Natalie Baker
The pandemic has increased the love for the local. What does this mean for products and brands? Note: It's definitely a trend to watch out for.
By PLAY Market Research General Manager Natalie Baker
Local love is in the air. The movement in support of Australian businesses began after the devastating bushfires last summer and has continued to gain momentum during the pandemic, building on a sentiment that has been prevalent for some time.
In the past, the "Made in Australia" claim has consistently held up well in consumer studies, alluding to higher quality goods. However, as we know, what consumers say in a survey doesn't always translate into real-world behavior. Most of the time, money is talked about on the shelf, with Australian-made products often being overlooked in favor of cheaper alternatives.
Today we see ourselves in a fundamentally different context when we look at products made in Australia. Since the devastation of the drought and bushfires in 2019, local groups have sprung up, fueled by a newfound patriotism and disseminated by sophisticated social media engines to support "locally" and "Australian made" products and producers. With communities banding together more than ever, it's no surprise that this surge of support has increased during the coronavirus shutdown. In fact, the power of the people to support local producers has grown so strong that consumer demand is putting pressure on retailers to promote locally made products.
Noise for "Australian made"
When Google searches for a topic, you know consumer interest is growing. After a five-year flatline trend in search history, the number of searches for "Australian made" increased significantly this year. Most popular was in July, shortly after the launch of Buy Aussie Now, an online marketplace exclusively for Australian made products.
The urge for local products is multi-faceted, however: supporting our own and grown companies, but also dealing with fears regarding product quality overseas and growing concerns about ecological and economic sustainability.
The spate of bulk purchases at the beginning of the pandemic helped change typical shopper behavior and the scarcity forced consumers to think about new brands and products. Data we have collected from nearly 8,000 Australians from our online panel shows a mindset mistake about this puzzle, with younger groups being more open to testing and researching new products and older groups being more focused on prioritizing Australian products. In short, it's a good time to dial in your Aussie created credentials.
How brands can make money
From rethinking your manufacturing to marketing, there are numerous ways you can communicate your support to local people.
Support for Australia and Australians: Is your brand returning in a way that supports local support? If so, make sure you talk about it! In-store activations and online channels are great places to promote your good deeds.
Environmental and economic sustainability: How does your brand contribute to the local economy? Try to quantify how your brand is contributing to an economic or environmental footprint and share these facts with your customers.
A new social awareness: How do you pull the hearts of Australians? Your emotional alignment with the movement in support of the local people is as important as the facts and figures that support it.
Concern for export quality and safety: Do you reinforce the quality characteristics of your product? At a time when hygiene is paramount, it is worth communicating your safety measures for production. Better to be safe, right?
Are you ready to apply the “local” trend?
A copy of our full Insights Report can be found here.
If you're on the cutting edge of research to improve your local credentials, get in touch with the PLAY team for a free 30 minute session where we'll show you how we're doing this trend with your brand and Your customers can bring your life to life.
About Natalie Baker
Natalie is the General Manager of PLAY and the Head of Melbourne with over 14 years of experience in customer intelligence and research. She worked with companies like CUB and Kmart before PLAY lured her to the dark side (lucky for us).
As a passionate advocate of the various ways of dealing with strategic challenges, she lives from uniting a company with consumer-oriented knowledge.
Contact Natalie at playmr.com.au/contact to take a (virtual) tour of our state-of-the-art facilities, chat about all of the research results, or just say g & # 39; day.
About PLAY Market Research
PLAY is a boutique creative research agency that uses a proven approach to making your consumers' lives better. Our team has enough experience to warrant a letter from the Queen and can provide key insights that will fuel business growth. The place where creativity, passion and innovation intersect? Here we play.
