Tag Archives: gfc

PR agency earnings per consultant stagnant since GFC

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Earnings per billable consultant in PR agencies have not changed since 2009, but salaries are putting the industry under considerable squeeze, according to the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA).

Chairman of PRIA’s Registered Consultancies Group (RCG), Annabelle Warren, revealed findings of an industry study late last year showing salaries for senior account managers, account directors and group managers had increased, even though earnings per billable staff member had stagnated since the global financial crisis (GFC).

“The data shows that while staff are getting paid more, the revenue generated per consultant is not increasing. This is deeply concerning as additional profit is coming from managing overheads, which is short-term,” Warren says.

“The size of client budgets and retainers has been stagnant since the GFC and consultancies are tightly reining in costs with 51% saying cost containment was a key challenge compared to 42% last year.”

Despite the squeeze, the industry expects 2012’s growth of 3% to continue in 2013. 86% of the chief executives interviewed in PRIA’s 12th annual public relations consultancy benchmarking study expect to see more client work come in the door this year and more than 60% of firms indicate they intend to hire in the next six months.

The study also revealed a continuing shortage of mid-level staff. “PRIA has accredited 32 university programs across the country so good graduates are relatively easy to come by,” Warren says. “The pain point is finding staff with between three to six years of experience. Many consultancies still report the need to use 457 visas to get experienced staff at this level and these are mainly coming from the UK.”

Over-servicing also continues to be a problem in all consultancies surveyed, although 43% of firms reported that they had managed to reduce some of the free work hours provided to clients. “Some consultancies are giving away hundreds of hours to large organisations who have the capacity to pay, but this year tighter management has reduced the reported level slightly,” Warren says.

Just over 70% of the industry’s work comes from publicity and media relations, while the remainder is generated by work in community engagement, digital and social media, event management, internal communication, government and investor relations.

The annual study, conducted by Galaxy Research, represents consultancy owners across Australia and is based on financial and operations data submitted by members.

 

August consumer confidence: Aussie dollar, Olympics, RBA create confidence yo-yo

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Despite being conducted just three days apart and using almost identical methodologies, consumer confidence figures from Roy Morgan Research and Westpac-Melbourne Institue (WMI) disagree on whether confidence is up or down in August.

Westpac’s chief economist Bill Evans expressed surprise at WMI’s 2.5% drop given media coverage had been more positive recently due to rises in retail spend, recent rates cuts from the RBA and somewhat of a stabilisation in Europe.

Gary Morgan, executive chairman of Roy Morgan Research alluded to the strong Aussie dollar and Olympics as potential factors behind the rise in Roy Morgan’s rating.

Read below the summary of this month’s results and comment from the studies’ economists.

Latest results

Roy Morgan Research Consumer Confidence Rating (weekly measure) – August 13/14, 2012

The rating has risen to 113.1 points, up 2.5 points in a week, and is now 3.3 points higher than a month ago and 5.3 points higher than a year ago.

 

 

Westpac–Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment (monthly measure) – May 6-10, 2012

The index decreased to 96.6 points, down 2.5 points over the past month but 7.0 points higher than a year ago.

 
 NB: When reading the chart, please note that the numbers are not directly comparable due to slight methodological differences. Both are calculated from a neutral point of 100 plus the unweighted average of the difference between the proportion of respondents who give favourable versus unfavourable answers to five key questions. A score above 100 indicates that the number of optimists outweigh the number of pessimists and vice-a-versa for a number below 100.
 

 What are the pollsters saying about current confidence levels?

Gary Morgan, executive chairman, Roy Morgan

“As the London Olympic Games closed over the weekend Australian consumer confidence rose 2.1points to 113.1 — it’s highest for three months since May 12/13, 2012. Driving the rise was a strong increase in Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items — up 7% to 58%.

“Also contributing to the rise was increasing optimism about the Australian economy with 32% (up 1%) expecting ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months and 34% (up 2%) expecting ‘good times’ for Australia’s economy over the next five years.

“The RBA’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged last week at 3.5% – amongst the highest in the developed world – appears to have had little immediate impact on consumer confidence although it has strengthened the Australian Dollar which has traded clearly above US$1.05 in the past week.”

 

Bill Evans, chief economist, Westpac

“There has been enough positive news around since the last survey, and generally over the last few months, to have sustained an upswing in Consumer Sentiment. News that retail spending was boosted in the first half of the year; unemployment remains low; the Government has released $1.9bn in fiscal compensation over the May–June period; the Reserve Bank had cut the overnight cash rate by 0.75% in May/June; and the President of the European Central Bank has been promising to “do whatever it takes” to save the Euro has been unsuccessful in sustaining an upswing in sentiment.

“Indicative of a more positive global outlook the share market has risen by 2.9% and the Australian dollar has risen from around USD 1.02 to USD 1.05 since the survey in July, the latter also reflecting Australia’s attractive interest rate differential.

“This is the sixth consecutive month that the Index has registered below 100, averaging 96.2. This is unusual. The only comparable periods since the recession of the early 1990s are in 2000–01 when the Index printed an average of 96.5 over an eight month period and in 2008–09 when it averaged 88.0 over a 16 month period.

“Media reports that the Reserve Bank may have decided against future rate cuts are likely to have unnerved households. For example, despite rates staying on hold the confidence of respondents who hold a mortgage fell by 3.9%.

 

Related articles: Editor’s pick

Consumer confidence surges to start the new year

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Marketing

Australians are feeling good about the new year according to this week’s Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating. Confidence jumped 9.4 points to reach its highest peak in eight months. But although it hasn’t been higher since May 2011, the confidence rating is still 5.3 points lower than the same time last year. Read more…

Consumer confidence up or down? Rival measures disagree

Consumer confidence has always been hard to track, and at the moment even the researchers seem to be struggling. Rival measures, the Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating and The Westpac/Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment, disagree on whether confidence is up or down despite being conducted in the same week of December. Read more…

Recent articles

Study reveals consumer climate in emerging markets

While Brazilians are big spenders, the Chinese are saving, Indians are study geeks and the Russians are on a downer, brands are looking at exponential growth in emerging markets over the next few years as consumers look to ‘trade up’ in these nations. In a look at current consumer behaviour in key emerging markets Read more…

Consumer Confidence Yo-Yo

Australians are a confused country of consumers, if the Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence Rating is anything to go by. Research from last week showed that there was a 2% drop in Australian consumer confidence about their personal financial situations from the week before Read more…

Australian consumer confidence on the up again

Australian consumer confidence is on the up and up. This week’s Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rating has risen to 118.8pts (up 3.3pts in a week). However, that figure is still 6.6pts lower than this time a year ago. Read more…

 

Digital jobs the big movers in a post-GFC marketing world

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by Peter Osborne, manager, trade marketing and public relations, SEEK

 

In the fast-paced world of marketing, a year is a heck of a long time. When you consider that this time a year ago, Kyle Sandilands was Austereo’s biggest money spinner and spin-king Shane Warne was single, larger and significantly less tanned, a year in the marketing sphere is pretty much a lifetime.

Consider then the incredible ride of the past three years, when Europe and the US went from economic prosperity to the grim depths of financial despair. It’s no secret Australia also took a hit and, despite our geography, we were not immune to the ripple effects of the GFC. There were certainly knock-on effects in the job market, but we saw a strong rebound in a country that is largely candidate short. Australia-wide, Seek has seen 66% growth in the number of marketing and communications job ads since January 2009. Victoria appears to be the centre of the marketing jobs boom,  registering the highest increase in the number of job ads in this time period.

The real winners over the past three years have been those working in the digital and search fields. The ‘discovery’ of the power of digital marketing has opened up a whole new recruitment specialty. As corporations split their teams between digital and traditional, it’s the digital guys who often clean up in the wage stakes.

But supply of skilled candidates has not kept up with demand. When there’s a shortfall in the number of candidates to fill roles, salaries go up to attract people from other specialties and this has certainly been the case with digital. In relative terms, digital is still a new industry. While the types of roles and professions have bedded down somewhat more recently, the rise in the industry remains significant. Digital and search marketing job ads have risen by a hefty 108% since August 2010. Good candidates are hard to find and even harder to retain. It’s a highly attractive industry to the younger generation who have grown up with technologies that can seem almost magical: “So, you give their computer a cookie and it tells you if they want to buy any of my widgets? Sure, here’s some money…”

More recently we have seen both candidates and employers acting a little more cautiously. Job seekers are making sure that the job they’re applying for meets a number of needs – not just financial needs.

When you look at the different categories of marketing roles, the past three years have seen some interesting changes in terms of the job market.

Australia-wide, marketing research and analysis job ads have dipped 17% since January 2009. They seem to be the primary casualties. Job ads for marketing assistants have risen 11% while brand management roles jumped 84%. Direct marketing job ads increased by 66%.

Australia-wide, salaries in PR and corporate affairs have had the most significant growth, up some 22% when compared to August 2010.

This may be explained by the fact that corporate affairs consultants are being called on more and more by corporations who are unsure how to handle the world of social media and user generated content. As the rise of citizen journalism changes the media game – even for regular journalists – the need for businesses to enact digital issues mitigation strategies has never been more apparent. If you don’t believe me, just ask Qantas.

Over in the West, the largest growth was in event management, while in Queensland, PR and corporate affairs and brand management roles saw the biggest growth in salaries.

As we continue to dig big holes in the ground, it’s inevitable that the flow-on effect in job and salary growth will continue in the WA and QLD markets. It’s no surprise therefore that event management and PR salaries are on the rise in these states: no one knows how to throw a better event than marketers.

So what does the future hold for the world of marketing careers? Well I’ve learned that crystal balls don’t work very well when I try to look much farther ahead than next week, but we have seen really pockets of growth in the marketing industry, and as we look towards the horizon of 2012 it will be exciting to be a part of the change that is inevitable in a digital world.

In an industry often at the forefront of innovation, we do have to remind ourselves we get paid well to have a lot of fun. With that in mind, I’m off to fly my remote control helicopter around the office. Over and out.

Consumer confidence surges to start the new year

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Australians are feeling good about the new year according to this week’s Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating. Confidence jumped 9.4 points to reach its highest peak in eight months.

But although it hasn’t been higher since May 2011, the confidence rating is still 5.3 points lower than the same time last year.

The Christmas period doesn’t appear to have impacted on perceptions of the financial situation with an increase in the number of Australians saying they are better off since December.

According to executive chairman of Roy Morgan Research, Gary Morgan, the jump is the biggest jump to start a new year since January 2003: “The rising Australian Dollar (now at US$1.03, up from US$0.99 in mid December) and the accompanying rise in confidence have both helped to give retailers a better start to 2012 than many had forecast,” Morgan says.

Retail figures for December are not due out until February 6, but anecdotal evidence from the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) suggests vendors were on track to meet their budgets after a steady post-Christmas sales period.

ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman says, “Shoppers are pacing themselves and thinking about their buying strategy so they can take advantage of bargains throughout the entire sales period.”

No increase in sales was recorded by the ABS in November despite an interest rate cut.

 

Roy Morgan’s Consumer Confidence Rating was conducted over the weekend of January 7 and 8, 2012.

The future of… print

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This feature first appeared in the December 2011/January 2012 issue of Marketing magazine.

 

As 2011 comes to an end, Marketing magazine decided to take a look at the most rapidly evolving channels. The pace of change across the industry made this a difficult decision, but the three we’ve analysed all share a common and ever evolving game-changer: technology.

In the third of our predictions trilogy, Marketing takes a look at print and  how publishers are deepening their audience engagement on advertiser’s behalf through multiple touchpoints.

Everyone loves a good headline, and despite the usual suspects newspapermen and magazine editors, no one moreso than the web-press and bloggers. Yes they move newspapers, but damn can you see your analytics tickers fly when you post something entitled, ‘The Death of Print’. Choir’s love to be preached to. The reality is that print is no more dying than the discipline of marketing is dying. Print media businesses are about building an audience and engaging them deeply on an emotional and/or intellectual level. The media used to do this evolves: formats expand and contract with demand. So, in response marketing to marketing demand, all media businesses are employing multiple touchpoints.  Before the internet there had never been such a macro shift combined with micro influences: delivering in-demand content formats (text, video, audio) more easily.

Recognise that the product of a print media business is not paper, it is content. Recognise that few brands can dream of the brand equity a masthead enjoys. Recognise we live in a time where to take any channel alone and analyse it as a sole medium for reaching consumers, rather than a part of an integrated campaign or communications strategy, is to determine the result before beginning.

At a time when media fragmentation has made audiences harder to reach:

  • the surviving traditional print businesses and the web startups alike have recognised offering an advertising solution that is a single touchpoint leads to insolvency, and
  • savvy marketers understand the engagement reputable mastheads offer over other paid media (including purchased databases).

The real figures

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), like-for-like audited magazine sales in Australia fell by 5.5 percent between January and June 2011. According to Magazines Publishers of Australia (MPA) 230 million magazines are sold annually in Australia, although this data is an aggregate based on ABC data of 2009. Aggregate data indicating the split between B2B and B2C titles was not made available before time of press. The MPA claim eight of 10 people read at least one or more magazines, with popularity of the media skewing slightly towards women at 84 percent and 76 percent of men.

On the newspaper front, the total decline has been surprisingly lower – although more significant when viewed as unit sales. The statistics paint a brighter picture than the aforementioned sensationalist headlines would have us believe. Between 2010 and 2009, The Newspaper Works reported a decline of three percent for metro and national paid dailies, juxtaposed with a decline of five percent for US newspapers and seven percent for UK. This international divide in newspaper decline is not an isolated anomalous year, but an ongoing trend between the markets: between 2005 and 2009, Australian newspapers dropped 4 percent, while the US and UK category equivalents saw drastic drops of 13 and 16 percent respectively. The Newspaper Works explains the stark difference is due to serendipitous market conditions. It says Australia is advantaged in that most markets are serviced by a single metropolitan or regional daily, while in the US many markets see multiple metropolitan and regional dailies and the UK has a number of large national dailies in competition with one another.

The brand equity of newspaper mastheads is demonstrated when looking at the top 10 news sites in Australia: seven are owned by newspaper publishers, though pole position is Nine News published by ninemsn. Second and third place are held by Fairfax with the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age respectively, while News Limited holds fourth, fifth, seventh, eight and tenth place with news.com.au, Herald Sun, The Australian, thetelegraph.com.au and Courier Mail respectively. Positions six and nine are held internationally by Yahoo!7 and BBC News. PwC’s Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2011-2015 demonstrates the parochial effectiveness of digital newspapers, showing display advertising growth for Australian mastheads well ahead of their US counterparts at 236 percent between 2006 and 2010 versus just 55 percent for US mastheads. The same report anticipates by 2015, display advertising with digital newspapers will have grown to $440 million from $286 million in 2011.

What are publishers doing?

The internet has really left few industries untouched and in adversity is opportunity. Right Angle Studio is one of the hot young things in the publishing industry that’s taken advantage of media fragmentation and developed quite a divergent model and offering. Publishers of the popular Thousands City Guides (websites and eDMs named after capital city post codes), Right Angle Studio started as a collaboration between brothers Barry and Chris Barton and provides a signpost to where publishers big and small are moving.

“What we found out is that after a couple of years of producing content about cities for inner city people, brands were often coming to us to ask us for our insights into that audience, or to ask us to perform marketing services targeting that group,” Barry, strategy and insights director at Right Angle Studio, tells Marketing.

These insights and audience engagement have spawned several partnerships including:

  • Lost & Found Hotel: the physical extension of a digital magazine targeted at the Australian creative community. In partnership with Tourism Victoria, Right Angle Studio collaborates with creative Melburnians to create, design and furnish a pop-up hotel
  • The Thousands iPhone app: a city guide of the best food and entertainment in Australian cities, produced in partnership with American Express. The app is branded on opening and provides reinforcement through indicating which locations accept AmEx, and
  • The Pond: a 2009 partnership with Pure Blonde as the beer began moving in on the inner-urban market in which Right Angle Studio facilitated the rejuvenation of two dilapidated spaces in Sydney and Melbourne, where drinkers could exchange eco-friendly donations for pots of beer.

“Our focus as a business is on an urban demographic, and how we communicate with that urban demographic can take many forms. And so I guess when people look at Right Angle, it might seem a little confusing because we’re a company that has online publications and owns a cinema and produces events, and does a myriad of things. But for us, it makes perfect sense because we’re still speaking to the same group of people, and we have a very deep understanding of all the different ways in which they communicate.

Barton says that, on the contrary, one touchpoint simply doesn’t cut-through to an audience the way it once did and no longer works for either publishers or advertisers.

We discuss media fragmentation and declining physical readerships and Barton puts forward the idea that, “there has been this proliferation of titles and readership opportunities, and we seem to have gone through an almost kind of gluttonous period of media consumption where we’ve stuffed as many different titles into our repertoire as possible and been left with a lot of things for which we have very little empathy or feeling. And I think that, as quite a pervasive trend across society, not just in terms of the publications we consume, but the number of people in our social networks, is a general sort of consolidation and quality control that’s beginning to creep into our consideration of things. And it would be nice to presume that, as we go through this kind of threshing out of what still works for us and what doesn’t, that publications which are at a higher quality and have continually developed a good product will recapture old markets, or not share that market with as many other publications.”

It isn’t just the hot young things that are adapting to new advertiser demands in order to create deeper branded experiences. The titans of the industry are there too. In the magazine world, there’s really one masthead to rule them all: Vogue.

“Vogue’s circulation is above the 50,000 mark. It’s been there for many years, decades actually,” agrees Mark Kelly, group publisher, lifestyle, at News Magazines. “Vogue will have an increase at the next audit at June. Its readership is up 9.9 percent, and that’s added up with a trend over the last couple of years. I think the key point here, and the one that you’re raising, is that it’s increasingly important to look at the total audience for magazine brands, and that’s really because what we’re trying to look at is engagement, and you can’t only look at circulation or readership [to see that]. So, you really need to look at cross-circulation readership online, social media, and events such as Fashion’s Night Out to understand the engagement levels across all platforms. And just to that point, Vogue Australia has the second highest per capita audience of any Vogue in the world.” [The highest is not the expected French or Italian edition, but Spanish.] “So, our penetration is extremely high in Australia, and online, we’re the dominant fashion or lifestyle brand. So, an example of that is the new measurement system was released by Nielsen, and that shows a unique audience of nearly 500,000 people from vogue.com.au, but there is also a significantly large community audience for Vogue across social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, the blog, Tumblr, and Vogue forums. Its digital footprint has really expanded exponentially over the last 12 months. So, combined social media audiences of over 300,000 people. Facebook alone is 45,000, and Tumblr has gone from 2000 to 14,000 in three months. So, that is not an unduplicated audience, obviously, but it is true that we’ve always thought about our magazines as more than just magazines and print products, but it’s becoming increasingly true that from an advertiser’s perspective, they want to know what the audience is and the level of engagement with that audience.”

In 2009 Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue, birthed the Vogue Fashion’s Night Out (FNO) amid the GFC. The idea was to put the fun back into shopping while reinvigorating a suffering retail sector. FNO draws shoppers to retail precincts for the ‘VIP style’ experiential activity retailers offer: champagne, street performances, fashion advice etc. In 2010 it came to our shores, lighting up Sydney. Kelly, tells me that following the success of 2010, 2011 saw significant participation growth on the retailer front as 600 came on-board from 400 in 2010. But even at that scale, Kelly suggests it’s closer to good will than gold mine:

“It was a very big investment from our business last year. It’s not a money making venture. Basically, we lend our expertise as the world’s most influential media fashion brand to the retailers, and then it’s up to the retailers, really, to activate within their stores. So, a lot of the prestige advertisers have international alignments, obviously, and the luxury advertisers – the Ballys, the Burberrys, etc. –  they’re doing it in other cities… What we do is work with them on that and advise – we get access to what is world’s best practice for Fashion’s Night Out from the 17 cities around the world that conduct it… Advertisers definitely support it in the magazine around the issue, and that was certainly one of our highest ever revenue issues. In fact, the September and October issues were consecutively the two highest revenue issues in the history of Vogue, 51 years. But that’s more that they’re choosing to amplify their message through the magazine. So, the infrastructure that we do put on is expensive… Westfield was a major sponsor and there was other sponsors as well that supported us, including the City of Sydney. But it’s not going to make the Vogue rich; it’s more about providing an opportunity for the retailers, building relationships with the retailers, and allowing a much broader church of people to touch Vogue.”

Digital Engagement

The meteoric adoption of tablet devices is obviously something publishers are viewing lasciviously and audience expansion through the channel presents an interesting future to publishers and deeply engaging touchpoint to advertisers. The recent iOS5 upgrade including  Apple’s Newsstand has produced heartening figures, with News Limited’s iPad only The Daily shooting to pole position in terms of sales, with 120,000 active weekly readers, 80,000 of which are paying subscribers. Conde Nast reported a 268 percent increase in digital subscriptions after the update and a 142 percent increase in single copy sales. At time of print there were 295 magazines distributing through Apple Newsstand. The dominant player, however, is Zinio rather than Apple. The world’s largest digital newsstand, and through which Marketing magazine is published digitally, offers over 4500 magazine titles across 20 currencies.

“I think that the presence of the Apple newsstand is fantastic,” says Kelly. “Certainly, it’s been an issue trying to find magazines, and we know that the tablet is used for lots of things, social media, emails, gaming, obviously reading as well. But the lack of one place where you can consolidate all the print brands has certainly been a problem, and now it’s there, and having a look at it looks pretty good to me. I think though that we don’t only want to have a relationship with people through Apple, because obviously they’re taking 30 percent of the cut, and there is still questions over who owns the data. We will be seeking to not only have a relationship with them through Apple, but also a direct relationship as well. And I think that may mean different pricing on different platforms, all those things we’re experimenting with at the moment.”

At time of print, The Washington Post had excited the publishing world with its collaboration with Facebook on the social reader app. The web app displays The Washington Post’s content within a Facebook frame. From a publisher’s point of view it’s a fantastic means to leverage audiences they may never be exposed to: the web app automatically shares with a Facebook user’s friends all articles read by the user. It also displays articles read by the users friends, encouraging them to view more content. It also tailors content for the user by scanning her profile for likes and interests. The play is quite beneficial to Facebook as it keeps the user in the social network’s ecosystem – and a senior digital strategist with one of the big five media groups predicted off-record this was the first clue of the “inevitable” Facebook web browser. This automatic sharing also benefits advertisers in reaching hidden demographics through a complex funnel of interest-related sharing that would’ve been unobtainable through traditional research or digital targeting. It’s a step towards un-siloing content from algorithms while ensuring audience engagement.

The future of print is bright and it’s precisely the technological schism providing the light. It’s deeper audience engagement for publishers and advertisers using existing expertise across multiple-platforms – hinged on the medium you’re holding in your hand.

 

This article is featured in the December/January issue of Marketing magazine.

Booming middle class helps Indonesia escape GFC

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GFC? What GFC? Looking at the rate of growth in Indonesia, it seems as though the country was safely booming in its own bubble. According to research released by Nielsen yesterday, Indonesia has surged past global predictions and reached US$3000 per capita income at the start of 2011, a decade earlier than expected.

According to Nielsen, Indonesia’s middle class has been driving this rapid growth, and is now standing at the third largest in the world. They make up 48% of the Indonesian population, and account for 44% of all FMCG spending in the country.

Over the last five-year period, the middle class of the country have put much focus on improving the comfort of their lives, with ownership of rice cookers doubling (from 30% to 64%) and possession of a DVD player growing from just 6% in 2006 to over 39% today.

“Middle class households have focused their spending on items that improve their quality of life. That encompasses a whole range of consumer goods such as home electronics and appliances to health and beauty products. They tend to like to combine the convenience and fresh offerings from traditional retail channels such as wet markets with the price-savings and expansive product offerings of the modern trade,” says Catherine Eddy, managing director, consumer, at Nielsen Indonesia.

Nielsen released the following trends about this influential group of consumers:

- value for money is key for nearly all (97%) middle class shoppers

- 88% want to experiment with brands

- 53% shop in a modern trade outlet at least twice a month, and

- 90% look for stores with ‘attractive and interesting promotions’.

While the middle class are big viewers of television (96% watch TV every day), the most interesting trend in media consumption is the surge in mobile ownership. 71% of the middle class own a mobile phone, and half of them are using it to access the internet. More than 35% already possess a smart phone. 94% of them are also connected to social networks, with 89% owning a Facebook account.

“Penetration is already high, and purchase intent for smartphones is also strong. These devices are fast becoming the primary platform for a variety of activities, such as watching video, accessing the Internet and connecting to social networks. This is a key area for marketers and content providers to focus their efforts, provided they know what consumers are looking for,” says Irawati Pratignyo, managing director, media at Nielsen Indonesia.

Nielsen provides some key insights on how business owners can reach the middle class consumer:

- kids are playing a role in modern shopping: 95% say that they ‘hardly ever refuse’ the invitation from their kids to go to the minimarket

- convenience is key: today’s middle class consumers are pressed for time, with the demands of work and family life. Products that make life a bit easier are clear winners

- appeal to the fact that they are smart shoppers: they know how much items cost and where they are located in the store. Create a welcoming environment, promote value for money and win their loyalty

- Connect with them: they are increasingly online, and they discuss brands and products there. Engage with them on social networks, and

- Be relevant: tailor marketing – especially online and mobile campaigns – to them. Appeal to their need-states.

Marketing: biggest pain point

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Perth business owners have ranked Marketing as their biggest business problem, a survey by a Perth-based business coaching company has found.

A small sample of 80 business owners, of whom mostly turn over less than half a million dollars annually on average, with 26% turning over $5 million plus, agreed that marketing was a hassle and even more of a issue than market conditions.

In the media, you hear money is tight, especially with the GFC and the mining industry over here, so we thought that would come out as one of the biggest issues,” Reuben Taylor director of Business Success Excelarators tells Marketing magazine. “But marketing, wanting to grow their business but not knowing how was their biggest challenge. Marketing is always the problem and the solution.

“It seems the businesses that haven’t changed their marketing through the GFC are in a better place because of it. They’re even saying ‘what GFC?’ Meanwhile the others who pulled back their marketing through the GFC are just starting to get back into it, but slowly. Rather than saying what can I do about it, I got a sense of blame, theyre blaming their circumstances, it’s outside of them, its got harder, they’re not getting on with the job.”

Australians stay home

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54% of Australian consumers have admitted to reducing dining out, reported research company, Datamonitor.

Datamonitor’s report, ‘Five Key Consumer Issues for Australian Retailers Post-Recession: Defining the ‘New Normal’ for Retailers’ details that Australian consumers are looking to place relationships with friends and family as a priority in their lives, with 46% wanting to prioritise friends and family over their own commitments. This priority leads to consumers preferring to socialise in an at-home environment more often, rather than in restaurants and bars.

“Australians remain budget conscious, and are increasingly looking for cost effective ways to socialise with friends and family. This is resulting in consumers cutting back spend in places such as bars and restaurants and enjoying food and drinking occasions at-home,” said Michael Hughes, consumer consultant at Datamonitor.

While 54% of the respondents have reduced dining out, 15% said that they will share a beverage three times a week, at home or at a friend’s house.

“Although consumers are entertaining at-home more regularly, they are reluctant to compromise quality associated with out-of-home occasions such as trips to restaurants. As such, they will trade up to buy premium food and drink when entertaining at-home, in order to offer moments of indulgence in a more cost effective manner,” said Hughes.

Consumer strategies for saving money

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Now that the recession is largely over, Nielsen has released a study that has assessed whether consumers are ready to start spending money again.

The study, ‘Global Consumer Strategies for Saving Money’ surveyed 27,000 consumers in 55 markets to get a better sense of whether steps are still being taken to save money in view of uncertain economic conditions.

A major finding of the study was that consumers are holding onto financial techniques picked up during the recession. These included tactics such as buying items on sale (57%), using coupons (40%), shopping at value retailers (37%), shopping close to home/work (25%) and stocking up on shopping items (22%).

Consumers also admitted to still buying purchases on credit. Globally 19% of consumers said that they use credit cards more often than last year, however 31% of North Americans and 30% of Latin Americans admitted to using their credit cards less than the previous year.

Other findings included half of the respondents admitting to eating out less often than the year before – particularly in Latin America, North America, Europe and the Middle East. Asia Pacific however, showed a 5% higher rate than the global average for eating out.

Few marketers impressed with GFC management

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37% of employees admired the actions of their employer throughout the global financial crisis (GFC) said Robert Walters in its ‘Employee Insights Survey’.

State-wise, employees in South Australia were the most impressed, with 68% stating that they respected their employer’s decisions during the GFC, while Queenslanders were the least impressed with only 30% agreeing with the statement.

Those employed in the engineering industry were the most impressed by their employers during the GFC, with 63% of engineers admiring their employers. Only a quarter of marketers interviewed agreed with that their employers handled the GFC satisfactorily.

Generations also had differing views of the GFC, with only 40% of Generation Y, 37% of Generation X and 32% of Baby Boomers admiring their employers actions during the GFC.

Irish whiskey beats the recession

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Irish whiskey remains strong within the US spirits market, finds Datamonitor.

Irish whiskey has appealed to ‘pre-committal’ young men who have continued to spend throughout the recession and been more adventurous in trying new brands. The market is predicted to grow at a rate of 9.4% year-on-year over five years to 2014 in the US compared to just 2% for the overall whisky market and 0.2% for Scotch whisky.

“Irish whiskey has successfully set itself apart from the general market which has traditionally been dominated by older drinkers. In fact our research has revealed that in the US within the spirits market as a whole 41% of whiskey drinkers are over 55 compared to only 4% who are in the youngest age category.

“Irish whiskey is an example of a European brand trading on the fact that it’s different to what is already on offer in an established market like the US. It has therefore become recession proof,” says Vicky McCrorie, analyst at Datamonitor.

As a result of the popularity of the drink, Datamonitor has recorded the launch of five new products in the first four months of 2010.

Demand for marketers increases

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Demand for Marketing professionals is on the rise.

The E.L. Index has released its May report, showing a 6% increase in executive positions nationally with nearly every state showing positive gains.

Queensland and Victoria led the way in April juxtaposed with March. The New South Wales result was solid, while the Northern Territory was the only state to record a slip. The increase, which predicts wider economic health, is a good sign that Australia, at least, is recovering from the GFC.

Grant Montgomery, managing director of the executive search and research firm E.L Consult, which publishes the E.L Index, said, “On the surface the 6% rise is excellent news and hopefully it is the start of an increasing upward trend that will impact general employment and investment. Increased hiring of executives has always been a good indicator of changing trends in business confidence. New senior management roles are expensive and usually made with a long term outlook. However, we are living in interesting times and some recent announcements could impact the resilience of any turn around.”