Posts Tagged behavioral types

By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive

Richard Storey, chief strategy officer for  M&C Saatchi, London, suggests that recession is discussed as if it were a singular phenomenon, and that consumers have taken for granted the notion that there is one single, inevitable and all enveloping global crisis. News headlines tend to report macro trends, making bleak reading: slowing economy, falling house prices, rising food and fuel costs, or decreased consumer spending.

The problem, he says, is macroeconomics that would have us believe that the recession is a macro phenomenon with a single, reasonably predictable outcome, but understanding the dynamics that lay beneath these conditions could identify more interesting and effective recession strategies for businesses.

M&C Saatchi‘s ‘Reacting to Recession’ study uncovers the attitudes and behavior adopted by different groups of consumers and finds eight consumer typologies with distinct approaches to spending and economizing. Understanding and adapting to each segment presents opportunities for businesses, says the report.

Through a program of qualitative and quantitative segmentation, the study separated different consumer typologies. Each has adopted a different predominant behavior or ‘strategy’ to cope financially with the downturn and it is this behavior that defines each grouping:

Crash Dieters… 26%
Scrimpers…13
Abstainers…15
Balancers… 9
Treaters … 12
Justifiers… 12
Ostriches… 9
Vultures… 4

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