According to Nielsen’s report presented at Consumers Good Forum 2015, three findings related to consumers behavior are most striking. First, with 68% of global consumers prepared to switch to less expensive items, the price remains a matter of vulnerability for the industry. Second, promotional effectiveness is poor. Nielsen estimated that $300 billions of the $500 billions spent on trade promotions didn’t reach breakeven. Finally, third, Media advertising still accounted for some $200 billions of spending annually. But, in the US for example, 75% of consumers could not remember an ad and the brand it represented 24 hours after viewing it.
“The consumers of 49 of 60 countries surveyed had become more positive in their outlook between 2013 and 2014. But the picture varied quite significantly around the world. Asian consumers are much more optimistic than most European ones”, said Patrick Dodd, global president retailer vertical of Nielsen.- “Some of most observations in the report, related to the growth of online. Some 42% of world’s population is now online with daily access. And 25% of population is already buying at least some grocery products online, but the number who thought they would was almost double this at 48%”.
Much of this is driven by higher adoption and usage in Asia, as the report pointed out. Moreover a number of purchase categories, the proportion of the population buying online in Asia is two to three times that compared to all other regions, for instance 41% in grocery and 43% in personal care. And referring to China, the absolute numbers are compelling. Nielsen estimates that sales online now accounted for 11% of the total and are growing at over 40%. Some categories really stood out, for example 33% of infant milk formula in China is sold online.
Last, but not the least, Nielsen, therefore, recommended explicitly to adopt a way of working that started with identifying actions, for instance, the need of industry level improvements in food safety, committing to actions, building how to solutions, helping members and stakeholders.