Recent Changes Study: Changes in consumer behaviour clearly point to a need to be direct

by Paul Williamson and Sue Burden, Realia (both pictured below)

We all know that consumer confidence is still fragile, but what changes have UK residents been making to their lives and what potential impact does that have on marketers?

Understanding the extent and motivation for changes in consumers’ lives was the objective of the Recent Changes Study conducted by Realia. This study asked a representative sample of 1,006 UK consumers about any changes they had made recently and the motivations behind those changes.

On average, consumers mentioned 11.35 areas of recent change, across 40 categories. The most frequently mentioned area was increased Internet usage, cited by nearly half of all respondents from all ages. Online shopping was a big part of this – reflecting the fact that the UK population now has the highest level of online shopping in Europe.

The study highlighted price-comparing, convenience and even environmental reasons for increased online shopping – “I spend more time online”; “I do most of my shopping now online for food”; “I’ve started Twittering and exploring Youtube”; “I do more shopping online, use eBay and do my banking online”; “I use the Internet more for work than I used to – lots of online research”.

No-one will be surprised by the success of Internet shopping – it is a well publicised fact that it is on the rise; the challenge for many direct marketers remains – how do we generate the kind of actionable insight from data required to serve communications that are truly motivating, actionable and deliverable?

TV viewing, the second highest change, is another case where new technology has promoted behavioural development – most of the change related to respondents getting PVRs like Sky+.

Interestingly, people are also being much more discerning: “I used to watch comedy channels and a few soaps but now I hardly ever watch telly apart from sports.” This evidence points to the increasing importance of basing advertising schedules around specific types of programmes or interests rather than simply targeting certain times of day.

This change certainly suggests a growing trend in consumers making very active choices about how they spend their increasingly limited spare time; for example, Sky+ has enabled users to avoid advertising messages if they wish and view exactly what they want to watch. This change clearly points to a strong case for direct communications. In order to effectively reach time-starved consumers who are, it seems, being much more selective about the information they expose themselves to, an insight driven, intelligent relationship marketing model must be the cornerstone of future marketing activity.

Another high-change area was holidays – although 13 per cent said they were taking more holidays, 32 per cent were taking holidays in the UK or fewer holidays – the ‘staycation’ may be here to stay!

Changes in health and food were also in the Top Ten – the vast majority of food changes related to health, even if money-saving was also a motivation: “I’m now eating supermarket own brand weight-watcher foods and I’m eating less takeaways.” Health benefits: “I rarely have fizzy juice now and chocolate is saved for the weekend as a treat” and “I have a much healthier lifestyle now, which includes exercise” dominated the food changes.

Brands with ‘treat’ positioning may have to develop more affordable options or promote ‘justification’ for treating occasions. Of course, this trend may be an exaggeration compared to what happens in reality, but it shows the widespread desirability of the concept.

One surprise was the level of change around gardening – 36 per cent of the total sample had made a change in this area – nearly all doing more and many growing vegetables. The 18-29s were the largest single age group behind this trend – often involving children: “I have started growing vegetables with the children and doing more gardening in general.”

Even for brands not directly involved with tilling the soil, this provides a core concept for campaigns aimed at this age group.

Less popular changes were bank current account, insurance and energy suppliers with only 18-24 per cent citing changes in this area. Among those who did make a change in the financial area, there was evidence of ‘bundling’: “I changed insurance provider to the Co-op – our mortgage provider – to get a cheaper deal on moving house” and “I reviewed it and changed from many insurers to one insurer.” As consumers seek to streamline their lives, this is another case for strong relationship marketing.

Here, it’s even more important for brands to understand which groups to target with their reduced activity budgets.

Of course, a study this broad can never address every specific change, or indeed provide the golden bullet on how to address it. However, it is clear UK consumers have made some significant choices in Internet usage, TV viewing, health, environment, time with the family and cost-saving in the past 12 months.

The real question is, of course, how to translate this raw data into clear and actionable insight; and a vision into reality.