Higher gas = lower consumer confidence

Some helpful highlights from the BIGresearch May Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey.

• 33.3% of consumers say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago.
• 18% say they only buy apparel on sale, up from April’s 16.8%.
• Drivers are supplementing spending at the pump with dollars earmarked for savings and not cutting back so much on other purchases. Fewer than a third (32.2%) are focused on paying down debt, down from last month (34.0%) and May ‘06 (37.1%).

• Grads may be receiving laptops, digital cameras, and perhaps even a wide screen TV. Expect parents to make their Electronics purchases at Best Buy, where almost a third (29.1%) of consumers shop most often, gaining from 25.6% last year.  Second is Wal-Mart with 15.0% (declining from 18.4% in ‘06), followed by Circuit City (7.8%), Sears (2.6%), and Target (2.2%).
• Six month purchase intentions are down for all categories this month: autos, computer, furniture, home appliances, housing, jewelry, major home improvements, stereo equipment, TV, DVD/VCR, digital cameras, and vacation travel.

Influence of Higher Gas Prices (% of respondents)
	All	North-east	Mid-west	South	West
Buying more store brand/generic products	22.2%	17.5%	25.7%	24.0%	20.3%
Doing more comparative shopping online	16.8%	16.0%	17.6%	16.8%	16.6%
Doing more comparative shopping with ad circulars/newspapers	23.3%	21.4%	25.5%	24.2%	20.9%(
Shopping closer to home	37.9%	33.8%	38.5%	40.7%	36.9%
Shopping for sales more often	30.7%	28.7%	33.6%	31.3%	28.6%
Shopping more online	13.3%	13.8%	12.3%	14.5%	12.4%
Taking fewer shopping trips	40.2%	34.2%	43.0%	43.0%	38.3%
Using coupons more	23.5%	22.4%	24.8%	24.8%	21.2%
Source: BigResearch, May 2007

What does this mean for your business? Anticipate lower propspect traffic. Ramp up your customer service to keep your current customers very happy and buying. Marketing materials must strongly connnect to customers for it to make an impact… and a purchase.

Send your questions or submit your marketing for critique to Jeny at jeny@ampbranding.com. All submissions may be published; please indicate if you would like your name or company name withheld.

10 reminders of why we buy

When it comes to developing strong marketing campaigns, one of the first steps is figuring out which audience you want to attract. And attracting in marketing, like in dating, is based upon understanding human behavior. Here ten universal truths about why people buy. Even in the business-to-business realm, it is still people buying.

1.       We buy from people they know, like, and trust.

2.       We make snap decisions about you and your business based on little things, like the paper stock of your business card.

3.       We cannot tell you why we buy anything or predict if we will buy something.

4.       We can tell if you don’t believe in your product or service.

5.       We respond to enthusiasm.

6.       We are always interested in women, babies, and pets.

7.       We do not care about you or your business until you show us how you can help us.

8.       We pick up on your energy, more than on what you say or do, and decide to work with you or not based on what we sense.

9.       We respond to sincere flattery.

10.    We become information junkies when we are interested in buying.

Send your questions or submit your marketing for critique to Jeny at jeny@ampbranding.com. All submissions may be published; please indicate if you would like your name or company name withheld.

5 Baby Steps of Marketing

Let’s say you just started a business… brand spankin’ new. Here are the five essential marketing components I’d recommend for getting going.

1. Business card

2. Web site. Even if it just one page. But do not put “under construction”. If you have time enough to put that up, you have time enough to put contact information and list your products or services.

3. Email signature that provides contact info and what you are about.

4. Joining a free social networking site like LinkedIn and start building your clients and referrals.

5. Put together a seminar or workshop to offer free in the community to help build word of mouth.

Send your questions or submit your marketing for critique to Jeny at jeny@ampbranding.com. All submissions may be published; please indicate if you would like your name or company name withheld.