Britain only just crept out of an 18-month recession at the end of 2009, suggesting any monetary tightening remains a long way off and raising fears about the prospects for recovery ahead of an election due by June.
The Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday gross domestic product rose by 0.1 percent between October and December, well below analysts’ forecasts for growth of 0.4 percent and lower than all the predictions in a Reuters poll.
For 2009 as a whole, the economy shrank by 4.8 percent — the worst yearly performance since records began in 1949.
The Labour government has been banking on a strong bounce back to growth to help overturn its poor opinion poll ratings before an election expected in 100 days, but these weaker than expected figures make a political comeback even trickier.
“You can see there is a lot of uncertainty and therefore you would expect as you come out of recession for things to fluctuate,” Labour finance minister Alistair Darling said.
“I think we are now on a path to recovery … you need to maintain your support, don’t pull the rug from under our feet at the very time that we can see recovery.”
Sterling fell and gilt futures rose after data, which also showed output fell 3.2 percent from the same period a year ago. From peak to trough, the economy contracted six percent — far worse than the downturns of the early 1980s and 1990s.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to ‘severe’ — the second highest level — on Friday, days before London hosts major international meetings on how to deal with militancy in Afghanistan and Yemen.
The decision to raise the level from ‘substantial’ means security services now consider an attack in Britain, a key U.S. ally, to be “highly likely” but the government said it had no information to suggest an attack was imminent.
Britain gave no reason for the move by its Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) which comes as Britain and other countries step up precautions in the wake of the failed Christmas Day attack on an airliner in Detroit.
Raising the threat level is expected to lead to tighter security at airports and public buildings.
“JTAC keeps the threat level under constant review and makes its judgments based on a broad range of factors, including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas,” Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan Johnson said in a statement.
“The fact that we’ve moved to another threat level means we put more resources in, we heighten the state of vigilance. It shouldn’t be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter,” he told the BBC.
Security expert Anthony Glees said his guess was that the decision to raise the threat level was linked to the Afghanistan conference and to intelligence from the United States.
“I think it’s very probable that people, either members of al Qaeda or associated to al Qaeda, will be figuring that it would be a huge trophy attack in some way to damage the holding of the Afghanistan conference,” he told the BBC.
Leeds-based Italian restaurant Casa Mia Grande has been honoured with an AA Rosette for providing its customers with top quality food.
The award is given to restaurants that stand out in their local area for offering food that is prepared with care, understanding and skill – using good-quality ingredients.
The Chapel Allerton eatery is also the first Italian restaurant in Leeds to receive an AA Rosette.
Owner Francesco Mazzella said: “It is an honour for Casa Mia Grande to have been awarded an AA rosette. We pride ourselves on the quality of the food we serve and all our dishes are freshly prepared every day.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to the Casa Mia team who helped to make it possible for us to receive this rosette. The staff constantly work hard to ensure that when customers come into Casa Mia Grande they have a fantastic time and leave happy.”
Earlier, the restaurant had scooped the ‘Best Italian Restaurant’ and ‘Best Family Restaurant’ titles at the Leeds Restaurant Association Awards.
DFS Furniture Company is the UK’s leading retailer of upholstered furniture. Founded and still run by coalminer’s son Graham Kirkham, the company specialises in sofas and other upholstered furniture. It has around 77 large stores in the UK, mostly concentrated in the South and South-East of England, and a claimed market share of over 17%. The group claims to sell more than 30,000 items of furniture every week. However, trading throughout the sector has been very hard since 2004, although DFS has weathered the storm better than some competitors. Two of its biggest rivals, Land of Leather and MFI, filed for bankruptcy in 2008. For the year ending August 2008, DFS reported revenues of £595m, down 3%. Pretax profits fell 24% to £36m. Graham Kirkham remains executive chairman. Jon Massey is COO.
The adopted son of a Yorkshire coal miner, Graham Kirkham left school without qualifications and drifted through several jobs before setting up a furniture store in 1969 in a converted pool hall near Doncaster under the name Northern Upholstery. The real growth of the company came from three subsequent warehouse-style outlets around London, launched under the DFS name. Kirkham gradually opened other new stores before floating the business in 1993. He sold a 48% holding in the company for £130m, and gradually reduced the family stake after that to around 8%. Kirkham subsequently became one of the biggest financial donors to the Conservative Party, for which he was rewarded with a knighthood in 1996. Appointed as treasurer of the party in 1997, he was widely credited with saving it from financial collapse. As a result he was ennobled as Lord Kirkham in 1999
Kirkham’s involvement in politics led to concerns that he had lost interest in DFS, especially when sales and profits gradually began to drift lower. He promptly set about proving his critics wrong. In 1999, the group rescued failed furniture manufacturer Lincoln House, bringing more production in-house. Strong marketing and discounting led to greatly increased sales, and the company gave its corporate image a complete overhaul during the year, pressing ahead with a new home interior range designed by television personality Linda Barker. However DFS also began to feel the heat from a significant downturn in the market which forced rival companies Courts and Furnitureland into bankruptcy. In 2004, following three profit warnings, Lord Kirkham offered to take the company private once again with a bid which valued the business at £445m. After six months of bitter negotiations with the board, he raised his bid to £507m and it was accepted towards the end of the year
YTB has a remit to grow tourism revenue from outside the region. It is funded by Yorkshire Forward, one of England’s nine Regional Development Agencies, which in turn is sponsored by the DTI.
1.2 MEASURES OF SUCCESS
A key factor in measuring ROMI lies in calculating contribution margin. The tourism revenue calculated in our model includes everything from camping and caravanning to museum tickets and hotel nights, and naturally margins vary considerably, although in most instances (accommodation, attractions etc) costs are fixed, so incremental margins are high.
In the Payback section (Section 8) we use post campaign conversion analysis to calculate the average contribution margin at 66.4%.
1.3 CHALLENGES FACED
1.3.1 Changing Perceptions
In the face of endless choice and intense competition from every conceivable short break destination, getting people to even consider Yorkshire is a big challenge.
Additionally, stereotypical media portrayals of Yorkshire were also unhelpful – fuelling perceptions of a county that’s grey, dour and behind the times – programmes such as Heartbeat, The Royal, and Last of the Summer Wine are not representative of the modern Yorkshire.
Figure 1: Yorkshire tourism was hindered, not helped, by stereotypical images of Yorkshire
Further insight (YTB research, December 2004) also found that:
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Only 18% thought it was ‘good for breaks’
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Only 17% thought there was ‘lots to do’
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Only 14% thought Yorkshire offered ‘good city breaks’
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Only 25% acknowledged its beautiful scenery
Figure 2: Poor perceptions of Yorkshire, December 2004 (YTB Research)
Today’s Yorkshire is a dynamic and vibrant county with a world class heritage – but it was still seen as a ‘flat caps and whippets’ county than ‘contemporary shopping and the great outdoors’. Perceptions had to change if tourism was to grow ahead of the curve.
1.3.2 Sector Challenges
The UK domestic tourism market has faced many challenges in recent years:
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The snowballing growth of low cost airlines and regional airports
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Threat of terrorism; foot and mouth; widespread flooding
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Additionally, Yorkshire competes against the country-sized marketing budgets of Wales (21% share of advertising spend in 2006), Scotland (24% share) and Ireland (30%). Wales spent £1.5m in January 2005 alone, more than Yorkshire’s entire media spend between 2005–06 (source: Nielsen).
2 OBJECTIVES
2.1 Mission
The Campaign was Part of YTB’s Long Term Mission:
‘To represent and help generate sustainable business for the region’s tourism industry.’
2.2 Strategic Objectives and Meeting the Needs of Stakeholders
YTB has two primary stakeholder groups:
1.
Its sponsors: Yorkshire Forward and their sponsor the DTI.
2.
The tourism sector within Yorkshire including hoteliers, resort owners, museum owners, retailers and restaurants etc.
For both groups, YTB has to increase tourism revenue, as measured by Arkenford Research (an independent research body commissioned by YTB to identify the revenue uplift directly attributable to this campaign). Equally Yorkshire Forward is keen to change perceptions, raise awareness and modernise the image of Yorkshire.
During 2005–06 YTB aimed to deliver a £22.4m increase in tourism revenue as a direct result of the advertising.
“Based on previous campaign results since 2001 we knew this was going to be a difficult task. The target was considered ambitious because changing perceptions is a difficult job anyway, plus the campaign was a mix of both brand building and direct response.”
Joanna Royle, Marketing Director, YTB
2.3 Marketing Performance Targets
To achieve the £22.4m uplift the campaign needed to generate the following:
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300,000 brochure requests
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A 17% conversion rate of brochure requests to bookings
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An 8:1 ratio of tourism spend uplift to marketing spend
Joanna Royle adds: “The targets were based on previous growth experience, with added ambition based on the fact that we had more learnings behind us this time, hopefully enabling us to be more effective. Put simply, Yorkshire Forward also looks for greater efficiencies from its suppliers in every contract.”
2.4 Setting the Budget
With an 8:1 investment target for the £22.4m uplift, the budget was set at approximately £2.8m. This had to cover all fees including research, agency remuneration and the print, production and fulfilment costs of brochures.
3 THE STRATEGY
3.1 Who are we Marketing to?
Research explored the likelihood of different audiences visiting Yorkshire, based on TRI*M Index and Arkenford segmentation. Arkenford has many years experience conducting consumer, attitude and behaviour research in the tourism sector. It is based on individual’s life values and willingness to pay for quality – both major drivers of people’s leisure choices.
Figure 3: Percentage likelihood of visiting Yorkshire by audience segment
It also explored target location and socio-economic group which was then overlaid against TGI Lifestyle data and ACORN postcode profiles.
The primary target audience was identified as:
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ABC1 Adults in London, South East and the Midlands.
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Core penetration to 45+ age range, with market development to 24–44 year olds
3.2 The Core Strategy
Anyone who has been to Yorkshire will testify that the people there prefer a no nonsense approach: Be honest, be clear, be down to earth and to the point. We decided to go back to basics:
1.
Perception and awareness: Firstly we needed to make people aware of the modern Yorkshire, and change their perceptions to taking a holiday or short break there:
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Using simple, clear, honest words and images in keeping with the county’s culture.
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A creative theme, media selection and timing most likely to elicit an emotive reaction and a change in mindset.
2.
Response: Secondly, convert improved perceptions into brochure requests using tried and tested brand response mechanisms.
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An integrated media strategy where the awareness and perception shifts delivered through TV and press would then translate into responses through a range of supporting media.
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We included a prize element to win a weekend break to further drive response.
3.3 Defining the Proposition?
3.3.1 The research
Arkenford went on to explore the potential hot buttons amongst this target audience and the differentiators that would set Yorkshire apart. The graph below analysed the results for ‘potential visitors’ only (similar analysis was conducted by age, location, social class and Arkenford audience segments like ‘Cosmopolitans’).
Figure 4: The key motivators for potential visitors when planning a holiday or short break, mapped against Yorkshire perceptions
We decided to focus on the motivators that were most in tune with the modern Yorkshire. The blue squares on the graph above included Interesting places to visit (8), Visitor attractions (28), Opportunities to explore locations by car (6), Interesting villages and market towns (4) and Historic environment (7).
Other key motivators such as Eating out, High Standards of Service, Quality self-catering accommodation and Local crafts were covered in the accommodation guide and Make Yorkshire Yours magazine.
3.3.2 The final message
The negative perceptions outlined earlier needed replacing with the motivators above, which were more accurate descriptions of the modern Yorkshire and more likely to drive visitor spend:
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Yorkshire enjoys a vibrant mix of city and rural offerings
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The rural setting is beautiful and diverse, including breathtaking coastline, lakes and dales
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An exciting combination of history and tradition sits alongside contemporary features
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The local population is straight talking, warm and welcoming
An example of the press creative message:
‘Taking in a magnificent view… the majesty of an ancient Minster… or just larking around on a beach…’
‘Make Yorkshire Yours’.
3.4 The Thinking behind the Creative
Again, going back to basics, the presiding idea behind the creative was that by doing the opposite to what the competition were doing, the YTB message would stand out.
Here were some adopted themes:
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Focus on the emotive and experiential elements of a Yorkshire break – CATI interviews showed that everyone who visited Yorkshire genuinely felt they had found “their own special place” within its vast borders; 79% were “probably” or “definitely” going to return, and 90% would recommend it as a holiday destination. This insight drove the creative proposition – “Make Yorkshire Yours”.
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Honesty was a key theme. For example, being truthful about the weather (deliberately avoiding unrealistic images of brilliant blue skies and beaches – please see the TV creative) and generally being understated.
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Brand response –Tip-ons formed an integral part of the campaign and encouraged responses whilst simultaneously building brand appeal.
4 MEDIA CHOICE
4.1 The Importance of Relaxation and Calm
We targeted audiences during their relaxation time. This was important because the creative was deliberately relaxing, peaceful and evocative, so our media choices and timing also had to reflect this. This meant targeting couples after the kids had gone to bed, or at the weekend with the Sunday paper open and a coffee beside you (88% of impacts were delivered at the weekend, 62% in the evening between 5.30 – 11.00 pm).
What’s more, as mentioned earlier, the January campaigns (Jan-05 and Jan-06) coincided with a wave of competing travel advertising and retailer ‘SALES’ and the relaxed tone of our communications deliberately sought to offer an oasis of calm between other more intense, ‘shouting’ brand creative.
4.2 Integration
Targeting people during their relaxation time meant using media most suited to these golden moments: TV and press, with DM and online advertising support to help convert responses.
Each channel had a role to play:
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TV – had the objective of changing perceptions, driving awareness and increasing consideration using highly evocative, beautifully-shot cinematography that pulled on the heartstrings, showcasing the county’s rugged beauty, breathtaking coastlines, contemporary shopping and instant appeal, as well as introducing the “Make Yorkshire Yours” concept. The end frame call to action gave a brochure hotline number and web address.
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National press – Full-colour pages with postcard tip-ons would continue the brand response push by targeting consumers relaxing at home at the weekend, encouraging them to peel off the postcard and send in for a brochure (triggered by TV recall).
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DM – personalised direct mail packs would continue the Make Yorkshire Yours theme by introducing people to Yorkshire’s finest attractions.
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Online – banner ads and -Pay-per-click (PPC) search marketing would cater for people researching travel ideas and accommodation in response to seeing the above communications.
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Customer magazine / Accommodation Guide – Yorkshire’s accommodation guide was mailed together with a ‘Make Yorkshire Yours’ lifestyle magazine to further drive conversion.
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Website – all above activity promoted the flagship website www.yorkshire.com.
4.3 The Importance of Online
Online was crucial to the mix as one of the first places people would go for more information.
In 2006 for example Internet penetration was 57% of UK households (14.3m) and 71% of adults had searched for information about travel accommodation online, with 51% going on to make a purchase (Office of National Statistics).
Online also played a crucial role in:
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Targeting the 24–44 audience
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Driving visitors to www.yorkshire.com to request online brochures
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Adding value with interactive elements such as wallpapers and screensavers
5 CAMPAIGN EXECUTION
Breaking in January 2005 the TV creative had to work hard to promote a sense of peace, calm and relaxed anticipation, before the remaining media broke. January is typically the best time of year for generating brochure requests, yet it is also the busiest time of year for competitors advertising exotic long-haul destinations.
5.1 Overview
The campaign ran from January 2005 to March 2006 with activity focused during the months of January-April 2005 and January-March 2006 and was enhanced by a March-05 DM campaign and a September 2005 national press push, with ongoing online brochure and email updates to respondents throughout the year.
Total campaign media spend was £1,354,177. The remaining budget costs included:
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Research £52,500
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Agency Fees £212,000
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Production £492,367
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Fulfillment £619,244
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Misc £41,586
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Total: £2,771,876
TV campaign
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The creative subtly introduced the ‘Make Yorkshire Yours’ theme featuring fictional Phil Preston’s very own National Park, little Katy’s own Minster, Anita’s private shopping Arcade and Jill and Robin Woods’ own private coastal bay
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A total media investment of £676,080
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Brand exposure averaging 72.5% (1+ viewing) and 35.7% (4+ viewings) across ABC1 adults in London and the Midlands (source: BARB)
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6,699 responses
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193 Network TVRs (up-weighted to 271 in London’s LWT region and 291 in Central)
Figure 5: ‘Make Yorkshire Yours’ TV creative (please see accompanying tapes)
5.2 Print Campaign-Jan–Apr and Sept 2005 and Jan-Apr 2006
The campaign encompassed weekend national press and Sunday supplements, plus Radio Times, Readers Digest and various lifestyle magazines.
Full colour page advertisements (with postcard tip-ons) ran during the months of January and March 2005 and 2006. Responses were encouraging; with the January-05 ‘Win the Perfect Yorkshire Break’ tip-on in the Daily Mail receiving over 51,000 responses alone.
Figure 6: National press with postcard tip-on (peel off and mail for a brochure)
The press campaign for the Jan-Apr 2005 generated:
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Tip-ons exposed to a total circulation of 10.6 million adults
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140,777 responses across all publications for a total investment of £304,059
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An average response rate of 1.33% at an average cost per response of £2.15
And for September 2005 (a significantly smaller and less effective campaign):
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Tip-ons exposed to a total circulation of 2.6 million adults
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17,321 responses across all publications for a total investment of £82,429
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An average response rate of 0.67% at an average cost per response of £4.76
The Jan-Mar 2006 press campaign delivered:
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Tip-ons exposed to a total circulation of 6.2 million adults
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69,553 responses across all publications for a total investment of £165,862
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An average response rate of 1.12% at an average cost per response of £2.38
Basic press brochure panels (including online cost-per-brochure lead activity) also delivered 8,175 brochure responses for £4,263.71 (£0.52 cost per response).
5.3 Direct Mail Campaign – Mar–Apr 2005
To capitalise on the increased awareness and improved perceptions built up by TV and press a DM campaign broke in March and April 2005 inviting recipients to make Yorkshire theirs.
Recipients names were individually lasered on to the creative (including the envelopes) and these personalised mailings were sent to a total of 127,148 people using a sourced mailing list (matching ACORN socio-demographic profiles in London/S. East region). This attracted an impressive 24,804 responses (19.5% response) from an investment of £72,164 (£2.90 cost-per-response).
Figure 7: Direct Mail creative (note personalisation on envelopes)
5.5 Online Campaign-Jan 2005 – Mar 2006
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A PPC search campaign using Google and Overture (now Yahoo! Search) targeted search terms relating to Yorkshire cities, regions and cultural themes.
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Online display advertising including banners, skys and MPUs also ran during this period. The creative was served on a selection of UK holiday and short break websites via life-stage targeting on the MediaBrokers network, leading to clickthroughs, brochure requests and newsletter sign ups on www.yorkshire.com.
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The campaign generated 33,560 responses for a total investment of £48,843 (£1.45 cost-per-response).
Figure 8: ‘Make Yorkshire Yours’ online banners and MPUs
6 RESULTS
6.1 First Impressions
A key objective was to raise brand awareness amongst ABC1 adults aged 45+ in London, South East and the Midlands.
Additional Arkenford research (1,855 face-to-face street interviews split between pre and post campaign) demonstrated the following uplifts:
Recall
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Spontaneous advertising awareness: The biggest increase of any tourism authority amongst a London audience: A 4.5% increase up to 5.5%.
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Prompted advertising awareness: The biggest increase of any advertiser amongst a London audience: A 7% increase to 9.5%.
Reaction
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Opinion: Over 60% felt the TV commercial would encourage a visit to Yorkshire.
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Consideration: The campaign delivered a 30% uplift in peoples’ plans to visit Yorkshire.
6.2 Changing Perceptions
Another objective was to change outdated perceptions and promote the vibrant mix of city and rural interests within the county.
The creative worked to change attitudes with positive shifts in agreement with the following statements – beautiful scenery, unique history, good for city breaks, lots to do, good hospitality.
Travel Tracker research for YTB (April 08) demonstrates a marked and continued uplift in all of these areas since the campaign first launched:
Figure 9: Positive shifts in perceptions of Yorkshire, particularly in areas targeted by the creative
Beautiful scenery
Good city breaks
Good hospitality
Great place for breaks
6.3 Hard Measures
Arkenford conducted conversion research by telephone interview with 1,004 brochure enquirers (circa 500 in 2005 and 500 in 2006) allowing us to provide a statistically robust and representative sample of respondents within reasonable confidence limits.
All respondents were asked if and where they had seen the Yorkshire advertising and what had prompted them to order a brochure.
An impressive 53% of brochure respondents revealed that they had gone on to take a break in Yorkshire, spending an average £447.40 per trip.
By modelling this spend and conversion data against the actual number of campaign responses (301,265) we can estimate the total value of sales to be £71,436,559.
However, the research also identified that 47% of visitors had ordered a brochure because they had either been to Yorkshire before or they decided to go prior to seeing any advertising and therefore we cannot attribute their actions directly to our campaign. They must be removed from our calculations.
This effectively reduces the incremental revenue uplift to £37,740,069 and the real response conversion rate becomes 28%, not 53%. Approximately one in four brochure requesters went on to visit Yorkshire as a result of the advertising.
In order to calculate ROMI we need to isolate and discount out all external factors that may have influenced this uplift, especially wider market fluctuations, however in this instance we know that our respondents visited Yorkshire as a direct result of seeing the advertising.
It is worth noting that England as a whole experienced a 20% decline in tourism revenue in 2005, followed by a 2.6% increase in 2006 (UK Tourism Survey / Visit Britain 2006).
Now we have the incremental revenue (£37.7m), we need to identify the contribution margin.
6.4 Calculating Contribution Margin
Identifying the incremental contribution margin for tourism revenue is difficult – margins vary considerably dependent on the sector and industry averages are not published by their respective trade organisations (we contacted the British Retail Consortium, British Hospitality Association and The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive for this entry).
We need to refer back to Arkenford research, which identified average customer spend.
The table below shows average mean customer spend per category, however not all customers spent money in every category therefore these are non-cumulative figures (the total does not equal the sum of each spending category). The average total trip spend per party was identified as £447.40.
Based on estimated gross contribution margins for the spend categories below (verified by one of the world’s leading accountancy brands) the estimated gross margin is 66.4%.
6.5 Discounting Other Factors
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Price changes – Neither this campaign nor that of any other tourism region was linked with any specific supplier, so no price changes relative to competing regions would have been perceived by the target audience.
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Reduced competitor activity – There was no let-up in competitor activity during the period under review (2005–2006). Advertising spend and shares remained at the same levels.
Share of tourism authority advertising spend 2006 (Source: Nielsen)
7 PAYBACK
7.1 ROMI
Overall results indicate the campaign was a success, exceeding all targets set.
Based on the IPA formula for calculating ROMI the incremental profit for this campaign is as follows:
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A 2005–06 marketing investment of £2.8 million
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Incremental revenue: £37,740,069 uplift in sales
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Contribution margin: 66.4%
*
ROMI = (((contribution margin × incremental revenue) – cost of campaign)/cost of campaign) × 100
7.2 Performance against Targets
8 LEARNINGS
8.1 TV Succeeded in Changing Perceptions and Reinforcing Brand Images of the Modern Yorkshire
TV was the most powerful medium for changing perceptions and driving increased awareness and provides an important halo effect over all other activity. Whilst it may not generate large responses it does ensure greater effectiveness of other media.
8.2 The Value of Targeting Media by ‘State of Mind’
Though difficult to quantify we believe that a large element of the campaign’s effectiveness can be attributed to targeting people when they were relaxing and indulging in some ‘me time’. The increase in visitor numbers, revenue and improved perceptions of Yorkshire provide testament to this.
8.3 Long Live Tip-ons and Personalise DM Creative
Tip-ons have gone out of favour with marketers of late, however they suited the creative strategy of this campaign perfectly and generated over 227,000 responses (75% of the target). Equally, personalised DM produced a 19.5% response, proving the value of creative relevance and targeting.
8.4 Summary
The ‘Make Yorkshire Yours’ brand response campaign for YTB went back to basics to change outdated perceptions of an ‘old-fashioned’ county with limited appeal. The integrated creative and media strategies differentiated the brand in a declining UK market and helped to reverse common misconceptions by targeting people indulging in some quality ‘me time’. The campaign delivered a £37.7m incremental revenue uplift for a £2.8m marketing investment, and resulted in a ROMI of 802%. The campaign’s legacy has been to build a solid platform on which to continue improving perceptions, awareness and visits to the modern day Yorkshire – borne out by continued growth in 2007.
The global economic recession which hit with such force in late 2008 poses significant challenges to those consumers who had begun to act more responsibly in their general consumption. Suddenly faced with uncertainty and financial insecurity, the fear amongst ethical marketers was that their own ‘green shoots’ of a new more environmental focus in developed economies would be swept away in the rush to make decisions based solely on price and promotion. To understand the full context of these changes we commissioned our own study which aimed to answer a number of core issues which have been a focus of academic and commercial study over recent years.
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Why do consumers not behave in the way they claim when asked about environmental / ethical purchases?
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What impact has the new recessionary focus with its concentration on price and promotion led activity, really had on consumers’ responsible decision making?
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Can we develop a clearer picture of the future for ‘responsible consumerism’ by focusing on actual rather than claimed behaviour?
This paper begins with a plea for a clearer, cleaner language to be adopted by the marketing community, discusses contextual observations based on the UK experience of the recession and finally reveals some findings and implications from our study. We set this against previous thinking which has sought to explain differences between what consumers say and what they actually do.
INTRODUCTION
Responsible Research was started as a research consultancy which would focus upon responsible consumer behaviour. Of course one of the immediate challenges we knew we would face is that consumers clearly do not do what they claim they do. Previous studies have centred upon providing attitudinal segmentations and specifically set this against ‘claimed’ behaviour. From the outset our focus was to record actual behaviour in isolation from attitudes – this approach provides us with the same ability to cluster data by attitude but also to relate this to actual purchase behaviour.
Our motivation is not entirely commercial. We believe passionately that attitudes are changing and may have changed fundamentally through the recession to provide not an erosion of responsible attitude as some commentators and market data might indicate but rather a hardening of resolve amongst consumers to become more responsible in their actions.
As marketing professionals or people with responsibility for organisations’ CSR agendas and planning, we have an obligation to clarify communication and sharpen strategic focus. In this way we can influence behaviour more effectively; we have a vision for the future of embracing responsible Citizenship at a broader societal level. To achieve this we will focus upon the encouragement of responsible consumerism at an individual level. Harnessing the ‘power of one’ individual making a positive change in their consumption has the potential to build to significant societal change.
AN APPEAL FOR NEW VOCABULARY
Our aim is to bring some clarity to issues which have consistently appeared on the agendas at marketing and research conferences for the last few years. We would like to start with a call to simplify the language we use and which is reflected from academic to specialist to general press. Here is a selection of the vocabulary in common circulation:
Environmental
Green
Ethical
Carbon Neutral
Embedded Energy
Sustainable
Fair
Energy Efficient
Recycling
Social Welfare
Carbon Offset
Global Warming
David Elliott, in his paper to the ESOMAR responsible Marketing Conference in 2004, stated ‘the agenda for sustainability is so vast that there is a real issue over terminology suitable for encompassing it’. that was five years ago so think how the vocabulary has grown since then!
All of these words and phrases are entirely relevant in the context in which they are commonly used. The problem is that they are increasingly in broad circulation and have accumulated a meaning which changes and therefore, we would argue, diminishes impact. For example many consumers we have spoken to now use ‘green’ as a catch all, conflating it with government messages about ‘five a day’ fruit and vegetable portions, on healthy eating so that ‘green’ food can now mean simply healthier eating options.
This confusion appears to have transferred from the category to the consumer via packaging claims. Brand positioning and posturing is based on a sometimes frantic effort to have something ‘sustainable’ or ‘ethical’ to reflect your worthy efforts to appear better than you probably are as a brand or retailer! Cynical? Perhaps, but we have to start somewhere and while many commercial organisations are now much better at managing their CSR strategy, we believe it still lags a long way behind business or brand strategy.
So let’s look at pack language. Government encourages manufacturers to prove how they are being more ethical.
Retailers ‘encourage’ manufacturers to help build their own sustainable / ethical positioning for them through innovations in pack design; sourcing more locally or ensuring standards of animal welfare are maintained. The result is a mass of information and copy on packs which ultimately are self defeating: 40% of consumers claim to be confused about environmental messages (Hive Ideas research, 2008). Similarly David Elliott in 2004 quoted research from the International Consumers Association which identified the following issues with communication of ‘green’ messages on pack:
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Statements are too general, vague and unconvincing – the more general, the less credible
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Statements relate to long terms benefits not to the life-cycle impact of the product
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Claims cannot be verified
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There is a proliferation of different symbols, colours which have different definitions – we have found this to be true within the UK never mind between countries
We would like to propose the adoption of a term which strikes through the mass of ethical, sustainable, green, organic, fair, energy efficient, food miles babble.
responsible: adjective V having an obligation to do something, or having control over or care for someone. 2) being the cause of something and so able to be blamed or credited for it. 3) morally accountable for one’s behaviour. 4) capable of being trusted.
We suggest that responsible is the most appropriate summary for what is becoming a generic attitude set held more or less strongly by a significant proportion of the UK population; most segmentation studies point to 30% – 40% having positive motivations (DEFRA 2007 Survey of Public Attitudes and Behaviours). Responsible consumerism applies that particular attitude to the act of buying something – consumers who have some moral foundation for their actions irrespective of whether they trade those morals against price or habit or promotion there is at least the notion that for a substantial proportion of consumers there is some accountability for their action. Most importantly perhaps is the fact that it is judged on an individual basis, by the individual within their own frame of reference and therefore is more meaningful to them.
If we extend this argument further and deal with the fact that we know consumers, in general, overstate their ‘responsible behaviour’ significantly, how does this square with being responsible?
Reasons Why Stated and Actual Behaviour May Differ
Let’s start by asking the reader how they answer the following question during a routine consultation with their doctor: how many units of alcohol do you drink in a week? Despite the fact that the readership of this paper may be a particularly sober cross section our guess is that the vast majority would understate the number of units they say they consume. Why? Well most people would admit that they consume more alcohol than they should and in the context of a discussion with a doctor there is almost a compulsion to downplay consumption. This is partly because you know you should consume less alcohol than you do and partly because you don’t want the doctor to suspect you of drinking more than you should!
Is there a difference in considering the majority of studies which point out the differences between claimed behaviour and actual behaviour? For example, a Populus poll in 2007 found that 65% of people in the United Kingdom claim only to buy energy saving light bulbs and yet this category only accounts for 20% of light bulbs sold. This is typical of conflicting research which point out the gap between stated and actual behaviour. What if the reason people overstated their responsible consumerism is because they actually want to behave more like this as well as the fact that they want people to think they do? This interpretation places a far more positive explanation of apparently conflicting data. Interestingly it also places a real emphasis on understanding actual behaviour rather than stated or claimed behaviour, which is an important methodological consideration in designing our study.
It is also likely that significant barriers deter many people from buying more responsibly, whether these barriers are based around confusion, ignorance or the ability to pay any kind of premium for more responsible products. Understanding more clearly why people do not act in line with their sentiment, no matter what level that sentiment is currently at, will provide an opportunity to begin to influence individuals’ ability to behave more responsibly.
THE NEED FOR SIMPLICITY
We should also consider what has happened in the last 12 months: we make no apology for focusing here on the United Kingdom as the loss of trust experienced by consumers has extra dimensions there.
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Breakdown of trust in Financial Services Sector
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Banking at the Apex of the crisis
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Building Societies a bastion of stability based on savings and conservatism were also victims
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Breakdown of trust in government – MP’s expenses scandal; BNP win seats in Euro elections
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Loss of trust in core services like Social Services and Health
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Breakdown in the economy and retailing – the loss of trusted names like Woolworths and other large gaps on the High Street
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Rising unemployment with middle management an affected group for the first time in 18 years
The cumulative impact of this has significantly diminished consumer’s confidence in the future. This affects responsible consumerism in two ways:
1. When faced with complexity – on pack or within the vocabulary used in a category, the principle of Heuristics indicates that consumers resort to simple choices or habitual purchases based on familiarity (Iyengar and Lepper, 2000).
Shopper studies show a reduced level of experimentation, a reversion to a core repertoire of products based on more familiar, long established brands or own label products and currently a great knowledge of which supermarket has the best deals on these core products.
2. Whenever society faces a crisis it readjusts and reverts back to a simpler set of values, where tradition and community resurrect themselves.
We are seeing lots of anecdotal evidence of this in the United Kingdom; waiting lists for allotments increasing by threefold in some urban areas (allotments are municipally owned small plots of land for growing vegetables); a significant increase in family gardens being turned into vegetable plots or food grown in containers; 16% increase in sales of haberdashery; increase in camping and caravanning activity, etc. As people choose simple holidays at home.
In addition to these influences many social commentators now use the phrase ‘we society’ to describe a movement from a ‘me’ economy centred on materialism and consumerism to one which is reflective of the increased sense of community and community power. Community power is evident in the recent reaction to tuna fishing endangering the Blue Fin tuna and the campaign against the decision by Marks & Spencer to charge more money for larger cup size bras which ultimately led to an apology to the women of the United Kingdom! Society is at one time both more individual and more connected – picture the individual in their study or bedroom connected to the world via Facebook or Twitter and able to participate in such mass action.
MOVING TO A SOCIAL FROM A PERSONAL NORM THROUGH THE ‘POWER OF ONE’
This may seem a big question to include in a paper like this focused upon responsible consumerism. However we believe it is an important issue at the heart of the broader perspectives we have discussed such as the ‘we society’. Smart communication of social norms stimulates the internalisation into personal norms (Harland et al, 1999). In the United Kingdom we can look at the widespread adoption of re-usable carrier bags amongst grocery shoppers across all social and ethnic groups. However our challenge is to reverse this observation and ask – can a Social Norm be driven out of a multiple set of individuals acting in one direction irrespective of individual motivations or decision influences?
We believe it could and that a consideration of how we can use individual consumer decisions to achieve this should be the new heart of CSR strategy. This comes down to a notion we have coined ‘the power of one’ to reflect the point at which an individual consumer makes a decision to make a purchase for a different reason, a more responsible reason. The precise nature of the motivation for purchase is less important than the fact that they have chosen to act that way. Our hope is that understanding how we might influence individuals to make this kind of small change with individual purchases will result in larger scale changes as the ‘power of one’ is replicated thousands or millions of times.
As market researchers our role is to understand what the current situation is, to hopefully add to the existing bodies of evidence in this area of study but more importantly to work with retailers and manufacturers to help understand the barriers to responsible behaviour, where they are and why they exist and in so doing help increasing numbers overcome them. In this way we believe we can encourage changes in social norms through influencing personal actions. Put simply can we increase levels of responsible consumerism within grocery shopping as a whole by simply making responsible buying easier to achieve?
We have begun our work in testing this theory in an area which dominates frequency of purchase in the United Kingdom: food and groceries. By helping and encouraging consumers to make responsible choices more easily we believe we can support retailers and manufacturers who are seeking a more responsible brand equity position.
UK RESPONSIBLE CONSUMER STUDY
Having developed our thinking in this way we wanted to build a research study approach which would address some perceived gaps in the current body of thinking around Responsible Consumerism. Consequently in May 2009 we undertook a major piece of research based on interviews with 1132 UK Grocery buyers with a sample which reflected the grocery market share of the leading supermarkets brands. The United Kingdom was an ideal market to centre this work in as it has one of the highest concentrations of supermarket purchasing in Europe and in a heavily recessionary period supermarket expenditure was forecast to hold up relatively consistently (see Table 1).
Table 1: Sample Achieved was Very Closely Matched to Our Target
Clearly we believed that behaviour would have changed as consumers were widely reported to be buying in a highly promiscuous way – partly because the UK market enables this with relative proximity of competitive stores and partly because the retailers reaction to recessionary pressure was to ‘side with the customer’ and provide them with as many promotional and money saving ideas as they could. Thus two for one and other multiple purchase promotions were joined by ‘eat in for £10′ (an offer providing a restaurant style meal to eat in home with wine for £10) as well as a focus on more essential or budget price management ranges as each retailer fought to keep their share of wallet.
This environment provided perhaps the sternest test of whether responsible values or motivations had been impacted by the pressure on budgets. Figures from retailers showed that organic and other ethical purchase categories were seen to be slowing down but we wanted to ascertain what was impacting on an individual’s motivation to act responsibly.
Each respondent was recruited from an online panel using specific screening questions to determine which supermarket was their main source of grocery purchase. They were asked to record each purchase they made from three major categories; fruit and vegetables; fresh meat and chilled ready meals. These categories were selected because of the frequency of purchase, size in value terms and the number and range of responsible messages present.
Purchases were recorded for a two week period and information captured is summarised in Table 2.
Table 2: Information Collected in Diary for Each Purchase
In addition each respondent had a manual and paper based recording diary for anyone who was unable or intimidated by completing online. In fact many respondents used this as well as a way of checking their record accuracy – notably the recording of bar codes.
As one of our main hypotheses to test involved the evident differences between responsible attitude and behaviour it was important that behaviour and attitude were kept as entirely separate components. Respondents had no idea of the nature or purchase of the study other than it was based on shopping behaviour. Following a week’s break after their two week data collection we followed up every respondent with a questionnaire designed to assess their attitudes to responsible purchasing; responsible behaviour post-purchase such as recycling, composting and food waste etc. Compliance rates for the study were encouraging; 3,083 consumers were recruited to complete a diary for two weeks and 1,308 completed this part of the program. However what was more encouraging was that 1,132 (87%) completed the full study including the follow up attitudinal survey.
We set ourselves a number of core hypotheses to test:
H1 – there is a low correlation between responsible attitude and actual responsible behaviour at an individual level
H2 – Price or Promotion effects dominate responsible stimulus during a recessionary downturn
H3 – Combining attitude and behaviour into a single segment solution can indicate how to positively impact more responsible behaviour
SOME OF THE MAIN FINDINGS
Our first consideration is to understand how consumers segment attitudinally. A number of existing segmentations exist with varying levels of sensitivity (ROPER; LOHAS; MORI) but have one common theme that they are based on levels of claimed participation and therefore commitment is derived from that (Elliott, 2004). More recently Hive ideas produced a segmentation which showed eight distinct clusters ranging from Super Greens to Rejecters. While also based on stated behaviour this also delivers three broad groups which are ‘green’ at varying levels of attitude and stated behaviour; ‘average’ who show some form of sporadic green behaviours but are led more by peer pressure and a final group who are at the extreme level rejecters of environmental issues. In reviewing the existing published work it seems clear that there are no distinct boundaries between segments but rather some fuzzy transitions.
Our study contained 19 attitudinal statements against which we measured agreement. While the detail provided by the 19 statements is important to provide and in-depth understanding we first checked patterns in the data via principle components analysis and found three significant underlying dimensions (see Table 3).
Table 3: Initial Cluster Analysis Based on Attitude
The three underlying dimensions are centred on responsible motivation, healthy information and eating, and price / value which clearly has an inverse relationship to responsibility. There is a group of statements not highly correlated with any dimension which centres upon habit, food appeal and a lack of other considerations. We subsequently ran cluster analysis on the three dimensions which provided us with four segments as the statistically optimal solution, in terms of the variance accounted for. A full profiling of attitudes using these segments gave rise to some discrete groups which we have taken forward as the basis for our attitudinal segmentation of UK grocery consumers (see Table 4).
Table 4: Understanding the Attitude Profile of Segments: (Cells Show Observed Score Minus Expected Score)
One of our primary hypotheses was to examine the impact of recessionary ‘bite’ on responsible attitudes and in particular the role of low price and promotional offers. Firstly we can see clearly from the table above that we have two segments which are most heavily influenced by price / value and two segments which are not. The least price sensitive segment is our most responsible aligned group.
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Self Centred – (22% of total sample) appear to be the least responsible aligned group. Their priorities in food shopping are based on balancing the best looking food with an assessment of health but representing the best value they can find. They do not really think about how the food is produced or where it originates. This group is the most heterogeneous and we believe reflects the dominant mentality of the ‘me economy’.
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Habitual – (26% of total sample) represent the groups who are hit hard by the recession and shop accordingly. Their focus is on feeding their family on a limited budget and typified by a fairly fixed repertoire of products which are bought because they are tried and liked – health and ingredients are minor concerns for this group – pleasing their family is a principle motivation. Not surprisingly this group is typified by ‘struggling mums’ of younger families from lower income groups.
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Informed – (23% of total sample) show high levels of awareness of food and food issues and are more responsibly aligned in terms of attitudes than either of the previous groups. More experienced and more mature shoppers this segment is characterised by empty nesters and retired.
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Responsible – (29% of total sample) show the highest levels of responsible motivation when it comes to buying food and maintain this at the expense of price/value considerations. They are more affluent and more likely to be employed or self employed but come from all ages and life stage groups.
We believe that one of the reasons for the earlier fuzzy transitions we highlighted is the fact that the classifications used do not reach the underlying motivations which result in action. Therefore by including a measure of actual behaviour in our study we hoped to add a dimension to our segments which has not been seen to date. So for the 14,500 purchases recorded across our diaries we coded the consumers’ reasons for purchase into a number of relevant dimensions which would reflect the motivation behind purchases. In this coding you will note we do not focus on responsible motivations but judge this against other point of sale influences found in consumers’ free text answers. In our first look at behaviour it seems clear that habit and the pursuit of value are simple competitors of responsible behaviour (see Table 5).
Table 5: Coded Reasons for Purchase
Using these codes for responsible behaviour we can show some relationships between attitude and behaviour which highlights how we might be able to influence responsible behaviour by focusing on behavioural stimulus and the scale of the task required across these three food categories. To do this we focused on codes for responsible and looked at the distribution of these codes across the number of purchases each respondent made. If a respondent mentioned one or more responsible codes as a reason for purchase then that purchase was deemed to have been responsibly motivated. So if a respondent had made ten purchases and mentioned a responsible code for 6 of them then they would fall into the many responsible purchases group below (see Table 6)
Table 6: Attitude Meets Behaviour
The table shows a number of significant implications for promoting more responsible consumerism:
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Our responsibly motivated consumers do make more responsible purchases but our expected overstatement of behaviour is very evident with one in three responsible consumers making no responsible purchases at all.
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The least responsibly motivated group do at least make some responsible purchasing indeed half of this group are actively choosing responsibly, which highlights just some of the potential for changing behaviour in the future.
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Both of these findings would indicate a real opportunity to influence behaviour and attitude in order to increase actual levels of responsible food purchasing.
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Perhaps the closest opportunity for change we have is amongst the ‘informed’ group where 60% appear to behave more responsibly – turning ideas and knowledge into real choices.
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This model provides us with some insight into how we might begin to influence a move towards more responsible behaviour – there is great scope for making consumers more aware of their responsible choices and commitment. We believe this will focus upon messaging on pack or at Point of Sale and our next stage will provide some deeper insights into how this could be optimised. We have subsequently found that across our three food categories responsible behaviour is highest for meat, a little lower for vegetables, lower again for fruit, and extremely low for ready-meals. Is the need to show responsible behaviour higher in some categories or are these categories better at tapping into attitudes?
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In addition we need to look at the extension of responsible buying to responsible post purchase disposal. Early indications do show that our responsibly motivated segment are far more responsible in their post purchase behaviour and in the context of building responsible citizenship this is significant.
Using this kind of analysis provides a way of segmenting the UK grocery buying public through both behaviour and attitude (see Table 7).
Table 7: Emergent Segmentation Combining Attitude and Actual Behaviour
The shaded section shows 41% of the total population are attitudinally aligned with more responsible consumption and yet appear to be held back by some behavioural barriers – understanding what these barriers might be could represent a tipping point for responsible consumerism and unlock the potential for more responsible consumption on a mass scale.
SUMMARISING AND NEXT STAGES
In addition to those findings presented here the study continues through the summer of 2009 with qualitative follow ups and some ethnography to better understand our segments – we would hope to include these in our presentation of this paper at ESOMAR World congress in september.
Not only has this study built some additional insights into responsible consumerism it has uncovered a number of highly relevant facts which we hope to develop further with both retailers and food manufacturers. It has provided a way to provide stepwise support to a greater proportion of UK grocery consumers becoming more active in their responsible behaviour and we have confirmation of some of the main barriers currently preventing this from happening.
The principle that we can align attitude with behaviour to provide us with a method to break down behavioural and attitudinal influences into more identifiable chunks is, we suggest, an important step forward. Rather than bemoan the fact that consumers do not do what they say they do we have set out to show how important this factor is. There is no doubt that responsible activity has been weakened by recessionary pressures but it is still there and evidenced by the fact that we have found 28% of UK Grocery Shoppers are responsibly aligned in terms of attitude and 21% appear to be cementing these attitudes in the majority of their purchases.
We have also shown the scale and location for future growth in responsible behaviour and for any organisation with this as a future focus or a desirable brand positioning we can provide a detailed perspective of how this could be achieved. Due to the timing for this paper we are aware that our work on this subject is only partially completed, but we would hope to make future insights available as we continue this work.
We have also introduced two new principles for wider consideration:
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That ‘responsible’ is a more meaningful adjective for consumer activity consciously made which has some kind of ‘good’ outcome for the individual, their family or their world. We would urge the social and commercial marketing community to embrace this as the descriptor for all such activity going forward.
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That maybe the ‘power of one’ as a concept can be used to explain how societal change can be initiated from a mass of individual decisions to buy more responsibly. A responsible citizen is a member of society; a responsible consumer is a member of the economy and as such may be an easier focus for the CSR Directors of retail and manufacturing organisations because they can relate to them more easily. As a responsible consumer they have a set of needs opposed by a set of barriers which may be working against those needs being met. A renewed focus on understanding these needs is something we in the marketing and research world can relate to more easily – this is simply marketing isn’t it? More accurately we would call this responsible marketing.
X Factor judge, Simon Cowell, is photographed seemingly praying to a tumbler of Coca-Cola, in his capacity as a judge on US talent show, American Idol. And, reports The Scotsman (page 16), the British Medical Association has become the latest organisation to express concerns over plans for US-style product placement (especially unhealthy foods and drink) on UK television.
Or maybe Cowell is praying for victory in the forthcoming National Television Awards – on the 20th of this month – the shortlist for which appears across a number of newspapers, including The Herald (page 5) and the Scottish Sun (page 3). The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent – both of which he is involved in – are nominated for the Talent title.
Or maybe he’s simply thanking God that allmediascotland’s review of the media stories making it into the press has returned after its festive break.
Not that there is an abundance of such tales. A couple of laughs, though.
For instance, Ken Smith, in The Herald (page 13), regales us with this tale: “We’ve always been fans of BBC Scotland allowing emails from viewers to run across the screen ever since it allowed a comment from a certain Hugh Jarse, without really thinking about it. Reader Keddie Law spotted among the messages of goodwill on the BBC’s Hogmanay show, one to a Willie Waught, which presumably was sent by a fan of Auld Lang Syne.”
Meanwhile, Daily Record columnist, John McKie (page 13), pitches in with the following, from a 101-strong list of things to avoid in 2010: No. 11 OK! magazine producing black-bordered tribute issues to people who are still alive. No. 15 The “Some council just banned Christmas” story. No. 59 The use of ‘Here Come the Girls’ in an ad or TV show and No. 94 The BBC Director-General hiring another private jet with our money when Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross make their next daft phone call.”
For TV interview technique, Scottish Sun columnist, Bell Leckie (page 11), has his own unique take on Prime Minister, Gordon Brown’s performance on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, on Sunday: “Imagine a man suffering from chronic piles, sitting on an armchair made out of cactus. With Ralgex in his Y-fronts and a ferret wriggling up his trouser leg. Now, take that level of discomfort and double it. And you’re somewhere near Gordon Brown’s body language throughout his first TV appearance of General Election year.”
As one, the Scottish Sun (page 25) and the Record (page 7) see the funny side of golfer, Tiger Woods, showing off his handsome, toned torso on the cover of the February issue of Vanity Fair magazine – the pic taken before he became embroiled in various sex scandals. The Scottish Daily Express (page 8) and Scottish Daily Mail (page 13) also enjoy the moment.
And finally, Scots TV and radio broadcaster, Kirsty Young, describes pushy parents trying to turn their children into ‘baby Einsteins’, as a “real modern disease”.
BBC Worldwide has unveiled a new youth-orientated spinoff magazine, trading card series and gaming website for the Top Gear motoring franchise.
Titled Top Gear Turbo Challenge, each edition of the 52-part magazine will include a cover-mounted pack holding nine trading cards.
The cards feature Top Trumps-style categories such as ‘speed’ and ‘coolness’, along with quotes from presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.
As 276 different cards will be available to collect, they will also be sold separately at retail outlets in packs of nine. An “ultimate sub-zero” card featuring mysterious rally driver The Stig will appear inside one in every 1,000 packs.
A dedicated Top Gear Turbo Challenge gaming website will also be launched to offer recreated challenges from the show, such as the North Pole race between a 4X4 and a dog sled team.
“Top Gear Turbo Challenge is tipped to be one of the biggest launches of the year and we’re confident boys and girls aged seven to 14 will be clamouring to be part of this new craze,” said publisher Duncan Gray.
“As a business, BBC Magazines is very excited about the opportunity to bring this new product to market and we confidently expect it to drive significant retail sales value through all participating retail channels.”
Launching on January 6, the magazine’s first issue will be available at a reduced price of £1.50, which will rise to £2.50 for subsequent issues.
Now that the Noughties are over, how did the business landscape change? Is there a new way of doing business? Kevin Ellis, leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers UK advisory practice, can see twelve ways that business changed over the past decade. But was it all for the best? And what’s the new business reality like for 2010 and beyond…?
Britain only just crept out of an 18-month recession at the end of 2009, suggesting any monetary tightening remains a long way off and raising fears about the prospects for recovery ahead of an election due by June.
