that they buy local brands because they want to support NZ business. Sounds like identifying NZ made products is an important branding tool that food producers need to include on their packaging to attract consumers.  

Made in...NZ? Preferences for Local and Global Brands

Price and Product Choice for Consumers

In 2015, New Zealand consumers were introduced to 13,984 new branded products. Nielsen found that only 64 (0.4%) had sales over $NZ1 million, with only 7 products being truly innovative new offerings. The rest were just line extensions. Manufacturers seem to be sticking to rather boring ways of growing their market share and in turn, reinforcing price sensitivity. However, smart, nimble small innovators have a chance to grab a slice of the market if they can look at changing demographics and target those with growing populations. Think Chinese, South Korean, Indian and Pacific Island peoples, as well as the growth in millennials and the over-50s.

The Sharing Economy

Uber and AirBnB are changing the face of not only holiday travel, but business travel too. With events such as the World Cup in Brazil and the New York Marathon, these 'sharing' companies help fill the gaps of traditional accommodation and transport providers by providing personalised experiences. Now companies such as Experient, which is the world’s largest third-party meeting management company, are offering conference attendees the opportunity to book AirBnB apartments close to convention centres as well as hotels. Families traveling on holiday, while Mum or Dad go to a conference come to mind as a segment that will want this option.

Online Shopping Trends

Nielsen’s recent online retail report has driven home the message that the online shopping habits of Kiwis are quickly evolving. No longer a remote set of islands unable to access the latest products, New Zealand can now provide consumers who have access to the internet with a variety of unique and often more cost effective products than found in local stores. But what is driving e-commerce for Kiwis?

The ‘Why Behind The Online Buy’ summarises Nielsen’s report into a 40:40:20 split, finding that convenience, price and range are the main driving forces. Using mobile devices to shop is continuing as a growing trend with 23% of online shoppers buying via smartphones and 19% buying via tablets. Online store owners can help meet the drive for value, thanks to not having to pass on the costs incurred with a bricks and mortar store.

Christopher Adams of the New Zealand Herald last year predicted the growth of the retail trends “show rooming" and "click and collect” for online shoppers; this prediction has proven to be accurate, with a continuation of these trends well into 2015. Nielsen’s report confirms these details with 57% of shoppers having ‘show-roomed’, which is the act of finding a product in store, but then purchasing online for a lower cost.

One downfall to the online shopping trend is the large increase in product returns. Much of this can be attributed to the inability of the customer to see, touch and if applicable, try on the object for themselves, often leading to disappointment.  theregister.co.nz urges New Zealand retailers to consider interactive website features such as comprehensive zoom functions and dressing room style features to combat these high product return rates.

Top 10 Global Consumer Trends

Here’s a great report from Euromonitor that picks up on common consumer trends around the world. The free report is packed with supporting data, charts, logical analysis, case studies, and specific examples, all written in an easy to understand way. There's a section on how to market to millennials, the growing importance of connected health technology, the consumer as an influencer, and 'sharing' - the rise of lightweight living, where the benefit of belongings such as cars and homes can be shared by others.

If you want to understand how your business can be affected by these big picture trends, this report covers it all.

Media Monitoring

Market research reports are great to get a feel of a market, but the information can become dated very quickly. A change of government, a competitor goes broke, or new technology can disrupt a market quickly and change consumer preferences. You need to use other information sources to validate what is going on now, and what it might be like in the future. Otherwise, you could be basing decisions on information that is out of date.

So... where do you go to supplement and validate market research info?

• Google News is the first obvious place to start. You can search for the keywords pertaining to your industry and set up alerts so that you can monitor the market in the future.

• News agencies like Reuters and Bloomberg all have websites and Twitter feeds which can help you. Other agencies which offer some free info on global trends include Time and Forbes.

• Twitter (by searching hashtags) and Facebook pages also offer news updates.

• Don’t forget about Idealog as well as Stuff and NZ Herald websites.

• LinkedIn Groups are also a great way to keep up with play. These industry forums are a great place to ask questions about a market. Of course, you need to balance this up with the knowledge that everyone on the forum may have an inkling that you are interested in this specific market, but you can get valuable information and advice.

The info sources above are just a taste of where you can look to check that the information you have is up-to-date. Don't forget to contact any subject matter experts that you might find mentioned in news reports or on Linked In. Most people are only too happy to present their opinions or give advice, providing you are upfront and honest about what you want to use the information for. Competitor websites that have media releases on them are also useful, plus monitoring job websites like Seek over a period of time can give an indication about what new skill-sets are needed to support your competitors' strategy.

New Zealanders Online Shopping Habits

In 2014, New Zealand online shopping patterns changed, reflecting pressure on time felt by consumers, improved logistics, globalisation and smartphone ownership.

• NZ annual online spending is now equivalent to around 9.5% of traditional retail sales (excluding grocery and liquor).

• More and more Kiwis are choosing to shop online at international merchants - around 43% of all online sales.

• The number of international online purchases will be more than domestic online purchases within two years.

• Daily online deals are on the way out, as consumers get tired/bored with them.

• Smartphones are being used more to source and purchase online shopping deals.

To manage and exploit these changes, businesses need to :

• Segment customers - target and treat them well.

• Use payment systems such as Apple Pay.

• Get customers to create content for them - reviews of products for example, which help convert sales.

• Give customers info they can use via their smartphone. eg. QR codes, consumer reviews.

Source: eCommerce.org.nz

Consumer Purchasing Trends in China

The world is getting ever smaller owing to improved technology and transportation. But with the opportunities this increased global reach brings us, comes the complexities of understanding an international customer base. In this issue of Insights (Heath Research's newsletter), we highlight two websites that will help you gain this wider perspective: China Skinny and the Economist Intelligence Unit. Also find out about SimilarWeb, another online resource to add to your analytics toolkit.

Consumer Shopping Behaviours

Nielsen report that more Australian consumers shopped online in 2013 than those who did online banking. They also say that nine in 10 (89%) of consumers purchased a product online last year. Some products have higher purchasing rates online than others. Online research on printed books, clothing and digital music have high online purchasing rates, whereas online-to-offline sales are the best for grocery shopping, liquor, restaurant, clothing and pharmacy items. By using a smartphone, consumers can be in a bricks 'n' mortar store but online as well, doing research. More than one in 10 online Australian shoppers use their smartphone to make a purchase and the same proportion purchase via tablet (13%).