JWT’s AnxietyIndex is designed as a place to discuss how brands and consumers are responding to the global recession. With daily content updates, AnxietyIndex.com includes contributions from around JWT’s network, offering a truly global perspective.
Last year we spotlighted an Axis Bank commercial out of India that addressed the anxiety many Indians feel when traveling abroad. International travel is increasing as India’s middle class expands, but consumers are still adjusting to the idea of leaving their comfort zone. A new Thomas Cook campaign from JWT targets foreign-travel newbies who are less cosmopolitan than residents of international cities like Delhi and Mumbai—the cohort most likely to get stressed out about straying far afield.
The most humorous of three TV spots shows a flummoxed family stumbling into a kinky bar (a sort of modern version of Cabaret’s Kit Kat Club), which turns out to be the lobby of the hotel they’ve booked, Golden Mangoes. “Don’t just book it,” would-be travelers are advised as the Thomas Cook logo pops up along with the words “Travel smooth.” Other spots show some young women getting ripped off by shady money changers and two guys enduring a tour led by a scary-looking guy speaking a foreign language.
JWT’s Tista Sen told Ad Age: “In spite of the perfect planning and online checks and calculations, the Indian traveler usually gets it all wrong. Everybody comes back from exotic locations with some horror story.” By reminding travelers of those stories, Thomas Cook presents itself as an easy solution to travel jitters.
Filtering through nutritional claims and package labels, and all the latest reports on what to eat and what to avoid, is an anxiety-provoking business for shoppers who want to make nutritionally savvy choices. Confusion abounds. Nutritional labels, for instance, are understood only “in part” by a majority of consumers (52 percent vs. 41 percent who understand them “mostly”), according to a recent Nielsen global survey.
Earlier this month Walmart announced plans to help customers make smarter selections with a “Great for You” label for store-brand products (and a sign for fresh-produce areas), launching this spring. Criteria for inclusion are outlined on Walmart’s website. Various other food retailers are displaying nutrition scores on store shelves, a trend we touch on in our recent report “What’s Cooking? Trends in Food.” Some have come up with their own systems: For instance, Safeway’s SimpleNutrition program evaluates products and allots up to two “benefit messages” per tag, such as “Sodium Smart” or “Low Cholesterol.” Retailers can also adopt third-party systems like Guiding Stars, which grants from zero to three stars based on a food’s nutrient density per 100 calories.
As the ranks of the health-conscious continue to grow, retailers have an opportunity to act as advisers for customers, saving them time, effort and concern that they’re making the wrong choices by pointing them directly to the better ones.
“Noooooo!” This month JCPenney introduced its new “Fair and square” pricing policy by playing off the idea that keeping up with sales and special offers is stress-inducing in the extreme. Various shoppers scream when they’ve just missed a sale, an item they’ve bought subsequently gets discounted, they’re stuck in a huge sales-event line or they’re overwhelmed with coupons. “Enough. Is. Enough,” viewers are told cryptically, then referred to the retailer’s Facebook page, which explains the new “Fair and square” pricing policy.
The spot’s screaming has been deemed “annoying and disturbing” by some, but the real question is whether “Fair and square” will draw shoppers who prefer straightforward pricing to the highs (and lows) of scoring deals. The new policy, based on a red, white and blue scheme, incorporates some discounting: Red prices indicate “great prices, everyday,” blue refers to “best prices” (clearance markdowns that take place two Fridays a month), and white indicates a month-long promotion (e.g., back-to-school specials). The aim is to end what new chief executive Ron Johnson termed “fake prices,” telling The New York Times last month that “Now most things are on 60 percent markdown, and every time we do that, we’re discounting Penney’s brand.”
Reactions have been mixed. A pricing strategy consultant writes on the Harvard Business Reviewblog that the retailer isn’t differentiated enough to succeed with value pricing, while an enthusiastic commenter who describes herself as a busy mom says she’s gotten “darn tired” of the pricing game. The downturn has not only trained many shoppers to find or wait for the best deals but also to understand fake prices for what they are. The time seems right for a more straightforward approach that acknowledges consumers are smart enough to see through the hype.
U.K. retailer Argos is running a whimsical ad that suggests online shopping as an antidote to the year-end stress of navigating frenzied retail environments. The ad’s stars are a family of long-necked blue aliens on a visit to a mall. “It all feels a bit alien, doesn’t it, running around panicked?” says the father. “I thought ’twas the season to be jolly, but maybe not.” The daughter, sporting a stylish wool hat, points out that “The big man in red seems happy enough,” but Mom counters that “Everyone seems terribly stressy though. I don’t understand why they don’t just reserve their purchases online with Argos.” The ad pushes the idea of ordering on the Web—with alien mom using her mobile to do so—and picking up in store on the same day.
Britons are expected to spend £13.4 billion in online purchases this holiday season, according to one estimate—a good deal of it today, which is Cyber Monday in the U.K.; big numbers are expected. But a perfect storm of inflation, unemployment and the eurozone crisis are likely to dampen overall spending, and The Telegraphreports that retailers are carving into profit margins with price cuts and promotions in a grab for limited budgets. More retailers will need to avoid a race to the bottom by appeasing anxieties unrelated to price, as Argos does by suggesting a way for shoppers to preserve some sanity.
Do holiday shoppers spend less on themselves so as to afford gifts—last year we posted on an Accenture study suggesting this would be the case in 2010—or treat themselves more, given the “licensing effect” and the pervasive message that this is the time to get bargains? The National Retail Federation in the U.S. is suggesting that since retailers have been telling Americans to expect great deals, consumers who’ve been holding off purchases are planning to stock up for themselves right alongside gift recipients. An NRF survey found that 6 in 10 holiday shoppers intend to “take advantage of retailers’ sales and discounts to make additional non-gift purchases for themselves and their families during the holiday season”—with plans to spend an average of $130 on these purchases, up 16% from what they cited in 2010.
Last year we spotlighted a J.Crew website message telling shoppers to “take time to treat yourself.” The NRF points to a recent similar theme from J.Crew, which featured a home page reading “To: You. From: You” (the page has since changed). Zappos is pushing the idea heavily, with home page messages along the lines of “Handbags: One for you. One for them. Happiness for all.” And as MSNBC.com points out, retailers are also suggesting “family gifts” (e.g., a new TV), often de facto self-gifts for the purchaser, and making buy-one-get-one-free and gift-with-purchase offers, giving gift shoppers the best of both worlds (something for themselves folded into the bargain).
The ongoing challenge, of course, is that since most Americans still have limited funds, spending more on themselves won’t likely mean higher spending overall. (Indeed, consumer behavior researcher Paco Underhill notes in DailyFinance that one driver behind self-gifting is that the downturn made more modest gifts acceptable and led to some no-gift agreements.) Retailers can benefit in the long term, though, if shoppers get in the habit of making a list for themselves over the holidays.
Back in late 2009, we spotlighted Sprize, a program Gap was testing in the Vancouver market that added credit to a shopper’s Sprize card if the price of a purchase dropped in the following 45 days. (Sprize was ultimately discontinued, in early 2011.) Now, Walmart is trotting out an initiative that similarly addresses anxiety over spending by offering store credit on price differentials post-purchase. In Walmart’s case, the Christmas Price Guarantee will refund holiday shoppers the difference—via a gift card—if they see a product they’ve bought at Walmart advertised for less by a brick-and-mortar retailer in the same local market, as long as it’s before Christmas.
The guarantee helps allay concern that the items in question may be on sale elsewhere either now or closer to Christmas, causing consumers to hold off when they spot potential gifts. “Walmart’s Christmas Price Guarantee, combined with our additional holiday offerings, is aimed at helping our customers beat the holiday’s economic Grinch and ensure no Christmas is stolen,” reads a press release. These offerings include a Christmas Layaway plan that went into effect last week for purchases over $50; the retailer had previously held off bringing back layaway when others, including Kmart and Toys R Us, revived the idea as a recession tactic in 2009.
As we pointed out with Sprize, refunding the price difference as a gift card is smart, since it either gets shoppers perusing the goods again—and quite a few will spend more than what’s on the card—or, like many a gift card, gets forgotten about altogether. Meanwhile, diligent budget-conscious shoppers will appreciate the reward for their consumer-savviness.
American anxiety over the widening class divide and a seemingly entrenched downturn is finding expression in Occupy Wall Street and the similar protests around the U.S. So far one corporate brand has come out as a supporter: Ben & Jerry’s. Although owned by Unilever for the past decade, the ice cream purveyor has always tied its brand identity to the hippie origins of its namesake founders—look no further than flavors like Imagine Whirled Peace and the new Fair Goodness Cake (which touts a commitment to using only Fair Trade ingredients within the next few years). Now, The Guardian jokingly suggests “Choc-u-pie Wall Street” as the next new flavor.
A board of directors statement on the company website shows one of the brand’s signature cows holding an “Occupy” sign and expresses “our deepest admiration” for the activists. The movement hasn’t formulated a coherent message, so Ben & Jerry’s outlines five grievances that it supports, including class inequality, the unemployment crisis and the expense of higher education. Noting that the company “pays a livable wage to our employees,” the statement includes links to Ben & Jerry’s position on issues including “climate justice” and “peace building,” and explains how its lobbying money has been spent.
With more Americans struggling and worrying that better times aren’t ahead, how will brands respond? Supporting what some see as an anarchistic protest won’t work for most marketers, but there are many ways to position a brand as part of the solution. Starbucks, for example, just announced Create Jobs for USA, an initiative to solicit customer donations for a community lending organization.
In August, we wrote about Upward Spiral, the job-creation organization from Starbucks’ Howard Schultz. Now, Starbucks is enlisting its customers in an employment-focused initiative called Create Jobs for USA , a partnership with the community-lending nonprofit Opportunity Finance Network. Starting next month, Starbucks patrons will be able to donate to Create Jobs for USA in many of the stores and online, with a donation of $5 or more earning a red, white and blue wristband with a tag reading “Indivisible.” (Starbucks itself will kick in $5 million and also announced two profit-sharing programs, with a store in Harlem and one in L.A. giving at least $100,000 in the first year to a community group in each neighborhood.)
“Americans helping Americans create jobs” is the tagline for the initiative, which gives the “haves” (those who can afford the indulgence of a Frappuccino) an easy way to help the have-nots. “We want to match up every person who has $5 to share with every person who can’t spare $5,” said the CEO of Opportunity Finance Network. Schultz is also emphasizing that “We’re not going to wait for Washington” (as he told Businessweek), and there’s clearly plenty of mileage in the idea that citizens and brands alike need to take responsibility for driving change.
While Occupy Wall Street is providing an outlet for grassroots anger, that movement as yet has no clear objectives other than simple expression. This initiative presents one small way for people to make a tangible difference.
With America’s unemployment rate at 9 percent and no great cause for optimism about the country’s job situation, Hallmark is now selling layoff-themed greeting cards. The messages range from inspirational (“Losing your job does not define you. What you do about it does”) to humorous (“One day, you’ll look back on all this with the wisdom that distance bestows,” reads the front of one card, while the inside adds, “and you’ll say: Wow, that sucked”).
They are a response to consumer requests, Hallmark creative director Derek McCracken told NPR, saying that the cards offering more moral support with “a little humorous twist” are doing well. Some have turned up the snark in response to news of the cards, with comments along the lines of “The last thing people who lost their jobs need are cardboard reminders of their misfortune,” from The Consumerist.
When asked whether the cards might be exploiting a bad situation, McCracken noted, “People in times of need will always need to connect” and that the greeting card offers a “bridge” for communication in difficult times. In other words, the cards likely do more for the anxiety of the tongue-tied but well-meaning consumer buying the card than for the layoff victim, and in that they serve their purpose well.
It seems that London’s massive riots have brought out the best and the worst from the city. Citizen response to the violence and looting has been a “Blitz spirit,” as observers have been putting it, with people coming out in force to restore their streets, organizing via Twitter (e.g., @Riotcleanup has over 81,000 followers). Neighborhood retailers like Starbucks, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s have supported the efforts with free treats for volunteers and emergency services workers. And Charles Bentley & Son brushware company donated brooms, brushes and dustpans to the “broom army” of helpers.
The agency community has pitched in too, with BBH interns launching Keep Aaron Cutting to support an elderly barber whose shop was destroyed and digital agency Dare creating This Is Our London, which collects positive tweets and photos (akin to This Is Our Vancouver, set up by that city’s tourism commission in June, also in response to rioting).
In the longer term, we’re watching to see how brand messaging and initiatives respond to post-riot anxiety.
