How Hard is it to be Healthy?

Recent statistics show that if current trends continue 60% of men and 50% of women will be clinically obese by 2050. The government have responded with £2bn spend allocated over the past decade tackling obesity levels, including £733m on school sport.

A healthy way of life takes up time, effort and money. Going beyond just eating; encompassing physical activity, work-life balance and behaviour change.

The government’s white paper ‘Healthy lives, healthy people’ was launched in December 2010. The initiative aims to improve the nation’s health by focusing on five areas: food, alcohol, physical activity, health at work and behaviour change. In research conducted by Group Risk Development (GRiD), more than one in three (38%) said their top priority in 2012 was taking steps to improve work-life balance.

Price is a main concern for being part of the well-being trend. In a poll conducted by World Cancer Research Fund, only 17% of people in low income households eat their 5 a day compared to 27% in higher income groups.

Exercise also needs to be more accessible and convenient. With faster results in demand, quicker solutions to get fit such as HIT (Higher Intensity Training) are proving popular. Mintel’s research indicates that many consumers no longer wish to be tied in to lengthy contracts. Instead, they are looking for flexibility - demonstrated in the success of 24-hour gym opening times. In 2010, Pure Gyms, a national 24-hour chain, ran just 12 outlets. By 2013, that will rise to 45.

For brands to engage with consumers in the health trend they need to introduce healthy lifestyle changes in small convenient bites. Providing a solution that is easy and affordable for the consumer to adopt into their daily routine.

Lauren Overton
Consumer Analyst

How to Achieve Consumer Satisfaction?

TEDx posted this entertaining and interesting talk from Rory Sutherland explaining why perspective is so important and how reframing is key to happiness. 

Rory gives some great insight into how brands and marketers can refine their message for consumer satisfaction.
   

Sutherland argues that consumer satisfaction is greater when individuals feel they have more control over their lives. 

Two interesting points are highlighted 

Consumer Habits: Why Having Children Changes Everything

Parents are, and always have been, a key consumer demographic. Becoming a parent changes everything, from lifestyle to new worries, to saving, to spending. Yet over recent years parenthood has experienced change, impacting how and why it is important to market to them. 

The Faceless Crowd

There is a basic human need to be part of a group. We move through many on a daily basis. Individuals gather for countless reasons; from organized events to unintentionally on a busy street.

The increase of mass media also allows the rapid exchange of information and opinions around the world to form online groups. For example, #100daystogo is currently trending on twitter – a mixture of thousands of people and companies sharing their views and sponsorship offers on the Olympics. A perfect opportunity to influence the masses.

Is Too Much Choice a Problem for Consumers?

Today’s choice of products has never been so great. Tesco stocks 91 different shampoos, 93 varieties of tooth paste and 115 types of household cleaner according to The Economist. This should be great - conventional economic theory points to competition and choice as two important drivers for welfare and profits. 

Yet too much choice can have considerable negative effects. In 2004, Barry Schwartz wrote ‘The Paradox of Choice-Why More is Less’ arguing that wide choice causes anxiety for the consumer. Who wouldn’t be anxious when Starbucks offer 87,000 different drink combinations?

Self-Control...or Lack of

Social comparison has always been prominent; what someone else has or does can be the root of much envy. An emotion that is usually combatted by acquiring what is causing it, testing the strength of our self-control.

Richard Easterlin, a professor in Economics, suggests people of all income levels tend to compare themselves to those who are slightly better off.

Type A Woman

A recent article by Marketing Magazine introduced the ‘Type A Woman’.

This affluent and influencing group exerts more consumer domination than any other. Aged 50+ the ‘baby-boomers’ have now been propelled to the ‘Type A woman’ - gaining more and more recognition. Carol Orsborn, Ph.D, a leading marketing expert on this particular generation, attributes the spending power of these individuals to successful careers, investments made during the “boom” years, and inheritances from parents or husbands. Making this group “more financially empowered than any previous generation of women.”

Consumer Behaviour: Why Consumers Pay for Covenience

The recession has upset the balance between work and life for many people. Higher stress, longer hours, lower pay and redundancies have all increased the scarcity of leisure time. 

Importantly, there is still a desire for a greater work-life balance. According to YouGov, half of workers are after more flexible working with only 17% rejecting the possibility. Britain leads the way across Europe in terms of priorities for work-life balance, with work-life balance being the prime motivation for employees leaving their company.