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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk.
Chapter 2: What annual survey does Havas conduct about consumer behavior?
Every year, the French media buying giant Havas carries out a large consumer survey about brands, which ones are up and which ones are on the wane. During lockdown, consumers wanted greener and more socially conscious behaviour from companies.
Chapter 3: How did consumer expectations change during the lockdown?
But now the survey suggests we are getting a little bit more selfish and looking for what Havas calls the me economy. Chris Upton is the chief executive of Havas Dublin and is sitting in front of me.
Chapter 4: What is the 'Me-economy' and how does it affect brand relationships?
Good morning, Chris. Good morning. Great to be back. Let's start with the me economy. What is that?
So it sounds pretty selfish. And it isn't. So let me first of all assure you of that. Really what it looks at is the relationships we have with brands are quite complex. And the survey looks across it in three dimensions. One, the functional. Is it doing what I need it to do? Two, the personal. How is it making me feel? How is it making me do my life better?
And then the third is the collective communities aspect. social, environmental, all the rest. And what we found was during the pandemic, as you mentioned, there was a huge push for collective. I mean, we would have felt the spirit of it here as well. But now, recently, what we're facing with is a lot of crises. So from an economic perspective, things are getting more expensive.
From a geopolitical, everything feels a bit more uncertain. And really what that's meaning is people are having to put a lot more focus on the personal, but still expect the collective. So the way I would phrase it is it's like when you get onto a plane and the advice they give you, put your own mask on first before you help others.
They're not saying that you have absolute apathy towards the people around you, but it's just recognising the fact that you actually have to look after yourself. You actually have to live your life and get that working and then worry about others.
Now, I am trying to get my head around how brands can do these amazing things. Like, for example, if you're talking about baked beans, whether it's Heinz or Bachelors or whatever it is, how is that going to provide you? I understand the nourishment side of things, but the whole... esoteric bit of it I don't get.
And again, this comes back to the complexity, the beautiful complexity of brands and the relationships we have with them. Really what brands, why they were created originally is that you have, used to have barrels of apples. And one
week you'd go in and the apples would be fine the next week you go in the apples might have been terrible really what brands do is to give you a sense of confidence to give you a sense of reinsurance but also brands by their very nature are driven to improve to be better so you know that what you're going to get to justify their extra premium that you have to pay I wouldn't say so.
Again, brands, by their very nature, are looking to improve, to make things better. Commodities, on the other side, actually, for them, it's about keeping it the same. So brands want to avoid being commoditized. That is exactly it. So brands, businesses, what you're always trying to do is build added value, build beyond the simple functional.
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Chapter 5: What dimensions does Havas consider in their consumer survey?
Otherwise, what happens is you've no competitive advantage.
Right. We were a little bit more empathetic during lockdowns for obvious reasons. People were literally dying around us. But it seems as if we're less so now.
Actually, people are still expecting brands to help on environmental issues. They're still expecting brands to help on social issues. Are they?
When they buy a car, are they?
Yeah. Absolutely. Again, the difference, it all comes down to the complex relationship we have. So if you're deciding on a car, yes, absolutely, there'll be the rational. Does it do what I want it to do? Is it getting me from A to Z? But actually how you feel about that brand, that emotional resonance. has a huge decision, has used part to play in the final decision that you make.
So by brands building out those personal and collective measures, it is actually influencing how you feel about the brand and the decision that you finally make. Are we less loyal today than we might have been a decade ago towards brands? So I would suggest that we're not it's not that we're less loyal. We've just the bar is a lot higher.
So to get to win our loyalty as consumers, it takes a lot more. And that's because we're way more discerning and we're expecting more of the brands and we're less accepting.
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Chapter 6: How have economic crises influenced consumer behavior?
So, for example, two thirds of brands feel that people brand. Two thirds of people feel that brands should be doing more for society, for the environment. And what they're doing is they're actually turning away from brands that aren't doing that. And yet they do need to put fuel in their car and heat their homes. They still need to do so.
I mean, it doesn't negate the fact that this is why personal value, the personal element to be driven up. You still have to. It still has to be an acceptable price. It still has to do what I need it to do. But ultimately, what people want to do right now and the big drive we're seeing is people want to be smarter with the money.
They're being way more discerning as to where they spend the money because they don't feel... As if they have as much.
Exactly. What about the difference between the generations, Gen Z or Gen Alpha or whatever generation?
Do they expect different stuff from Gen X? Yes. And this, again, is one of the side effects of moving into the personal. So when you're in the collective space, you set out your vision. We're all in it together. And therefore, there's a lot of similarity across generations. Once you get into the personal, what happens is... there are different drivers, there's different motivations.
And when you look at, let's say, Gen Z and boomers, so Gen Z being in their 20s, let's say, and boomers being over 60s, what we're seeing is for Gen Z, they're very concerned at a national level about the economy, about housing, about how they're going to be able to live their lives. Boomers, they're more settled. Not so much. They actually feel that things are actually going a lot better.
So they don't want anything to change. So boomers, by their very nature, things are OK for them right now. What they're focused on right now is their health and well-being. The Gen X, which of course is my generation, they're concerned about the fact that their kids aren't going to be moving out until they're in their 30s.
And they're going to be living with them forever. Chris, thanks very much for coming in. That's Chris Upton, the Chief Executive of Havas Dublin.
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