If you’ve baulked at the price of a bag of groceries or a tank of petrol lately, you aren’t alone. As more and more of us are feeling the pinch of cost of living pressures, News Corp’s NewsAmp team commissioned research to get to the bottom of what that pinch actually looks like for consumers.
NewsAmp worked with data, insights, and consulting company, Kantar, to produce the Cost of Living 2022 report. The report takes a deep dive into current consumer sentiment regarding the rising cost of living, and what it means for the FMCG category and marketers.
Mediaweek spoke to Renee Sycamore, NewsAmp executive general manager, about how the report came together, what can be learned from the data, and what the report means for marketers.
A lot of work has gone into the Cost of Living 2022 report, with the results collated after surveying 2000 Australians aged 18+ in August. With so much data to work with, Sycamore says that the team are now well informed to tackle any challenges marketers face across multiple categories.
“It started as a 108 page iteration, and then it became a 45 page iteration, and then we got it down to about a 12 to 14 page iteration. Now it’s down to two pages, because we need to be able to work with everybody’s needs.”
Having broken the data down into more digestible bites means that the NewsAmp team are able to expand it back out again, depending on the exact needs of the client they’re working with.
“If we get into a roundtable with a marketer in the FMCG space, we will go deep into all the specifics around the FMCG category,” says Sycamore. “We’ve got some CMOs that want to know everything, because they want to be as informed as humanly possible as they’re starting to lay down their plans.
“Then, from an agency perspective, sometimes they want more of a macro view – they might have one or two FMCG clients, but they might have auto and finance clients as well. They want a bit more of a macro view of the different categories under the cost of living. We work with whatever is needed.”
One of the major statistics to come out of the report is the fact that 72% of Australians are either worried or very worried about the cost of living – and family status has no bearing on the level of concern. Whilst 72% is a big number, it’s not one that particularly surprises Sycamore.
“That didn’t stand out so much to me, because I think that’s a pretty standard response in a time like this – we have Covid, there’s that element of uncertainty and lack of confidence in the future. What hit most for me is that you’ve got 69% of people looking at their savings and being aware that they may have to dip into them.
The fact that nearly 70% of Australians are looking at potentially dipping into savings to cover their everyday spend wasn’t the only statistic that stuck out to Sycamore – and with over 7000 statistics in the report, there were a lot to choose from as standouts.
“61% of Australians will be cooking more at home. Post-Covid, we couldn’t wait to get out of the house and eat out – I don’t think that’s going to stop, it’s just going to be more measured and more considered.
“We saw big statistics like that in Covid, where people loaded their pantries up and they cocooned. I think we’re going to see a bit of that, and it won’t be mandated. The average supermarket trolley buy is going up, petrol is going up, there are all these shifts in essentials.”
“47% are setting weekly grocery budgets. Just under 50% of people are going ‘my grocery bill is $200, and I can’t go over it,’ so they’re planning it out. They’re not just writing a grocery list, they’re writing a grocery list and then they’re going, ‘I need to find the most value’. I think that’s a big one.”
What The Report Means For Marketers
It’s one thing to have the data that NewsAmp have in the Cost of Living 2022 report, but it’s a whole other thing to put it to good use. Sycamore says that the report shows marketers will need to focus on bringing value to consumers if they want to be competitive in the current market.
“Articulating value and price is going to be more important than ever. Consumers are risk assessing – they’re looking at what they’re going to keep, what they’re going to switch and what they’re going to cut. That is the mentality that a consumer is in at the moment, so marketers really need to alleviate the risk factor for the consumer.”
This keep, switch, or cut mentality isn’t the only hallmark of the 2022 consumer.
“You’ve got a consumer now that’s hyper-vigilant, hyper-aware, lacking confidence, and looking for authority,” says Sycamore. “They’re looking for trusted brands. Now is the time more than ever for trusted brands – like what we have like Food Corp, or the Sport Network, or the News Network – to create and produce amazing content, and to help the consumer navigate through this time of upheaval.
“It’s our job from a NewsAmp perspective to help our marketers’ brands connect in that contextual environment. We are lucky – we have great networks, we have great authority, we have trusted brands, we’ve got that context, we’ve got that scale. I see it almost as a necessity. It’s our responsibility to help our marketers connect as best they can.”
While looking into the crystal ball may not be easy at the best of times – let alone now – Sycamore has a clear goal for the future.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to be more competitive than ever for the Australian dollar – and marketers aren’t just competing within the category, they’re competing outside of the category.
“I want us to be the number one partner in navigating, partnering, and collaborating with marketers to work through the next 12 to 18 months.”
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Top Image: Renee Sycamore