Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

On the Edelman Dublin blog we have been discussing the recent census results in Ireland which highlighted a number of trends:

The important thing to take from the census is the underlying societal shift in Ireland as it represents an opportunity for the country’s marketers. Prior to the publication of the census Mintel published lifestyle research which backed up a lot of what the census reported. In an article discussing the research, the Sunday Business Post points out “that means young adults have more money to spend and more time in which to spend it - and they like to spend their cash on holidays, cars and health clubs.”

Ireland is a completely different country to what it was twenty years ago. Fueled by the Celtic Tiger, the Mintel’s research shows that “Irish people were marrying later, waiting longer to have children and living with their parents longer.”

This change in consumer behaviour reflects a similar trend in other parts of the world. In her book ‘Let Them Eat Cake‘, Pamela N. Danziger tell us:

One of the most significant changes on the horizon for luxury goods marketers, especially those that sell home goods, is the end of the cocooning trend that has dominated our consumer culture over the past 20 years. The cocooning, or nesting, trend (as it is variously called) was identified in the mid 1980s by trend tracker Faith Popcorn to describe how people how people were turning their focus inward to hearth and home. The trend was largely driven by demographics, because during that period the baby boomers were in the cocooning phase of life, the period when they were raising young children, and practical necessity kept them grounded at home. So they turned their focus toward home decorating and home entertainment.

The modern consumer has more money, less time and is looking for a better experience from life - spending their money on things like holidays and objects which they perceive as an outward extension of their personality. In short you have to sell differently today because consumers are not so much buying stuff as they are experiences. The companies that recognise this and make peoples lives easier stand to profit.

In ‘Markets of One‘, George Stalk Jr, David K. Pecaut and Benjamin Burnett’s essay ‘Breaking Compromises, Breakaway Growth’, the authors discuss how Whirlpool examined the compromises that their customers had to endure while using their products and by acting on the insights gleaned from their research differentiated themselves from their competitors and competed on something other than price.

To get its employees to focus their energies on compromise breaking, a company should start by asking them to immerse themselves in the customer’s experience. It is critical to develop a strong, almost visceral feel for the compromises consumers experience. Whirlpool Corporation…identified a specific individual who personified the compromises all its customers bore. Whirlpool’s market research showed consumers to be generally satisfied with the home appliances they owned. But digging deeper, Whirlpool discovered a reservoir of latent dissatisfaction with all the activities for which the appliances were used – doing the laundry, preparing food, cleaning up after meals.

In 1992, after decades of competing mostly on cost with companies such as General Electric, Whirlpool wanted to build a new and more profitable strategy around a more sharply differentiated brand…Someone at Whirlpool saw an interview on a national television news program with an overworked woman named Gail and taped it, recognizing Gail as the embodiment of Whirlpool’s target customer. Gail was a 40 year old woman taking care of several children at home while holding down a full-time job…The image was consistent with Whirlpool’s research, which showed that women in the United States who work as many hours as their husbands in jobs outside the home continue to do most of the household chores as well. Gail personified the pressed-for-time working woman.

At the end of the video clip, the interviewer turns to her and says, ‘You’re taking care of everyone in this family. Who takes care of you?’ Before she can reply, her husband answers for her, ‘I take care of Gail.’ Gail shoots him a look that could kill.

The video, which became a rallying point for Whirlpool’s new strategy, challenged all employees to think about how Whirlpool could be the company that takes care of Gail. Why, for example, was it taking Gail so long to clean up after meals? The traditional stove top was obviously designed by someone who was spared the responsibility of keeping it clean. The top of Whirlpool’s CleanTop stove is completely flat, eliminating all the grease traps of the old design…Why is doing the laundry such a chore? Gail’s washing machine takes less time than her dryer to complete its cycle. Gail compensates by starting with lighter, faster-rying loads first. But eventually, the process bogs down, and Gail is wasting time and energy running to the basement because no one makes a synchronized washer and dryer.

A clear sign of how relevant this is in Ireland is the proliferation of convenience stores around the country. By design, they don’t compete with supermarkets. Instead they are there for top-up purchasing, i.e. a carton of milk for breakfast or a bottle to go along with dinner. Like the Whirlpool example, these stores are there for people to pick up items they forgot when they were doing their weekly shop or if they need food to go. Just as Whirlpool makes Gail’s life a little easier, they alleviate the everyday pressures for time pressed consumers. The lyrics to the new advertising campaign of one of my clients, Centra, is rather apt in this respect. The singer repeats the words ‘just a little more time’ over the course of the thirty second advert.

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