The Influence of the Economic Crisis on Consumer Trends: Key Consumer Trends and NPD Studies

February 17th, 2009 by Dr. Taly Weiss

Filed under brands, consumer behavior, global survey, Predictions, purchase, recession, research, Trend Spotting Behavior, Trend Spotting Tools, Trends Review

Nielsen has recently released two studies following the influence of the Economic Crisis on consumer trends: The economic Current (measuring key consumer and retailing trends) and New Product Innovation in a Recession (US focus).
Here is a brief review on what can be generated from these two studies:

1. Nielsen Economic Current is a monthly study tracking key consumer and retailing trends on a global, regional and country-wide basis. The research follows key consumer topics such as:
• Market Index volume (unit and country currency change)
• Retail channel shifting
• Shopping frequency and spending trends
• Overall consumer confidence

The Economic Current presents trends in eleven countries representing over 70 percent of Global GDP. (United States, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Russia, India, China).
You can follow global and regional market indications and collect data on a country level as well:

2. New Product Innovation in a Recession: US study
Nielsen has mined insights from about 35 new item launches that are actively being monitored across a variety of packaged goods categories in the U.S. According to Nielsen – product innovation remains important as approximately three-quarters of the products being tracked showed little impact of the economic downturn.

These results suggest that consumer habits with respect to everyday goods are slow to change; their purchase intent and value perceptions remain stable over time, regardless of macroeconomic conditions.

Moreover, over half of the items tracked were priced at a premium to their parent brand or respective category. Many of these were found to perform as expected.

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2 Responses

HTML Coder Says:
February 25th, 2009 at 7:45 am
good post
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March 3rd, 2009 at 11:14 pm
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