Recessionary Living
With Private labels being 33% cheaper than brands and, discounters Aldi and Lidl expanding trade by 40% in 2008 (Retail News Dec 08), consumers are looking for more justifications to pay the premium price. People are finding smart ways to maintain the standard of living they have become accustomed to. They are trading down, buying less and becoming detectives for special offers.
Serious About Hobbies
Hobbies used to be just interests that we pursued purely for pleasure but now Web technology is allowing more amateurs to turn personal passions into profits at minimal expense or risk. A foodie’s blog on a restaurant and recipes can generate enough traffic to attract advertisers and the best bloggers in Ireland are congratulated each year with the Irish Blogger Awards.
Mother Earth Special Offers
Now that we are in a Recession, we are seeing environmentalism being repositioned as not just good for the environment but also good for your pocket. Cutting down on energy usage and using sustainable resources are all shown to be smart money savers.
Green Literacy
Recent research shows that green matters are part of people’s conscience even if they are not part of they everyday life. People are making little changes but feel they can do more. However the recession is most certainly holding up progress in this area with people unwilling to spend.
Barter is Back in Business
As purse strings tighten, bartering is back in business. Jumbletown in Ireland encourages members to give away things they don’t want for free “Someone, Somewhere, Wants it!”. In Cork, Chamber’s Bar have created ‘Stitch and switch’ where you swap your old clothes for credits in the clothes shop during the day which can be redeemed at night when the venue operates as a bar.
Musical Flirting Moves on
Back in the 80s we made mixed tapes for girlfriends/boyfriends. By the late 1990s we were creating custom CDs with personalised artwork and now we can share our entire music libraries. Now we can check out potential suitor’s iMixes of personal playlists on iTunes or radio playlist on Lastfm.com.
Back Benchers Come Forward?
In Irish politics, we are seeing the rise of the local politicians and independents, and politicians switching parties. Back benchers are becoming less inclined to tow the party line and are standing up, being heard or quitting the party for what they believe in.
Extreme-action Sports
Everyday pursuits are getting more exciting as demand for extreme sports increases. Ireland may not be a mecca for extreme sports yet, but interest is increasing quickly. Surfholidays.com organises surfing holidays from Ireland to Europe and we played host to the World Rally Championship in January 2009.
Sleep to Slim
Just when you thought that sleeping couldn’t be anymore appealing, it turns out it may also keep you thin! Researchers in Bristol University (UK) found that there is a strong correlation between sleep and metabolic hormones, Ghrelin and leptin; the less you sleep the more you eat.
Label Literacy
Consumers are becoming more concerned about and better at understanding the nutritional information on packaged foods. They are demanding more product traceability especially on meats. With Ireland’s recent Pork scare in late 2008 costing the economy €35 million, we can expect Ireland’s label literacy to rise.
Ireland’s New Faithful
During the middle ages, Ireland was known as the ‘Island of Saints and Scholars’ and religion was held in high esteem until Church scandals began to emerge in the 1990s and mass attendance dropped severely. In the last census of 2006, Roman Catholics had dropped to 87% of the population and religious practices now include other Christian religions, Methodist, Buddhists, Hindus, Bahais and for people of the Islamic and Jewish faiths.
Anger Rising
As unemployment rises, so does the anger. Salary freezes and pay-cuts are being met with resistance. People are looking around for who is to blame — the government, large corporations, society — for this Recession. Cutbacks in the last Irish Budget caused protests on the street — pensioners, students, teachers were all out in force.
Demise of the One Diet Fits All
We have seen a backlash against fad diets as people’s understanding of health increases. Irish TV programmes like the Health Squad and Operation Transformation, show there is no such notion as a diet that is right for all. Personalisation in nutrition and exercise, and striking a healthy balance that people can live with long-term, are the focus.
Media Grazing
A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Think of media consumption becoming like a meal at a tapas bar. The TV and Internet sources are on, and texting and instant messaging are streaming at the same time, grabbing each second of a person’s attention.
The Value of Networking
We are finding people of all ages saying that personal connections are becoming more valuable. As life becomes less certain people are trying to strengthen connections. Networking sessions that bring people together to discuss ideas and swap information and contacts such as ‘Digital Tonic’ are increasing.
E.exclusivity
Few things create demand as well as secrecy and exclusivity. The Libertines sold 5000 tickets to a secret gig, promoted only on the Web. Kings of Leon recently announced pre-sale tickets to fans that knew the correct password to text to the ticket hotline...word spread quickly and tickets were snapped up.
Share Your Life
The self-expression revolution is focussed on what can be shared. On-line creative expression found in blogs, video sharing, photo galleries, DIY music is a form of individual entertainment but the experience is only complete when it is shared with friends. Sites like Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter are very popular in Ireland and allow Irish people to share their lives with others.
Web, Not Just for Young
More and more people are going online and it is not just the teens and under 20s that are in the loop. Facebook doubled it numbers from 200,000 in January 2007 to 400,000 in 2008 and almost 70% are over 25 so we are staying ‘cool’ for longer.
Simple Play
From our Recession Sessions planning project, we found evidence that parents are reverting to the simple forms of entertainment for their kids rather than enlisting them in lots of extra-curricular classes or expensive activities.
Playstation Nation
Video games are an important cultural reference point for the Irish as it has become an integral part of daily life and part of the furniture in the Irish home. We are second only to Japan in terms of Playstation ownership per capita.
Flea Market Resurgence
Flea markets are making a come back with everybody selling the odds and ends they have accumulated over the past few years. Turn your junk into cash! The thrifty shopper gets a unique bargain and it can be a good choice the emerging Recessionista (recession fashionista).
The Sex and the City Effect
Over 6 TV series and recent film, “Sex and the City” tackled everything from singlehood to motherhood, raw emotions to raw sex and STDs to cancer. Carrie & Co. live in the hearts, minds and lifestyles of many 20-, 30- and 40-something single women who proudly wear their unattached, unfettered status on their stylish sleeves.
Who’s Afraid of Globalisation?
For Ireland the benefits of globalisation over the past couple of decades has been the attraction of many international corporations here to create jobs. But the ‘flat world’ of globalisation means we are now losing jobs to countries with lower wages as international companies move on. In January 2009, Dell Computers cut almost 2,000 jobs in Ireland as they are moving operations to Poland.
Growing Children
Ireland’s childhood obesity has reached 10% of our 5-12 year olds and school lunch boxes are strictly policed to ensure only the healthy foods are included. We expect that manufacturers will focus on developing healthy lunchbox fillers that fit with school requirements.
Big on Bicycles
Watch out for more bicycles on Irish roads. It is a way to stay fit, cut down on commuting costs and beat the traffic. In January 2009, the Irish government introduced tax incentives to encourage people to cycle to work, with bikes and accessories up to €1,000 being covered.
Googling the World’s Library
So far, most of the information on the Internet is in the form of documents and papers, but the bulk of the intellectual capital is still in books. The race is on to scan and digitise those books and Google is off to a flying start with 7 million already available and it has the non-exclusive rights to digitise all books published before January 5th 2009!
Better Rental
The tables of power have turned and those renting are looking for lower rents on their current accommodation or searching for a better deal elsewhere. Landlords are having to drop rents and compete with each other to avoid empty properties.
Future Proof Yourself
People are considering new careers and retraining in different areas in order to secure jobs. We expect people doing ‘nixers’ to increase over the coming years as people get creative about how they are going to make ends meet.
Recession Fatigue
There is a sense of recession overload for people of all ages. There is only so much bad news that people can cope with. The recession fatigue prompts some to call for ‘recession free fridays’ as a break from the deluge of recession stories.
Incognito Spending
We are finding that people are feeling guilty about ‘flashing the cash’. Big ticket items like cars, homes and holidays are being postponed, not just because they may prove to be foolish decisions if wages are cut, but also because flaunting money in front of others seems rude.
Park Fitness
To avoid spending on expensive gyms, Irish people are getting their exercise fix in the local park. Outdoor regimes like bootcamp which is based on tough army training and fitsquads, which train in an army manner, but less extreme join with the joggers, walkers and cyclists. Checkout www.fitsquad.ie and www.bootcampireland.ie.
