Global Consumer Trends: Connectivity

Published by: Datamonitor

Published: Oct. 9, 2009 - 35 Pages

Table of Contents

Overview

Catalyst

Summary

Table of Contents

Table of figures

INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF TREND-TRACKING

Tracking consumer mega-trends is fundamental to long-term success

Trend-tracking insight 1: mega-trends can be classified in two ways according to desirable product/service benefits and societal complexities

Trend-tracking insight 2: trends are aligned with pre-existing, but evolving human values, attitudes, needs and behaviors

Trend-tracking insight 3: mega-trends can be broken down into trends and sub-trends to provide structure and clarity at a time of 'information overload'

Trend-tracking insight 4: manufacturers, retailers and researchers/futurologists perpetuate trends

Trend-tracking insight 5: adopting a broader, global perspective to trend-tracking facilitates better decision making by overcoming 'category myopia'

Trend-tracking insight 6: trends have longer-term implications than fads and can be categorized by evolvement

Trend-tracking insight 7: for every trend there is a 'counter-trend' while 'trend-crossover' is also an important phenomena

Takeouts and implications: a trend framework boosts the quality and frequency of insight generation ensuring maximum return from the broader market research processes in place

THE FUTURE DECODED

MEGA-TREND SYNOPSIS: Consumers desire an altruistic lifestyle that is rich in relationships and belonging

TREND: Ethical and Environmental Consumerism: awareness and concern of ethical environmental issues is at an all-time high and this increasingly directs shopper choice

SUB-TREND: Environmental Consciousness: consumers are increasingly concerned about the wider environment and their own personal impact

The vast majority of Europeans believe in the importance of protecting the environment

Consumers in the Americas are showing differing attitudes towards environmental issues

Asia Pacific consumers are showing a high level of concern about environmental issues

Gulf consumers have made changes to their lifestyles in order to help the environment

Key takeouts and implications: consumers are undoubtedly more aware of environmental issues than in the past, but not all are prepared to change long-standing habits in order to make a difference

SUB-TREND: Ethical Consumerism: more consumers are trying to do 'the right thing' in buying products with greater consideration for ethical principles

European consumers are beginning to respond to the greater availability of ethical and sustainable products

The 'green' behavior of consumers in the Americas is consistent with their perception about the importance of environmental issues

Consumers in Asia Pacific are, by and large, keen to make greener product choices

Gulf consumers prefer retailers to have an ethical positioning when deciding where to do their grocery shopping

Key takeouts and implications: increasing interest in the environment and general ethical policies of companies means that ethical consumerism is a trend that is likely to be apparent in the long-term

SUB-TREND: Ethical Boycotting and Ethical Advocacy: consumers also actively avoid products and companies which have a particularly unethical reputation

Europeans care about the ethical practices of companies but this does not always translate to outright boycotting products and services

Companies with unethical images are likely to face boycott by consumers in Americas

Emerging market Asia Pacific consumers are particularly prepared to avoid products with a poor ethical image

Gulf consumers are prepared to boycott products if they believe they come from an unethical company

Key takeouts and implications: the pressure on business organizations to exhibit responsible behavior has inevitably increased

SUB-TREND: Ethical Skepticism: the 'greenwashed' consumer has become more discerning and less trusting about declarations of ethicality

Europeans display a great deal of skepticism regarding ethical claims made by companies

Skepticism is more prevalent among US consumers compared with their counterparts in Brazil

Asia Pacific consumers are, in general, skeptical about ethical claims made by products except 'natural' or 'organic' ingredients used in food and beverages

Gulf consumers are becoming more skeptical about ethical product claims, especially in the UAE

Key takeouts and implications: consumers are inherently skeptical when it comes to ethical issues so industry players must go the extra mile to reassure them

TREND: Digital Lifestyles: consumers increasingly harness new connective technology for multiple purposes

SUB-TREND: Networked Living: adoption and usage of new connective technologies continues to influence consumer lifestyles

Internet usage is high among European consumers and plays and increasingly important role in facilitating consumer lifestyles

Consumers in the Americas are well-connected, especially in North America

Consumers in Asia Pacific are used to having highly-developed technology

Gulf consumers have become more connected in recent years

Key takeouts and implications: consumers are becoming more connected due to the growth of mobile phones and improvements in internet availability and speeds

SUB-TREND: Life Caching: collecting, storing and displaying lifestyles using digital content

Europeans are generally accustomed to using social networks as a means of putting their life into one place

Brazilians spend longer on social networks than any other consumers in the Americas

There are variations in the popularity of social networking websites across the Asia Pacific region

Gulf consumers are the currently the fastest-growing social network audience

Key takeouts and implications: the amount of time spent on social networks illustrates how important it is to consumers to have an outlet to display their lifestyles on

SUB-TREND: Changing media/entertainment orientations

Europeans are gravitating from watching television on sets to watching it on their computers

Consumers in the Americas are watching more television online, but overall viewing time is still overwhelmingly dominated by traditional television

Consumers in Asia Pacific are increasingly going online to watch television and play computer games

Key takeouts and implications: consumers are gravitating towards new media consumption habits, but this is only available to those with the very latest and best technology

TREND: Relational Wellbeing: consumers want to maximize personal connections with family and friends

SUB-TREND: (Re) prioritizing family/friend time

Consumers in Western Europe are happier than Eastern Europeans with their connections with friends and family

South Americans in particular have made greater efforts to spend time with their loved ones

Some Asia Pacific citizens are significantly more dissatisfied with their family/friend time than globally

The attitudes displayed by Gulf consumers towards their personal connections is very similar to those of the average global consumer

Key takeouts and implications: global citizens are generally content with their relationships with friends and family, but certainly believe that things can still get better in this respect

SUB-TREND: Creating entertaining and connected living spaces

Europeans are frequent entertainers at home and this provides them with motivation to clean their homes

US consumers are entertaining friends and family at home more, whereas Brazilians are doing so less often

Japanese consumers are extremely reticent when it comes to entertaining at-home

Gulf consumers are particularly hospitable in terms of opening up their homes for others to enjoy

Key takeouts and implications: consumers are entertaining at-home more regularly as both a means of spending more time with their loved ones and to combat the recession

TREND: 'Curated' Consumerism: consumers are making purchasing decision based on the advice of other sources

SUB-TREND: Interpersonal Curation: global shoppers rely on interpersonal recommendations to help minimize the risk of making the wrong choice

European consumers generally take the advice of friends and relatives more often when purchasing food and non-alcoholic beverages

South American consumers are particularly influenced by the recommendations of their peers

Chinese and Indian consumers are the most influenced by what their friends and relatives think about products and services

Gulf consumers tend to heavily rely on the word of friends when making product decisions

Key takeouts and implications: word of mouth advice from friends and relatives is believed by consumers to be the most trustworthy source of information available to them

SUB-TREND: Consumer Empowerment: using blogs and other virtual interfaces to make informed consumption decisions

Platforms for recommendation-based shopping have been created in Europe

Advanced technology, particularly in America, allows consumers to base their decisions on how others are acting

Online reviews are considered extremely trustworthy by consumers in some parts of Asia

Consumers in the Middle East are very familiar with the concept of shopping using information gleaned online

Key takeouts and implications: consumers feel that they are making better decisions thanks to the use of online reviews and other information available from this platform

SUB-TREND: Expert Curation: consumers increasingly have access to 'expert curators' and lifestyle gurus

Key takeouts and implications: more specific niche curators will continually emerge to empower consumers

TREND: Positional consumption: consumers are purchasing products based on identity and status

SUB-TREND: Choosing brands conspicuously to demonstrate group memberships

European consumers are eager for brands to say something about themselves

South Americans enjoy the status that brands can bring them more than North Americans do

Consumers in Asia Pacific are noticeably different from their Western counterparts in being sensitive to how others view their choice of branded products

Luxury fashion is extremely important in the wealthier nations in the gulf region

Key takeouts and implications: there are large regional differences in how consumers relate to brands, though the common consensus everywhere is that brands are important to society in some way

SUB-TREND: Consumers are expanding their connoisseurship

Europeans seek to expand their expertise in hobbies, which are perceived as a cheaper means of entertainment and connoisseurship in the recession

US consumers are showing increasing connoisseurship through growing interest in hobby classes

Consumers in Asia Pacific have increasing access to information about product quality and variety

Consuming the traditional is increasingly important to Middle Eastern consumers

Key takeouts and implications: consumers' connoisseurship is a manifestation of their appreciation of authenticity and the sensory benefits of higher quality products and experiences

APPENDIX

Definitions

Methodology

Further reading and references

Ask the analyst

Datamonitor consulting

Disclaimer

List of Figures

Figure 1: Datamonitor's mega-trends are having a long-term and substantive impact on the marketing landscape and can be grouped into two categories

Figure 2: Consumer behavior and the innovations targeting it inevitably fit into a 'trend hierarchy'

Figure 3: Datamonitor's mega-trend framework helps set the agenda for the specific topics covered in the New Consumer Insight (NCI) research stream

Figure 4: Trend tracking can be a source of (comparative) competitive analysis

Figure 5: Trend development is dictated by both 'consumer pull' and 'manufacturer push' and Datamonitor offers the intelligence tools to capitalize on this reality

Figure 6: In a consumerist global culture, the broad consumption spheres/segments transcend geographical borders which is another reason why adopting a broader approach is necessary

Figure 7: Several factors distinguish a trend from a fad

Figure 8: Consumers desire an altruistic lifestyle that is rich in relationships and belonging

Figure 9: There are a number of drivers and inhibitors that influence the connectivity mega-trend

Figure 10: Global consumers are more interested in ethical/environmentally-friendly purchases but this is not always possible

Figure 11: Over four in five consumers living in the urban area feel they have personal responsibility on conserving the global environment

Figure 12: More than three quarters of Europeans believe that protecting the environment is important

Figure 13: For Europeans, environmental awareness has heightened in the past two years

Figure 14: Italians and Spaniards in particular perceive they have become more conscious about their personal impact on the environment in the last few years

Figure 15: Brazilians in particular believe that environmental issues are of the utmost importance

Figure 16: For the majority of Brazilians, protecting the environment has become a more important issue in recent times

Figure 17: Brazilian consumers are considerably more worried about their personal impact on the environment than the global average

Figure 18: Only a small percentage of consumers in Asia Pacific do not attach importance towards protecting the environment

Figure 19: More than three quarters of Indians have become more aware of the importance of protecting the environment in recent years

Figure 20: When it comes to assessing their individual impact on the environment, consumers in Asia Pacific are roughly in line with the global average

Figure 21: Around two thirds of MENA consumers believe that protecting the environment has become more important in the past two years

Figure 22: Nearly a fifth of consumers in Saudi Arabia have become less concerned about their own contribution to environmental problems

Figure 23: Significant numbers of Europeans claim to be actively seeking environmentally friendly products

Figure 24: Europeans believe products have too much packaging but this is not fully met the actual influence on purchasing behavior

Figure 25: Except in Russia, ethicality is deemed less important to Europeans in alcoholic beverages than in other FMCG sectors

Figure 26: Around a quarter of Europeans decide where to shop based on retailer ethicality

Figure 27: US consumers are less likely than the global average to actively purchase ethical products, whereas Brazilians are far more likely

Figure 28: Sustainable packaging is a topic of particular importance to environmentally conscious Brazilians

Figure 29: Ethicality is only an influential factor in purchasing decisions for around a quarter of US consumers across the four major FMCG sectors

Figure 30: Nearly two thirds of Brazilian consumers believe that the ethicality of retailers is a big influence on where they do their grocery shopping

Figure 31: Ethical consumerism is important to consumers in China and India, but far less so in Japan

Figure 32: Chinese and Indian consumers are proactive about seeking out environmentally friendly products, whereas Australian, Japanese and Korean consumers are more reactive

Figure 33: Ethicality is not particularly influential in product purchasing decisions for consumers in Australia and Japan

Figure 34: Japanese consumers do not tend to choose grocery outlets solely based on the ethical policies of the retailer

Figure 35: Gulf consumers are far likelier than the average consumer globally to be highly influenced by the ethical policies of grocery retailers when choosing where to shop

Figure 36: Europeans are deeply divided on the issue of avoiding food and beverages based on a company's poor ethical reputation

Figure 37: Europeans are less likely to avoid unethical household care products than food and beverages, albeit not to a significant extent

Figure 38: Brazilians are far likelier than Americans to boycott products and services based on ethical issues

Figure 39: The majority of Brazilians require household cleaning products and services to demonstrate that they are ethically sound

Figure 40: Chinese, Indian and Korean consumers are more willing than Australian and Japanese consumers to boycott food and beverage products and services that they perceive to be unethical

Figure 41: Only a tenth of Japanese consumers actively avoid unethical household care products and services which is considerably lower than the global average

Figure 42: Gulf consumers are more proactive than the global average of consumers regarding the avoidance of unethical products and services

Figure 43: Around half of Gulf consumers regularly avoid purchasing unethical household care products and services

Figure 44: Europeans largely express ambivalence about whether corporations are truthful in declarations of ethicality

Figure 45: Less than half of Europeans in all countries express trust in food and beverages claiming natural or organic ingredients

Figure 46: Europeans display a low level of trust when it comes to organic/natural claims made by cosmetics or beauty brands

Figure 47: Europeans believe there is minimal credibility to environmental claims made by household care brands

Figure 48: Less than a quarter of US consumers trust corporations declarations of ethical practices, but trust is higher in Brazil

Figure 49: Consumers in the Americas are more trusting than the global average in natural/organic claims in food and beverages

Figure 50: Generally, Brazilians award more credibility than Americans to cosmetics or beauty brands when it comes to making organic or natural claims

Figure 51: More consumers in the US believe that environmental claims made by household care brands are not credible than credible

Figure 52: In Asia Pacific, Indians are the least skeptical about the trustworthiness of corporation

Figure 53: With the exception of Indians, Asia Pacific consumers generally exhibit similar attitudes to consumers globally with regards to stated trust in food and beverage products claiming natural or organic ingredients

Figure 54: Around a third of consumers in Asia Pacific do not believe cosmetics or beauty brands to make credible claims about being organic or natural, with distrust particularly high in Australia

Figure 55: Consumers in Australia and Japan are more skeptical than the global average about the credibility of environmental claims made by household care brands

Figure 56: Consumers are generally welcoming the increases in connectivity that technology is facilitating

Figure 57: Nearly three-quarters of consumers in North America use the internet -the highest regional penetration in the world

Figure 58: The number of mobile phone subscriptions in Europe has grown consistently in the past few years

Figure 59: Around two-thirds of Western Europeans use the internet

Figure 60: The majority of European internet connections are broadband, meaning consumers have access to high speeds that facilitate more varied and sophisticated internet usage

Figure 61: The vast majority of Europeans are in agreement that technology has improved everyday life

Figure 62: Few Europeans rely on online shopping to purchase the majority of their groceries

Figure 63: Mobile cellular subscription rates are lower in Latin America

Figure 64: Almost three-quarters of consumers in North America use the internet

Figure 65: Internet connection speeds in North America are significantly higher than in South America

Figure 66: The majority of consumers in the Americas agree that science and technology are helping to improve their lives

Figure 67: In 2008, US and Brazilian consumers made more efforts to shop online for financial products than they did for groceries

Figure 68: Mobile phone subscriptions are particularly prominent in Australia

Figure 69: There are more internet users in China than other Asia Pacific countries in spite of a comparably low penetration rate

Figure 70: Internet users in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea enjoy particularly high broadband speeds

Figure 71: In Asia Pacific the level of skepticism about science and technology is generally very low

Figure 72: Consumers in emerging markets in particular are looking to shop more over the internet

Figure 73: Annual growth in mobile cellular subscriptions has been phenomenal in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

Figure 74: Nearly half of all consumers in the UAE use the internet while penetration is lower in Saudi Arabia

Figure 75: Less than one in five Middle Eastern consumers have internet connection speeds of above 2mb/s

Figure 76: More than three-quarters of Gulf consumers never shop online for groceries

Figure 77: Russians spend significantly longer on social networks than any other European consumers

Figure 78: Brazilians spend considerably longer on social networking websites than the global average

Figure 79: In the Asia Pacific region, social network online penetration is highest in Singapore, Australia and Korea

Figure 80: The increase in the number of MENA consumers visiting social networks is higher than in other major global regions

Figure 81: Consumers see personal connections as an important part of wellbeing

Figure 82: Europeans tend to be happier about the time they can afford to spend with their families than they are with their social lives

Figure 83: Spanish consumers in particular have shown a great inclination to spend more time with their loved ones in recent years

Figure 84: Russians are significantly less content than others around the continent when considering their family life, job and household income

Figure 85: Despite living in a time-pressured society, Americans are happier than consumers globally when it comes to spending time with their families and children

Figure 86: Nine in ten Brazilians believe that spending time with their friends and family is more important now than in the past

Figure 87: Consumers in the Americas are very satisfied with their family lives

Figure 88: Japanese and Korean consumers in particular report dissatisfaction with their family and social life

Figure 89: The fact that spending time with friends and family has not changed much in importance to Japanese consumers suggests a long-standing emphasis on this type of socialization in this country

Figure 90: Pakistani and Indonesian consumers are less satisfied with their family lives than other consumers elsewhere across Asia Pacific

Figure 91: Gulf consumers are generally happier than the global average when it comes to their family and social lives

Figure 92: More than two thirds of Gulf consumers believe that spending time with loved ones has grown in importance recently

Figure 93: Satisfaction in the MENA region is lower than in Europe, Asia Pacific or the Americas

Figure 94: Cocooning Europeans are entertaining friends at home on a more frequent basis

Figure 95: Despite entertaining guests less frequently than in the past, Brazilian consumers are nevertheless highly motivated by a need to impress when cleaning their homes

Figure 96: Japanese consumers rarely entertain friends and family at home, whereas Koreans have found it a particularly appealing way to enjoy themselves during the recession

Figure 97: More than a third of consumers in the Middle East entertain friends or family at home on at least a weekly basis

Figure 98: Consumers feel that the more information they have available, the better their consumption choices will be

Figure 99: Europeans are less influenced by the recommendations of others when it comes to alcoholic beverages than with food and beverages, personal care/beauty products and household cleaning/laundry products

Figure 100: Brazilian consumers are more likely than US consumers to purchase products based on the recommendation of friends or family

Figure 101: In what reflects their relative experience as consumers, Indian and Chinese consumers are heavily reliant on others for advice about product purchases in order to minimize 'purchase risk'

Figure 102: Positional consumption is the result of the ongoing consumer need to define status

Figure 103: Consumers often display similar buying patterns so they can noticeably demonstrate what social group they belong to

Figure 104: Europeans want brands that say something about themselves but they do not necessarily want it to be conspicuous

Figure 105: Brazilians want their brands to be conspicuous to others far more than Americans do

Figure 106: For some Asian consumers, being seen with the right brand is even more important than what a brand means to themselves as individuals

Figure 107: Blogs are a resource for connoisseurs to meet, share and expand their knowledge

Figure 108: There are differences between consumer values and attitudes

Abstract

• Detailed trend analysis outlining what constitutes 'value' for consumers (trends are, after all, a reflection of what's important to consumers)
• Global in focus, but also offers country-by-country and sector insights thereby catering to top-line or more specific information needs
• Covers all major FMCG sectors, but also with applicability to wider consumer goods audiences
• One of 10 dedicated mega-trend reports outlining the most important issues shaping global consumers' buying behavior both now and in the future

• Understand the significance of the different Connectivity-aligned trends across markets and FMCG sectors to help support market diversification plans.
• Save time and gain maximal insight by using this 'one-stop-shop' resource which offers a clear and up-to-date framework for understanding consumers.
• Access data from two waves of global primary research to increase the likelihood of being 'on-trend' with NPD and marketing activities

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