Global Consumer Trends: Connectivity

Table of Contents

OVERVIEW

• Catalyst
• Summary

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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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 choiceAs consumers want to connect with their friends and family more (see previous analysis in this report)) it logically follows that they place a great deal of importance on the thoughts and opinions of their peers. In a world where many major corporations are seen as faceless and untrustworthy, consumers are looking to people they know and understand for important information. This can have a major effect on consumption options, with consumers more likely to buy something that their friends like than something they see advertised by little-known celebrities on television.
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

FIGURES

• Figure: Datamonitor' s mega-trends are having a long-term and substantive impact on the marketing landscape and can be grouped into two categories
• Figure: Consumer behavior and the innovations targeting it inevitably fit into a ' trend hierarchy'
• Figure: Datamonitor' s mega-trend framework helps set the agenda for the specific topics covered in the New Consumer Insight (NCI) research stream
• Figure: Trend tracking can be a source of (comparative) competitive analysis
• Figure: Trend development is dictated by both ' consumer pull' and ' manufacturer push' and Datamonitor offers the intelligence tools to capitalize on this reality
• Figure: 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: Several factors distinguish a trend from a fad
• Figure: Consumers desire an altruistic lifestyle that is rich in relationships and belonging
• Figure: There are a number of drivers and inhibitors that influence the connectivity mega-trend
• Figure: Global consumers are more interested in ethical/environmentally-friendly purchases but this is not always possible
• Figure: Over four in five consumers living in the urban area feel they have personal responsibility on conserving the global environment
• Figure: More than three quarters of Europeans believe that protecting the environment is important
• Figure: For Europeans, environmental awareness has heightened in the past two years
• Figure: Italians and Spaniards in particular perceive they have become more conscious about their personal impact on the environment in the last few years
• Figure: Brazilians in particular believe that environmental issues are of the utmost importance
• Figure: For the majority of Brazilians, protecting the environment has become a more important issue in recent times
• Figure: Brazilian consumers are considerably more worried about their personal impact on the environment than the global average
• Figure: Only a small percentage of consumers in Asia Pacific do not attach importance towards protecting the environment
• Figure: More than three quarters of Indians have become more aware of the importance of protecting the environment in recent years
• Figure: When it comes to assessing their individual impact on the environment, consumers in Asia Pacific are roughly in line with the global average
• Figure: Around two thirds of MENA consumers believe that protecting the environment has become more important in the past two years
• Figure: Nearly a fifth of consumers in Saudi Arabia have become less concerned about their own contribution to environmental problems
• Figure: Significant numbers of Europeans claim to be actively seeking environmentally friendly products
• Figure: Europeans believe products have too much packaging but this is not fully met the actual influence on purchasing behavior
• Figure: Except in Russia, ethicality is deemed less important to Europeans in alcoholic beverages than in other FMCG sectors
• Figure: Around a quarter of Europeans decide where to shop based on retailer ethicality
• Figure: US consumers are less likely than the global average to actively purchase ethical products, whereas Brazilians are far more likely
• Figure: Sustainable packaging is a topic of particular importance to environmentally conscious Brazilians
• Figure: Ethicality is only an influential factor in purchasing decisions for around a quarter of US consumers across the four major FMCG sectors
• Figure: Nearly two thirds of Brazilian consumers believe that the ethicality of retailers is a big influence on where they do their grocery shopping
• Figure: Ethical consumerism is important to consumers in China and India, but far less so in Japan
• Figure: Chinese and Indian consumers are proactive about seeking out environmentally friendly products, whereas Australian, Japanese and Korean consumers are more reactive
• Figure: Ethicality is not particularly influential in product purchasing decisions for consumers in Australia and Japan
• Figure: Japanese consumers do not tend to choose grocery outlets solely based on the ethical policies of the retailer
• Figure: 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: Europeans are deeply divided on the issue of avoiding food and beverages based on a company' s poor ethical reputation
• Figure: Europeans are less likely to avoid unethical household care products than food and beverages, albeit not to a significant extent
• Figure: Brazilians are far likelier than Americans to boycott products and services based on ethical issues
• Figure: The majority of Brazilians require household cleaning products and services to demonstrate that they are ethically sound
• Figure: 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: Only a tenth of Japanese consumers actively avoid unethical household care products and services which is considerably lower than the global average
• Figure: Gulf consumers are more proactive than the global average of consumers regarding the avoidance of unethical products and services
• Figure: Around half of Gulf consumers regularly avoid purchasing unethical household care products and services
• Figure: Europeans largely express ambivalence about whether corporations are truthful in declarations of ethicality
• Figure: Less than half of Europeans in all countries express trust in food and beverages claiming natural or organic ingredients
• Figure: Europeans display a low level of trust when it comes to organic/natural claims made by cosmetics or beauty brands
• Figure: Europeans believe there is minimal credibility to environmental claims made by household care brands
• Figure: Less than a quarter of US consumers trust corporations declarations of ethical practices, but trust is higher in Brazil
• Figure: Consumers in the Americas are more trusting than the global average in natural/organic claims in food and beverages
• Figure: Generally, Brazilians award more credibility than Americans to cosmetics or beauty brands when it comes to making organic or natural claims
• Figure: More consumers in the US believe that environmental claims made by household care brands are not credible than credible
• Figure: In Asia Pacific, Indians are the least skeptical about the trustworthiness of corporation
• Figure: 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: 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: Consumers in Australia and Japan are more skeptical than the global average about the credibility of environmental claims made by household care brands
• Figure: Consumers are generally welcoming the increases in connectivity that technology is facilitating
• Figure: Nearly three-quarters of consumers in North America use the internet  the highest regional penetration in the world
• Figure: The number of mobile phone subscriptions in Europe has grown consistently in the past few years
• Figure: Around two-thirds of Western Europeans use the internet
• Figure: The majority of European internet connections are broadband, meaning consumers have access to high speeds that facilitate more varied and sophisticated internet usage
• Figure: The vast majority of Europeans are in agreement that technology has improved everyday life
• Figure: Few Europeans rely on online shopping to purchase the majority of their groceries
• Figure: Mobile cellular subscription rates are lower in Latin America
• Figure: Almost three-quarters of consumers in North America use the internet
• Figure: Internet connection speeds in North America are significantly higher than in South America
• Figure: The majority of consumers in the Americas agree that science and technology are helping to improve their lives
• Figure: In 2008, US and Brazilian consumers made more efforts to shop online for financial products than they did for groceries
• Figure: Mobile phone subscriptions are particularly prominent in Australia
• Figure: There are more internet users in China than other Asia Pacific countries in spite of a comparably low penetration rate
• Figure: Internet users in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea enjoy particularly high broadband speeds
• Figure: In Asia Pacific the level of skepticism about science and technology is generally very low
• Figure: Consumers in emerging markets in particular are looking to shop more over the internet
• Figure: Annual growth in mobile cellular subscriptions has been phenomenal in the UAE and Saudi Arabia
• Figure: Nearly half of all consumers in the UAE use the internet while penetration is lower in Saudi Arabia
• Figure: Less than one in five Middle Eastern consumers have internet connection speeds of above 2mb/s
• Figure: More than three-quarters of Gulf consumers never shop online for groceries
• Figure: Russians spend significantly longer on social networks than any other European consumers
• Figure: Brazilians spend considerably longer on social networking websites than the global average
• Figure: In the Asia Pacific region, social network online penetration is highest in Singapore, Australia and Korea
• Figure: The increase in the number of MENA consumers visiting social networks is higher than in other major global regions
• Figure: Consumers see personal connections as an important part of wellbeing
• Figure: Europeans tend to be happier about the time they can afford to spend with their families than they are with their social lives
• Figure: Spanish consumers in particular have shown a great inclination to spend more time with their loved ones in recent years
• Figure: Russians are significantly less content than others around the continent when considering their family life, job and household income
• Figure: 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: Nine in ten Brazilians believe that spending time with their friends and family is more important now than in the past
• Figure: Consumers in the Americas are very satisfied with their family lives
• Figure: Japanese and Korean consumers in particular report dissatisfaction with their family and social life
• Figure: 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: Pakistani and Indonesian consumers are less satisfied with their family lives than other consumers elsewhere across Asia Pacific
• Figure: Gulf consumers are generally happier than the global average when it comes to their family and social lives
• Figure: More than two thirds of Gulf consumers believe that spending time with loved ones has grown in importance recently
• Figure: Satisfaction in the MENA region is lower than in Europe, Asia Pacific or the Americas
• Figure: Cocooning Europeans are entertaining friends at home on a more frequent basis
• Figure: 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: 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: More than a third of consumers in the Middle East entertain friends or family at home on at least a weekly basis
• Figure: Consumers feel that the more information they have available, the better their consumption choices will be
• Figure: 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: Brazilian consumers are more likely than US consumers to purchase products based on the recommendation of friends or family
• Figure: 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: Positional consumption is the result of the ongoing consumer need to define status
• Figure: Consumers often display similar buying patterns so they can noticeably demonstrate what social group they belong to
• Figure: Europeans want brands that say something about themselves but they do not necessarily want it to be conspicuous
• Figure: Brazilians want their brands to be conspicuous to others far more than Americans do
• Figure: For some Asian consumers, being seen with the right brand is even more important than what a brand means to themselves as individuals
• Figure: Blogs are a resource for connoisseurs to meet, share and expand their knowledge
• Figure: There are differences between consumer values and attitudes