经济衰退改变全球消费者购物习惯
Posted: April 4th, 2009, 1:36 pm
Shoppers Globally Reduce Spending
Shoppers' preference for less expensive and store-branded products is going global with the deepening recession.
A new Nielsen Co. gauge of consumer behavior across 11 of the world's largest economies found consistent shifts in consumer activity soon after a country's economy turned down. The research firm's findings suggest that consumers globally are rapidly adopting less expensive brands.
"Consumers can be pretty gradual in their change of behavior," said James Russo, Nielsen's vice president of marketing. "But what this recession has showed us is that consumers are making changes quickly."
Nielsen, best known for tallying television viewers, plans to release on Friday the first installment of a monthly tracking index of global consumer spending patterns. The new index is its first to provide a single, comprehensive picture of consumer trends around the world based on data from retailers, consumer panels and local contacts.
The study follows changes in 11 of the 12 largest economies: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and U.S.
Nielsen plans to update the figures monthly to assess changes in consumer confidence, spending, shopping habits and use of promotions to identify shifts in behavior, Mr. Russo said.
The first release covers the period through January, showing consumers in the U.S., Germany and Spain under the most strain. Spain, whose economy has been hit hard by a housing downturn, showed a particularly sharp change between December and January in consumers quickly cutting back on spending as the recession worsened.
Globally, the study found consumers cutting back on purchases and moving to store brands as confidence weakened. They also showed signs of cutting back on the number of trips to stores, showing moderate signs of stocking up on products they need.
"What has been interesting is the uniformity in behavior across countries," Mr. Russo said. "This consistency in their behavior really goes to this point of these economies being very, very closely tied together."
Many European countries moved quickly on that front, in some cases faster than the U.S., as discounters penetrated major markets in the U.K, Germany and other leading economies to push prices lower.
But parts of the world have been slow to shift toward store brands and cheaper products. Japanese consumers, for instance, have long maintained a strong brand mentality that put private-label products at a disadvantage, said Frank Badillo, senior retail economist at Retail Forward, a consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio.
Chinese consumers also showed a preference for name brands given the questions about product safety.
"Brands are looked on as a source of credibility -- it's quality, it's safe and it's going to last for me," Mr. Badillo said.
With many nations following the U.S. into recession, the January results offered one hopeful sign: American consumers increased their number of store trips by 1.5% during the month, reversing a six-month trend of cutting back on store visits.
By Sudeep Reddy
http://www.cbonds.info/eng/news/index.phtml/params/id/428762
http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20090404/ecb102324.asp
spending - 购物、消费，标题意为世界上的消费者普遍减少购物
preference - 偏好、倾向；store-branded - 商店品牌、大品牌；deepening - 加深的；整句意指全球经济衰退加剧，消费者更偏向于购买较便宜的普通品牌产品
turn down - 向下折、落下，文中指经济衰落，市场调查公司发现在经济衰退时，消费者的行为转变极快
adopt - adopt an approach/policy/attitude etc; to use a particular style of speaking, writing, or behaving, especially one that you do not usually use
Kim adopts a southern accent when speaking to family back home.
tallying television viewers - tally原意计数，此处是说Nielsen公司原本是做电视收视率调查的，今次发布的报告为其首次发布基于零售业的消费者购买趋势的报告
installment - one of the parts of a story that appears as a series of parts, especially in a magazine, newspaper etc
under the strain - 压力、困境，Nielsen公司发布的调查数据显示一些国家，如德国、西班牙国内经济形势恶化，后者遭遇严重的楼市低迷，十二月和一月间消费购买出现极剧下降
on that front - 在那方面；front解释为specified area of activity（活动的范围或领域），如 on the domestic, financial, education, etc front 在国内、金融、教育等方面.
brand mentality - 这里指虽然遭遇经济危机，但日本国民普遍还持有一种强烈的品牌心态，即不放弃对品牌的追求，从而使小品牌牌一种不利境地
name brand - 品牌产品，此处指中国消费者因产品质量安全问题的考虑，购买时仍然倾向于品牌产品
reversing - 逆转，此处指数据趋势发生了反向变化，即（虽然处于经济萧条状态）美国消费者在一月份的消费行为出现了持续六个月下降以来的回转，去商店购物消费的次数增加了1.5%
thinking points
1. list any factors that can influence consumers' spending, their behavior
2. how can the assessment of the changes in consumer confidence, spending, shopping habits and use of promotions be used to identify behavioral shifts?
3. does the reversed trend in January really mean a sign of recovery?
Shoppers' preference for less expensive and store-branded products is going global with the deepening recession.
A new Nielsen Co. gauge of consumer behavior across 11 of the world's largest economies found consistent shifts in consumer activity soon after a country's economy turned down. The research firm's findings suggest that consumers globally are rapidly adopting less expensive brands.
"Consumers can be pretty gradual in their change of behavior," said James Russo, Nielsen's vice president of marketing. "But what this recession has showed us is that consumers are making changes quickly."
Nielsen, best known for tallying television viewers, plans to release on Friday the first installment of a monthly tracking index of global consumer spending patterns. The new index is its first to provide a single, comprehensive picture of consumer trends around the world based on data from retailers, consumer panels and local contacts.
The study follows changes in 11 of the 12 largest economies: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and U.S.
Nielsen plans to update the figures monthly to assess changes in consumer confidence, spending, shopping habits and use of promotions to identify shifts in behavior, Mr. Russo said.
The first release covers the period through January, showing consumers in the U.S., Germany and Spain under the most strain. Spain, whose economy has been hit hard by a housing downturn, showed a particularly sharp change between December and January in consumers quickly cutting back on spending as the recession worsened.
Globally, the study found consumers cutting back on purchases and moving to store brands as confidence weakened. They also showed signs of cutting back on the number of trips to stores, showing moderate signs of stocking up on products they need.
"What has been interesting is the uniformity in behavior across countries," Mr. Russo said. "This consistency in their behavior really goes to this point of these economies being very, very closely tied together."
Many European countries moved quickly on that front, in some cases faster than the U.S., as discounters penetrated major markets in the U.K, Germany and other leading economies to push prices lower.
But parts of the world have been slow to shift toward store brands and cheaper products. Japanese consumers, for instance, have long maintained a strong brand mentality that put private-label products at a disadvantage, said Frank Badillo, senior retail economist at Retail Forward, a consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio.
Chinese consumers also showed a preference for name brands given the questions about product safety.
"Brands are looked on as a source of credibility -- it's quality, it's safe and it's going to last for me," Mr. Badillo said.
With many nations following the U.S. into recession, the January results offered one hopeful sign: American consumers increased their number of store trips by 1.5% during the month, reversing a six-month trend of cutting back on store visits.
By Sudeep Reddy
http://www.cbonds.info/eng/news/index.phtml/params/id/428762
http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20090404/ecb102324.asp
spending - 购物、消费，标题意为世界上的消费者普遍减少购物
preference - 偏好、倾向；store-branded - 商店品牌、大品牌；deepening - 加深的；整句意指全球经济衰退加剧，消费者更偏向于购买较便宜的普通品牌产品
turn down - 向下折、落下，文中指经济衰落，市场调查公司发现在经济衰退时，消费者的行为转变极快
adopt - adopt an approach/policy/attitude etc; to use a particular style of speaking, writing, or behaving, especially one that you do not usually use
Kim adopts a southern accent when speaking to family back home.
tallying television viewers - tally原意计数，此处是说Nielsen公司原本是做电视收视率调查的，今次发布的报告为其首次发布基于零售业的消费者购买趋势的报告
installment - one of the parts of a story that appears as a series of parts, especially in a magazine, newspaper etc
under the strain - 压力、困境，Nielsen公司发布的调查数据显示一些国家，如德国、西班牙国内经济形势恶化，后者遭遇严重的楼市低迷，十二月和一月间消费购买出现极剧下降
on that front - 在那方面；front解释为specified area of activity（活动的范围或领域），如 on the domestic, financial, education, etc front 在国内、金融、教育等方面.
brand mentality - 这里指虽然遭遇经济危机，但日本国民普遍还持有一种强烈的品牌心态，即不放弃对品牌的追求，从而使小品牌牌一种不利境地
name brand - 品牌产品，此处指中国消费者因产品质量安全问题的考虑，购买时仍然倾向于品牌产品
reversing - 逆转，此处指数据趋势发生了反向变化，即（虽然处于经济萧条状态）美国消费者在一月份的消费行为出现了持续六个月下降以来的回转，去商店购物消费的次数增加了1.5%
thinking points
1. list any factors that can influence consumers' spending, their behavior
2. how can the assessment of the changes in consumer confidence, spending, shopping habits and use of promotions be used to identify behavioral shifts?
3. does the reversed trend in January really mean a sign of recovery?