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.
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is a recent book published in India about business school graduates who followed their hearts and dove into entrepreneurial ventures (the phrase was popularized in a Stanford commencement speech Steve Jobs made several years ago, quoting an issue of The Whole Earth Catalog from the 1970s). Some of these entrepreneurs left a cushioned corporate career, some were fulfilling a childhood dream, a few were redefining retirement as a second inning.
The stories are diverse and rich. And while the endings are happy, there are many anxious moments along the way. But it was also anxiety that helped push these people along. This is also a prevalent theme in “layoff lit,” a trend we recently posted about.
The global recall of Toyota vehicles over a gas pedal problem is a case that will be interesting to watch over the coming weeks. How will consumers respond to a deeply trusted brand with a long history of success like Toyota suddenly failing on the public stage? Whether we like it or not, the rhythm of our lives is deeply linked to the brands we patronize. And if a brand as trusted as Toyota can fail its customers, who knows what’s next? It’s enough to make people anxious about brands. Especially given that faith in corporate institutions is already weak, with huge, seemingly solid financial brands having collapsed (e.g., Lehman Brothers) or come close (e.g., Merrill Lynch).
Some Americans have already taken action on their own through www.toyotarecall.org, an unofficial portal for all things on the recall. Toyota, your move.
Though well-intentioned, a recent TV commercial from leading Singapore bank OCBC has put a spotlight on the promises that brands make to customers. The spot—which is intended to support the bank’s recently launched Sunday Banking service—tells the story of a customer who visits the bank on her birthday, which happens to fall on a Sunday. In a show of the bank’s commitment to delighting its customers even on Sundays, its staff brings out a birthday cake, much to the surprise of the customer. The story was told so convincingly that some people believed the bank gave out birthday cakes on customers’ birthdays. Two days later, a blogger posted an account of what happened when she went to a OCBC branch on her birthday and was not offered a cake. The scathing entry has generated over 500 comments and created a controversy over the ad that was picked up by The Straits Timesnewspaper.
While one can dismiss the blogger as being overly literal—and probably a bit of a smart ass—what’s interesting about this reaction to the ad is how consumers could expect a real payoff. In our 10 Trends for 2010, we said people are Reading the Fine Print to get the best value and determine whether a company’s claims are sincere. I suspect that in a less wary time, consumers would let OCBC simply slide. But after a reality check in the form of an economic slowdown where people have lost jobs, defaulted on financial obligations or sold their belongings to get by, empty promises such as this are not welcome. For brands, this means being more conscious about how their advertising is perceived. Is the company giving customers the impression they will receive a benefit from that company? If so, is the message something the company can make good on? If not, perhaps the message needs to be tweaked. After all, in these times when customer satisfaction is utmost, no one wants an angry customer, especially one with a blog.
During this economic downturn, a number of brands have employed a strategy of producing content that uses simple language and graphics to help consumers understand a situation they may not previously have faced. For example, I’ve written about UBank’s series of smart Webisodes on topics such as “Credit Crunch Explained” and “Recession Explained.”
By contrast, Westpac, Australia’s second largest bank, recently stumbled with an animated video that tries to explain why it has pushed up interest rates. The bank’s retail chief, Peter Hanlo, e-mailed the roughly three-minute video to hundreds of thousands of customers. The response was outrage over the video’s condescending tone and its misplaced analogy centered around banana smoothies (which have become more expensive since severe storms destroyed banana plantations in Australia). Prime Minister Kevin Rudd suggested Westpac take “a long, hard look at itself.”
One of our 10 Trends for 2010 is Visual Fluency—the acceleration of the shift from words to images, and increasingly innovative ways to explain and illuminate complex topics. There are many ways for brands to leverage this trend—and likewise many ways to get it wrong. In this case, the medium was right, while the message was all wrong.
Migdal Ohr is an organization that provides education and “social guidance” for Israeli kids from underprivileged or troubled backgrounds. With competition for donations particularly stiff in this downturn, it has found a unique approach to attract attention: While most communications for nonprofits focus on the importance of the cause and how the donation will help the needy, this campaign is about how the donation will affect the giver.
Sending the message that anyone can be a philanthropist, a humorous series of newspaper ads titled “Find the fairy godmother in you” shows unlikely types—a mechanic, a biker and a soccer fan—with fairy wings and a magic wand. Instead of asking the public for help, Migdal Ohr is helping the public by empowering just about anybody to express their inner angel.
Despite prevalent anxiety in India, its consumers are the most optimistic in the world, according to a Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence survey conducted earlier this fall. India’s score was 120, far higher than the global average of 86. (Indonesia and Norway were also in the top three, the U.S. fell just below the average, and Japan, Latvia, Portugal and South Korea scored as the least confident countries.)
While the past few months have been tough—largely because of rising food prices and worries about job security—they have not dimmed India’s fundamentally upbeat attitude. FMCG brands know that, and their stimulus into the market by way of ad spend tells the story of confidence amid anxiety.
Most of India’s biggest FMCG companies have substantially increased expenditure over the last two quarters, contributing to continued sales growth in this rapidly developing market. According to the BL Research Bureau, the country’s biggest consumer packaged goods manufacturer, Hindustan Unilever, boosted its year-on-year advertising and promotional spend by as much as 31 percent in the six months to September, to 1,132 crore rupees ($241 million).
Its rivals also increased advertising and promotion spending substantially: Dabur by 47 percent, to 234 crore rupees; Marico by 40 percent, to 176 crore rupees; Godrej by a whopping 61 percent, albeit to just 94 crore rupees; and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer by 57 percent, to 156 crore rupees. All four companies saw sales rise substantially as well.
Brands are racing to reach confident consumers in a country whose economy is expanding despite the global downturn—India’s GDP is forecast to grow by 5.8 percent for the fiscal year ending in March.
Three years ago, IKEA Spain launched a new brand statement in Spain: “Welcome to the Independent Republic of Your Home.” Subsequent ads were based on a strong celebration of freedom as people experience it inside their home: In “your” place, you’re finally allowed to make your own laws, to act however you want.
Now, however, the downturn is pushing a lot of young people back to their parents’ home. There’s a crack in the idea of independence that was celebrated by the brand that helps young people to furnish their first home cheaply. So IKEA has made a smart strategic switch, suggesting to the families that must now find room for members who are coming back home that the retailer can help them optimize their space. “Donde caben dos, caben tres” (“If there’s room for two, there’s also room for three”), claims the optimistic ad.
A new kind of store has popped up during the recession in the Czech Republic, catering to consumers’ lower budgets for daily purchases. The Cheap Food chain is selling FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) items that are past their “sell by” date or very close to it. Along with food, the 30 Cheap Food stores around the country also sell dry goods that suppliers or other retailers are trying to off-load, so the range of products varies based on what’s up for grabs. The retailer has seen sales jump a whopping 90 percent in the past year.
The growing popularity of Cheap Food seems to indicate that at least some consumers will choose low price over freshness, which had been an increasingly important consideration. This is a challenge for brands that have been communicating freshness as the main benefit. They will need to focus on the relevant distribution channels, or the brand itself may soon be out of date.
Achieving faster turnover is a consistent challenge for popular restaurants—how to get the most diners fed without customers feeling they’re being rushed out. Shabu Shi, one of the popular buffet-style shabu restaurants in Thailand, has turned recessionary thinking into a positive, coming up with a genuine win-win solution: This month, customers who finish eating within 50 minutes, instead of the usual 80 allotted, get a 15 percent discount.
At a time when many people are choosing to dine out out less frequently, this helps Shabu fans save money while still enjoying their favorite menus (a buffet of sushi, seafood, meat, vegetables and desserts like tropical fruit with ice cream). And it should shorten the queues—patrons normally wait 15-40 minutes to get seated.
Tough situations need not always have negative effects, as long as we can find some room to play. And especially if we can find a way to help customers keep enjoying the product without compromising on quantity or quality.
In a new campaign, T-Mobile informs Americans that “eight out of 10 people are unknowingly overpaying for their wireless service” and encourages us to get a “mobile makeover.” In an interesting twist, the wireless service provider is sending people to a third-party Web site to do that: BillShrink.com evaluates a person’s calling needs against every national wireless plan.
Since T-Mobile might not come up as the best plan every time, the company is clearly rather confident that its wireless service will perform well in BillShrink’s assessment. Indeed, when I (a T-Mobile subscriber) entered my information, T-Mobile emerged as the best deal, but I also saw that I could shrink my current bill significantly.
In directing people to a solution such as BillShrink (which also evaluates credit cards and gas prices for consumers), T-Mobile is not only exuding confidence in its pricing structures, but also engendering goodwill among once-loyal consumers who now stand ready to switch to whatever provider is offering the latest deal.
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is a recent book published in India about business school graduates who followed their hearts and dove into entrepreneurial ventures (the phrase was popularized in a Stanford commencement speech Steve Jobs made several years ago, quoting an issue of The Whole Earth Catalog from the 1970s). Some of these entrepreneurs left a cushioned corporate career, some were fulfilling a childhood dream, a few were redefining retirement as a second inning.
Photo Credit: JWT Israel
expenditure over the last two quarters, contributing to continued sales growth in this rapidly developing market. According to the BL Research Bureau, the country’s biggest consumer packaged goods manufacturer, Hindustan Unilever, boosted its year-on-year advertising and promotional spend by as much as 31 percent in the 
six months to September, to 1,132 crore rupees ($241 million).
percent, to 156 crore rupees. All four companies saw sales rise substantially as well.
A new kind of store has popped up during the recession in the Czech Republic, catering to consumers’ lower budgets for daily purchases. The Cheap Food chain is selling FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) items that are past their “sell by” date or very close to it. Along with food, the 30 Cheap Food stores around the country also sell dry goods that suppliers or other retailers are trying to off-load, so the range of products varies based on what’s up for grabs. The retailer has seen sales jump a whopping 90 percent in the past year.
Achieving faster turnover is a consistent challenge for popular restaurants—how to get the most diners fed without customers feeling they’re being rushed out. Shabu Shi, one of the popular buffet-style shabu restaurants in Thailand, has turned recessionary thinking into a positive, coming up with a genuine win-win solution: This month, customers who finish eating within 50 minutes, instead of the usual 80 allotted, get a 15 percent discount.
