23 June 2003

High income earners and young abandon the shopping list
Ingenuity find the impulse shoppers

As a marketer you may be able to imagine who you are targeting - you can bring to mind the image of that person. You can see them at the supermarket. You remember going shopping with that kind of person. They walk along the supermarket aisles and something catches their eye. Perhaps it's a new flavour of a product they buy frequently - or a low fat version of their favourite yoghurt. Perhaps their gaze has happened across something that looks familiar - not because they have bought it or tried it before - but because when they see the pack on the shelf it has reminded them of a advertisement that they saw recently that appealed to them.

Much as consumer behaviour may seem to be researched to death, these are the subtleties of marketing and advertising that we are still learning about. We have a tacit sense of how these decisions come about, but no easy ways of targeting consumers who are more responsive to advertising and promotions - the more impulsive customers who represent potential new markets.

Different shopping mindsets
Newly released research has lifted the lid on understanding how some people are more predisposed to trailing new products - irrespective of how affluent they are, or their demographics. Of course the way consumers shop changes as their life situation changes. People in their early adult years are particularly free to make impulsive decisions about their shopping - particularly because they are still at a formative stage of relationship with many brand and products, but also because they are often only shopping for themselves, a partner or flatmates. They are more free to experiment, so only 4% of people aged 18-29 say that they adhere to a shopping list. Instead young shoppers are more likely to decide what to buy as they cruise the supermarket aisles.

Adhering to the shopping list
Conversely, people with young families have much less freedom to make spontaneous purchases. Partly this is because they are at a stage of life when budgets are tight - bringing up a young family - and this is also the stage that mortgages are having the greatest impact on the household income. But there is a third influence - the new family means less freedom to experiment. Once young parents have found a variety of a staple food that their kids like - they will stay with it - there are enough other stresses to parenthood to discourage risk taking at the local supermarket. Young parents also use shopping lists for time efficiency - this is a stage of life when the shopping experience is more functional than fun!

So too do older people settle-down to a consistent repertoire of favourite brands. A quarter of people aged 60 and over rigidly stick to their shopping list. However this is not true of people with older children and newly established empty nesters. Once parents are free of product rejection by their fickle kids - they break out into a new found freedom of brand experimentation and spontaneous purchases - driven by enticing advertising they or their older kids have seen. Naturally high income earners are at liberty to make more impulse purchases - after all, with more money in their purses, the risk of bad choice is less significant.

When it comes to trialing new products, the research found three groups:

Advertising responsive new trialists
Nearly half of Australians will try a new product that they have seen advertised - in fact, women more so than men. Six-out-of-ten people aged 18-29 will try new products they have seen advertised, compared to only a third of people aged 60 and over. Most heavy TV viewers try products that they see advertised, compared to a minority of light TV viewers.

Impulse trialist
Nearly one-in-two people will try a new product on impulse if it catches their eye on the shelf. Women are more likely to be impulse shoppers than men. Younger people and the more affluent sections of the community are also more likely to try new products on impulse.

Familiar brand trialists
Forty two percent of Australians will try new products, so long as they have heard of the brand name before. People aged 50 and over were just as likely as younger people to try new products, provided the brand name was familiar. In fact a familiar brand name is more important in convincing older shoppers to trial a new product than advertising.

Then there are those people who are the least likely to try new products. Price insensitive loyalists are those people who say that they will stick to their favourite brands, even if they see something else on special. Contrary to expectation, this is not a trait of the most affluent. In fact, ABs, the most affluent group in Australia were most likely to strongly disagree with this assertion, and say that they would switch away from their favourite brand and go for an item on special. The most brand loyal people are those aged 50 and over and middle income earners. Men are also more brand loyal than women.

Strategic thinking for marketers
The secret to launching new products and new varieties is to think about not just who will be making the decision to purchase, but how they will make that decision. How free are the target market to choose to experiment with a new product? If the product is aimed at shoppers who have to think about the brand preferences of a whole family, support marketing will be required to get the new variety onto the shopping list before the shopper walks out the door. But if the product is set to appeal to another group - say those in their 50s who have grown beyond the constraints of their kids influencing so many of the items on their pantry shelves - then let the advertising creative reflect that new found freedom!

How This Research Was Conducted

This topic was included in the ongoing Australians Today Consumer Insights research program conducted by McNair Ingenuity Research in February 2003. The survey was conducted by means of a combination telephone interview and self-completion survey amongst over 500 adults across Australia.

The above information is copyright to McNair Ingenuity Research and must be clearly acknowledged to Ingenuity Research. For more information contact Matt Balogh ph 02 9966 9133.

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