The recovery consumer
As consumers in markets around the world emerge from the anxieties of recession, the recovery marketplace is taking shape with a ‘new normal’ of consumer attitudes and brand behavior. Some markets have rebounded quickly; in others, it will take time to bounce back. But consumers everywhere have absorbed the lessons learned and are working from a new orientation about what they want and how they buy. Figuring out the new consumer value equation is an immediate imperative for marketers. The knowledge resources of The Futures Company, including our Global MONITOR, US MONITOR and UK MONITOR insights services provide a road map for navigating this new normal and the new world order that is shaping the recovery marketplace around the world. Our on-going tracking of emerging trends shaping the ‘new normal’ provides a framework of action for marketers looking to move quickly yet smartly in a fundamentally changed marketplace, defining the new boundaries of competition, the new brand requirements of value and the new aspirations of success.
The recovery consumer marketplace
The Futures Company has developed a strategic perspective on the unfolding recovery consumer marketplace in our latest white paper, A Darwinian Gale: The Recovery Consumer Marketplace in the Era of Consequences. It is a perspective that reflects our considerable knowledge, understanding and expertise about marketplace trends and futures.
Beware thinking that things will bounce back to business as usual. A fundamental value shift is underway, but it is not one of frugality. Certainly, the Era of Consequences blown in by the recession is a new reality rooted in an overhang of economic risk, but it should be about more than crawling out of the storm cellar to anxiously survey the aftermath. Instead, it should be about the growth and success possible in this new normal of the Recovery Consumer Marketplace. What’s imperative is to understand how to re-position, re-think and re-invent. The Futures Company can help.
Dealing with economic uncertainty
In early 2010, we released the latest wave of our Feeling the Pinch tracking study, exploring consumer attitudes and behavior in the face of recession and into the recovery. With high levels of economic uncertainty, 2010 is going to be a challenging year for both consumers and businesses alike. However, unlike 2009, consumers are now battle hardened, having found ways to survive and even thrive on the new opportunities a more competitive market has yielded. 2010 is likely to present more certainty to businesses over the way in which consumers will navigate and respond to the marketplace.
The Consumer Outlook for 2010 explores the consumer strategies that emerged in 2009 and are likely to play out in 2010, and what businesses and brands can do to connect with the consumer of 2010.
