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.
In Spain, unemployment—currently at 18.8 percent—is the main public concern, and we aren’t seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet. This situation has hit one generation more than any other: youngsters who are neither studying nor able to find work. A recent study showed that 15 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds aren’t active. University degrees are no longer a guarantee of a job, and Spanish youth are apathetic and unmotivated. Their parents lack strong arguments to push them forward.
Naturally, a TV channel saw this as an opportunity for a reality show: Eight of these ninis (which stands for “no job, no studies”) live in a house where they’re learning everything from social skills to math, home economics and handy jobs. The results are not too promising so far. The kids don’t seem to be learning much from the experience, and the content aired so far is surely not making parents any less anxious than they already are.
In the past year, younger generations (including myself) have had their first experience of a recession. In Australia, AnxietyIndex.com research revealed that for Gen Y, levels of anxiety have been disproportionate to the downturn’s actual impact—clearly, a generation pessimistic about the future and fearing the unknown.
Economic and environment instability are among the big-picture trends that will shape and define Gen Y in the long term. In the near term, I’m concerned about the negative impact on our local music, film, and software industries. Online piracy is certainly nothing new to Gen Y, the first “digital natives.” But a recent study from Nielsen reveals that almost two-thirds of respondents say they are more tempted to obtain pirated products in tough financial times. Accordingly, this year has seen significant increases in visits to BitTorrent and peer-to-peer Web sites.
In response, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton has said the Internet has “created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time … and if you don’t give it to them for free, they’ll steal it.”
This has certainly come to the fore during the recession, and the impact is interesting to think about as we watch digital natives form their lifelong consumption habits.
Warrior Lacrosse gear is the best; it’s created by real lacrosse players and used by top professional and collegiate players. As a result, this Michigan-based company is the market leader in performance lacrosse equipment.
So what does a brand do when it already has a hefty portion of the pie? Grow the pie by making the sport bigger. To that end, Warrior Lacrosse sponsors clinics for kids getting interested in the game. These cost just $25 (vs. a norm of about $250) and include daily lunch, stick and T-shirt.
The recession has hit many higher-income households hard, so generating goodwill and interest in a “rich kid” sport among non-traditional participants is a great strategic move (in addition to offering something very positive to at-risk Detroit kids). Much like Henry Ford’s revolutionary $5 daily wage once helped create Model T buyers, clinics like these form Lacrosse players. Once kids get hooked, they’ll be prime Warrior target consumers, ones already exposed to the brand in a good way.
Warrior isn’t just looking for customers, it’s creating them. Very smart.
In a recent promotion for summer drinks, McDonald’s in China turned a simple buy-one-get-one-free offer into a resonant campaign that enhanced the value of the brand rather than take away from it (see commercial here). This was done by laddering the promotion to a higher-order benefit: quality time spent face-to-face with friends.
The campaign leveraged the insight that youth tend to spend more time online than socializing with friends outside the home. Hence the strategy was to encourage youth to meet their closest friends more often, at McDonald’s. The creative idea is that even though one may have hundreds of friends online, only a few of those are close buddies, and more time should be spent with them offline.
As we noted in our first issue of the AnxietyIndex Quarterly, “The Genericizing of Brands,” price and value messaging must be approached in a branded way. When offering consumers more value, smart advertisers make sure the offer works harder than a promotion, something that McDonald’s has pulled off with this campaign.
Earlier this year, we conducted a survey on the recession and its impact on the Millennial Generation. As you may remember, we found that while there is a pervasive sense of resentfulness among Millennials, who feel they’ve been dealt an unfair blow because of the recession, they are finding advantage in adversity. A good portion of twentysomethings, for instance, see this as a market for first-time home buyers and entrepreneurs.
A story in yesterday’s USA Today, which highlights some of the results from our AnxietyIndex survey, illustrates how teens and twentysomethings across the U.S. are responding to the recession, whether leading a simpler life, looking for end-of-season sales instead of shopping constantly, or starting their own businesses.
Source: JWT survey in February of 243 people age 18-29 (among 1,065 Americans surveyed)
The recession is clearly shifting the conversation from Millennials’ narcissism and sense of entitlement to their ingenuity; from their conspicuous consumption to their conscious and creative consumerism, where cheap is chic, bargain-hunting begets bragging rights and doing more with less carries greater badge value than the latest It bag or logo-laden attire.
Brands can get behind Millennials by subtly acknowledging their tough situation and helping them navigate the recession with easy-to-understand guidance. They can also tap into the aspirations and optimism of these young adults, whose eyes are open to all opportunities that may present themselves during this rough patch. A good way to build confidence is through hope—giving young consumers a chance to be proactive and plan practically for their future.
To download our study on the recession and its impact on the Millennial Generation, click here.
One of the positive effects of the economic crisis is that it’s encouraging more community-building among people. Recently, a private-sector group in Singapore, the Young Business Leaders, launched an initiative called Beat the Recession with two goals in mind. First, to equip young businesses with best recession practices via a Web portal where YBL members share business strategies as well as recession lessons learned, policies implemented and measures taken. Members can also discuss how they survived past recessions.
The second goal is to persuade businesses to continue corporate social responsibility activities during the recession. This includes offering affordable training to people looking to gain new skills during the downturn.
As communities become more important support systems amid the recession, what role can our brands play in enabling, nurturing, interacting with or even expanding these communities?
While Canadian youth are concerned about the recession and how it affects them, they are less anxious than American and British youth, according to The Recession and Its Impact on the Youth Market. If forced to cut their spending, however, many say they would be willing to give up or trade down various amenities—alcohol consumption, gym membership, eating out, etc.—but, as with youth in most other countries JWT surveyed, they would be deeply reluctant to give up the tools that keep them connected: their Internet connection and cell phone.
Interestingly, while Canadian youth feel anxious and even resentful that current economic conditions unfairly burden their generation, many see opportunities for themselves in the downturn (e.g., returning to school, being able to afford a house, starting their own business). They have less to lose than older, more established cohorts, and perhaps they’re simply trying to feel as though they have control over their own destiny.
Having grown up during a period of unprecedented growth, young British adults have become accustomed to having what they want and having it now. As they experience recession for the first time, the dual prospects of struggling to find or keep a job and dwindling disposable income have come as a shock. More than any other age group, they are feeling resentful about the ways in which the recession is affecting their generation. To keep young Britons spending, brands will have to compete more fiercely than ever, offering more for less at a time when “Spoiled Britain” can no longer afford to have it all.
These are among our conclusions from our U.K. AnxietyIndex study “The Recession and Its Impact on the Youth Market.” You can download it from our Trends and Research page.
JWT is at the forefront of research on teens and twentysomethings (the cohort that’s often referred to as the Millennial generation or Gen Y). For our most recent study, AnxietyIndex: The Recession and Its Impact on the Youth Market, we surveyed hundreds of twentysomethings and teenagers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.
One of the more interesting findings is that while twentysomethings are resentful about how the recession is impacting their generation, many see an upside to it. As I note on The Huffington Post, while today’s twentysomethings have every right to be angry and disappointed, they’re not letting resentment get the best of them. Their optimism and self-reliance stand in defiance of the depressing headlines.
Visit the Trends and Research page to download the results from the multi-market study.
The anxiety level of young Australians is disproportionate to the impact of the downturn on their lives so far. They are pessimistic about the future, and having never lived through a recession, they fear the unknown.
Our findings also highlight a key shift among this generation: Products and services that enable social connections (Internet service, mobile phones, etc.) are no longer considered discretionary expenses but basic essentials. In considering their spending in response to the economic climate, few young Australians would be willing to give these up—but they are open to trading down or even dropping many other products and services traditionally considered important to this life stage, such as buying new clothing and dining out.
In the past year, younger generations (including myself) have had their first experience of a recession. In Australia, AnxietyIndex.com research revealed that for Gen Y, levels of anxiety have been disproportionate to the downturn’s actual impact—clearly, a generation pessimistic about the future and fearing the unknown.
Warrior Lacrosse
