Posts

,

GENERATION F – A Consumer Behaviour Insight into the Growing Wellbeing Market

With numerous buzz words and ‘health’ trends increasingly infiltrating our everyday life, it comes as no surprise that the term wellbeing is breaking away as a consumer category of its own. And one that is permeating all markets; from food, drink, health and fitness, right through to fashion, beauty and consumer technology.

Wellbeing is everywhere, and we are all taking an interest. Analysts predict that spending on wellness will grow 20% by 2020, with total spending forecast to reach £209bn. Even the Office of National Statistics are using the term as an additional measure to demonstrate economic growth. Across all demographics, at varying levels of interest and purpose, we are becoming a nation that cares about being healthy and happy; physically and mentally. This is the emergence of Generation F; the generation that is taking a proactive interest in their own health and wellbeing pr.

Generation F cannot be defined as a set demographic, as our understanding, and interest in wellbeing products and services has penetrated all age groups. We are all part of the Generation F movement. However the areas of interest, what is fuelling each age group, and how we interact with brands varies enormously.

The younger Generation F’ers have become accustomed to this trend. For them it’s everyday life, much like technology. For the older Generation F however, a shift of mindset has been spurred by education and interest in improving health. The latest Purple Paper by Escapade PR, Introducing Generation F: A Consumer Behaviour Insight into the Growing Wellbeing Market, explores wellbeing in the consumer space, and how brands and marketers can tap into the growing phenomena that is Generation F.

Rhianon Williams, Associate Director at Escapade PR, said: “Across all age groups, the last four years has been the period that people cite as the time when their interest in wellbeing has grown. Notably nearly half of all 18-24 year olds stated that their interest has been for as long as they can remember, a number which gradually declines as age increases. For 57% of 18-34 year olds, fitness is predominantly fuelling their interest in wellbeing activities, products and services, whereas two thirds of all those over 35 are more interested in improving health.

“When it comes to the type of people that influence Generation F, our research shows that it is less about celebrity and more about expertise and transparency. The older Generation F are more trusting in sportspeople, friends and family, whereas the younger Generation F are influenced mainly by bloggers and Instagrammers. It seems that importance of celebrity influence in the wellness market is clearly diminishing for marketers. This is demonstrated by the huge awareness of a number of social media born experts such as Joe Wicks and Kayla Itsines. For marketers and wellbeing PR’s, this presents both a challenge and opportunity; wellness is a mass, growing market, but not all consumers in this space are playing the same in terms of purchase and influence.”

For details on how you can access the full data from Escapade PR’s latest Purple Paper, please visit www.escapadepr.com or email escapade@escapadepr.com.

Our consumer lifestyle PR team specialise in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer Lifestyle PR, Food & Drink PR, Consumer Technology PR and Sport, Health & Wellbeing PR. More information on these areas of knowledge can be found at www.escapadepr.com/about-us.

/by
,

The Changing Face of Grocery Shoppers – The Five Consumer Groups Defining the Grocery Market in 2016

Changing Face of Grocery Shopper research

The way in which consumers are shopping is changing in a big way. The weekly shop is on decline, and demanding consumer lifestyles are driving an increase in the number of convenience, specialist and independent formats popping up across the country. Shoppers are challenging the retail landscape hard; demanding resonate value, whether that be driven by price, quality or customer experience. So what does this mean for the retailer? And for marketers working with grocery brands, what hurdles do we face when targeting these consumer groups?

Traditional ways of defining consumer groups have become slightly outdated, and no doubt even new forms we look at today will soon become obsolete as shoppers continue to develop their buying habits and mediums of influence. Latest research by consumer lifestyle PR agency Escapade has defined the UK’s grocery shoppers into five key consumer groups that illustrate the state of retail shoppers in 2016. Read more

/by
,

GENERATION Z: The Most Complex Consumer to Challenge Marketers?

GenerationZEscapadePR

Marketers and PR folk have long been obsessed with Millennials, those born in the eighties and nineties as supposedly the first generation to adapt to the ‘new age’. However as this market starts to edge into their mid-thirties, there is a new, younger generation paving their way into the world who have grown up completely immersed in the iGeneration, and knows no different; Generation Z. This is also the generation that has grown up in the era of war and terrorism, and holds a more mature appreciate for culture and ethics compared to their predecessors.

For marketing professionals this presents an interesting demographic to target, as the way they play almost turns traditional consumer behaviour on its head. Our latest research shows that Generation Z are completely turned off by celebrity culture and traditional media, and are more tuned in to peer to peer recommendation and online superstars like Zoe Sugg, Tanya Burr, Jim Chapman and Alfie Deyes. For female Generation Z-ers, bloggers are actually cited as the fourth most popular “celebrity” influence.

Chloe Combi, author of Generation Z, defines this audience as those born between 1995 and 2001 – a subset of Generation Y, really, but a distinct one, whose dates coincide with the spread of home internet connections and mobile phones. She explains: “Those two things birthed a different world, which is the world this generation was born into. This iGeneration can’t conceive of a world before everyone owned a mobile phone, and instant gratification is their norm; they have it in the palms of their hands within moments, usually for free. This ability to find whatever they’re after without the help of intermediaries – such as libraries, shops or teachers – has made them more independent and self-directed than generations before them.”

For Generation Z, social media is king, but not as maybe you and I know it. Unsurprisingly Facebook, as with most demographics, remains the number one platform, however for Generation Z, Snapchat is the second most popular, with 42% of this audience checking Snapchat at least once a day. For other audiences, Snapchat would barely even appear in the Top 10. With Snapchat increasingly looking to monetise their service, this is a really interesting platform to keep an eye on if you have a product or service that targets this complex group.

Where Generation Z are concerned, you can pretty much also assume that print media is dead. This is isn’t to say they don’t pick up the odd magazine or newspaper, however for genuine cut through, online sites, bloggers and vloggers are the media that hold the real power of influence. When asked what influenced their buying decisions, no traditional media apart from TV appeared in the top 10. These guys shop around, read review sites and blogs, seek out recommendations and refer constantly to social media. This isn’t an audience to be fobbed off; they are savvy, and seek value for money.

For any successful marketing or PR campaign, consumer profiling and understanding how your target audience plays is pivotal. As technology continues to advance at an incredible rate, and what we know from one generation to the next changes rapidly, keeping on the pulse of varying and differing consumer behaviours and applying this knowledge to your creative approach will make all the difference between failure and success. No question.

Generation Z are a really interesting demographic, and certainly make for a challenging and exciting audience to engage with. The New York Times describes them as ‘the next big thing for market researchers, cultural observers and trend forecasters’, and Women’s Wear Daily as ‘the next big retail disrupter’. And by no means are we anywhere near understanding this audience fully, as the nature of Generation Z means they are ever developing and evolving in their behaviours. And it certainly makes for an interesting approach when working with clients that operate in this consumer demographic!

Visit our PR resources page to download the full infographic detailing the Generation Z research conducted by Escapade PR.

GenerationZEscapadePR

/by
,

INFOGRAPHIC: Are the UK’s more mature customers actually the most diverse and savvy?

diverse_and_savvy_Large

There has been so much debate about just how modern day brands can engage and remain engaged with that all important trend setting Millennial audience.

But, there has been nowhere near that level of interest or focus on marketing to the UK’s more mature customers.

This is slightly bemusing, as we are all very aware of the UK’s aging population, but maybe we have been side-tracked by the very real social impact that our aging population will cause?

And perhaps, in this digital age, the over 50s are not seen to be such an exciting or receptive audience?
But be under no illusions, the over 50s are diverse, savvy and increasingly important for the success of an awful lot of household brands.

In the UK, over 50s make make-up more than 35% of the population and by 2020 the total number of people over 50 is set to reach 25.5 million.

The over 50s have the highest disposable income of any age group. In fact, KPMG estimate that over the next ten years, two thirds of retail spending growth will come from shoppers aged 55 plus.

Today, more than 11 million people in the UK are now aged over 65, which already represents some 17.1% of the total population. This means that the number of people in this age group has increased by 17.3% since 2003.

And, this trend is set to continue with estimates showing that by 2050, there will be more than 19 million over 65s.

Just like when marketing to Millennial, great care should be taken not to group the more mature audience into one huge group, and beware if you think that they are not digitally savvy, they are.
It is clear that this new generation of mature customers behave very differently to generations that came before summarised beautifully by the fact that 40% of over 70s don’t consider themselves as old!

Consumer PR agency Escapade has undertaken some research into this growing audience. Take a look at its infographic for some fascinating insight into the behaviours, lives and opinions of this diverse and savvy group.

Research undertaken in October 2014. Sample 1,000 over 50s.

/by
,

News Flash: Your Prospects Already Know What You’re Selling

This post was first published by Martin Jones on March Communications’ blog PR Nonsense.

The traditional sales process goes something like this: market research hands over some leads, sales contacts the leads and discovers who’s interested in learning more.

Then there’s follow-up, when the sales rep goes over the product in more detail with the prospect, educating him or her about what it can do and why it’s important so they are in a position to make a buying decision.

Not anymore. Read more

/by