Building a recession-proof brand. Fast.
If money makes the world go 'round, will it spin off course in 2009?
It's fair to say that this will be one of the most challenging years on record.
The old rules no longer apply. But in times like this, brands should show what
they're made of. Some will fall by the wayside, some will survive and others will
thrive.
To make sure your brand is one of the winners, you first need to know what
people are doing, feeling and buying. That's why Synovate asked more than
11,500 people across 18 markets of the world.
Hope or nope?
Much of what happens in the economy is based on how people feel. If they are
buoyant, they spend. If they feel there's no hope, they sit on their cash or
find a low-risk way to put it to use. Synovate found out which markets are most
optimistic and which are feeling bleak.
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Keeping us up at night
So what are people most frightened of? What's driving insomnia across the
world? Fully a third of all respondents chose "Losing my job / household
income earner losing job", the top choice. This was followed by "Nothing,
I am not worried" chosen by a lucky 14% of respondents and "Not being able
to afford sufficient food for my family" chosen by a less-lucky 12%.
Of course there was significant variation across markets.
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Money habits you can bank on
It's one part of the puzzle to know how people are feeling. Another important
piece is to know what they doing. The survey asked people if they had to
make cuts in the past six months and also whether their saving, spending and
investing habits had changed. Here's a little of what we found.
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Categorically speaking (or, which categories are feeling the pinch?)
Of course, by definition it's a challenge to compare categories to each other;
they are separate categories for a reason. But it's fair to say that some have
been or will be harder hit by spending cuts than others. The survey asked people
whether they have been spending more, less or the same across 12 categories including
dairy, alcohol, canned goods, cosmetics and others.
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Brands: Make mine a no-name
The two Chinese characters that represent 'crisis' are 'danger' and 'opportunity'.
And that's exactly what brands are dealing with in this 'crisis'.
Synovate's Global Director of Knowledge Management and Insights, Mike Sherman, says that
many consumers are open to change in times of crisis.
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Recession? What recession?
The survey also explored some attitudes to the economy via a series of statements.
Some people will always feel immune to the news and 28% of all respondents agree that
'I find the economy boring and don't pay much attention'. This was most prevalent in
Turkey (42%), Hong Kong (41%) and Malaysia (40%). However, the flipside is that seven
in ten people (69%) obviously think the economy is worth paying attention to. Eighty-nine percent disagreed
with the statement in the US, followed by Taiwan at 85% and the UK at 82%.
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About the Synovate global economy and prices survey
The In:fact survey on economy and prices was conducted in November
2008 across 18 markets and over 11,500 respondents. Synovate asked
respondents about their views on the economy in their country; whether
they had cut spending; looked at changing spending habits; as well as
attitudes to the current state of financial affairs.
The markets covered by the survey are Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, the
Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom
(UK) and the United States of America (US).
