After several years of such intense focus on all matters economic, it will be of little surprise that consumer attitudes and behaviours are starting to adjust to the new realities of a proclaimed ‘age of austerity’.

On the surface, some of these changes are evident and well-understood by observers of the market. For instance – over recent years – TGI has tracked the rise-and-rise of the budget supermarkets: with the likes of Lidl and Aldi growing in line with the consumer appreciation of “low price” as the most critical determinant of their main supermarket selection. In fact, “low price” is cited as the most important factor in selecting a grocer / supermarket by a third of the population.

More subtly, TGI also appears to record a shift in attitudes towards spending – with a new mood of greater caution and consumer deliberation taking hold.

As one important description of this developing caution, 88% of adults now agree that they “don’t like the idea of being in debt” – up from 75% in 2007.

This financial wariness translates into a related mode of consumer deliberation, with 82% asserting that “I spend money more carefully than I used to” – up from 64% in 2007. Similarly, the proportion of the population agreeing that they are “bargain hunters when shopping” has risen from 49% in 2007 to 58% just five years later.

If the above are signals of a nervous tightening of the purse-strings – Irish marketers and advertisers should, however, be wary of assuming that this negative conclusion is, in fact, the end of the story.

Digging deeper, TGI also tells a story that suggests consumers have not fully ‘turned their back’ on the consumerism of previous years. As evidence in favour of seeing some silver-lining to the recessionary cloud, it is possible to note that spending remains robust in a number of key consumer sectors.

To take one small example of this trend, one needn’t look further than the statement: ‘I sometimes treat myself to something I don’t need’. In five years, agreement with this statement has actually risen from 60 to 67% – suggesting that there’s still space in the consumer wallet for non-essentials. 

This is particularly good news for sales of small-ticket treats: whether DVDs, confectionery or alcoholic beverages – and for ‘premium’ retailers who can capitalise on these appetites.

This trait is not, however, just limited to small treats. Elsewhere in the consumer arena, customers are still queuing up to buy into higher-ticket items: particularly in the area of technology and communications.

Indeed, when looking at levels of smartphone, console or TV upgrade/renewal: Ireland has kept pace with other European countries. 37% of the population agree that they ‘love to buy new gadgets and appliances’ – a figure that has remained extremely stable over the last five years – in spite of so many other market changes.

In other words: however constrained the wallets, aspiration to ownership remains as consistent as was ever previously the case.

The above examples, on both negative and positive sides of the story, can easily be multiplied-up – and perhaps the only clear conclusion is therefore to acknowledge that the recession is not simple, but manifests itself in contradiction and ambiguity.

If a story of more cautious customers (and tighter budgets) are the obvious down-side of a recession, marketers can take heart from the fact that the taste for consumption has not entirely cleared from the Irish palette.

Instead, if marketers are to seize the opportunities that still persist, it will be more important than ever that they invest effort in understanding the mix of messages coming from the consumer and carefully adjust their activity accordingly.

As featured in the IMJ

Eating Healthily

The latest insight from Kantar Media’s TGI survey in Ireland reveals that almost two-thirds of consumers claim to “eat more healthy food than I did in the past”. In spite of this, just 36% of consumers actually opt for healthy option ranges when purchasing food and drink – giving real scope for growth in this area if the message is targeted correctly via the most efficient medium.

Women account for more than 60% of those who regularly consume food or drink from healthy ranges and around a third of these consumers are over the age of 55. However, gender and age are themselves rarely sufficient discriminators to tailor a marketing campaign. TGI Lifestage segmentations group consumers by their situation in life, rather than simple demographics to enable more sophisticated targeting.

For instance, individuals in the group “Playschool Parents” (live with son or daughter and whose youngest child is aged 0-4) who also regularly choose healthy ranges are most likely to be among the heaviest consumers of outdoor media. By contrast, healthy eaters who are also “Secondary School Parents” (youngest child is aged 10-15) are most likely to be heavily exposed to radio and they are 40% more likely to watch health & wellbeing shows on television.

Keeping Fit

The New Year provides further encouragement to get in shape, making consumers of healthy ranges a natural target for sports associations and fitness clubs. What’s more, these organisations have plenty of new potential clients to target: just 40% have visited a gym, leisure centre or health club in the past 12 months and only 10% are already members of such facilities.

Moreover, these consumers are some of the most lucrative around: their average household income is €44,200 – over €1,500 more than the national average and over a quarter of them claim to “have expensive tastes”. These individuals also tend to be financially astute, with almost 200,000 owning stocks and shares and 20% consulting a financial adviser.

Marketers can get an edge in targeting potential customers by taking other personal factors into account and using, for example, TGI’s Life Events data. For instance, of the 150,000 adults who intend to get engaged or married in the next 12 months, a third visit private gyms and they are more than twice as likely to have bought a new piece of keep fit equipment in the last year. They are also 50% more likely than average to have recently tried to quit smoking and a large proportion can be reached via cinema advertising, as 20% go at least once per month.

Planning Major Purchases

The health and fitness sectors, however, are not alone in being able to profit from a shift in the consumer psyche over the New Year. It is also a time for consumers to plan their major purchases for the year ahead such as a holiday, a new car or home renovations.

Much like New Year’s resolutions, these major decisions are invariably dictated by changes in personal circumstances: for example, 14% of recent retirees intend to purchase a car in the next 12 months, compared to just 9% of the total retired population. The recently retired are also two-thirds more likely than the average adult to purchase a car that is brand new.

For many consumers, their purchasing behaviour in 2012 will also be affected by other major life events: 140,000 adults intend to buy or sell a property in the next year while 270,000 expect to make major home improvements. In the financial services industry, for example, accurately identifying both groups is vital. TGI insights show that property buyers / sellers are 25% more likely to have obtained a credit report last year and individuals making improvements to their home account for 13% of all those who took out a loan last year.

With major life events often at the heart of purchase decisions, efficient targeting is crucial to ensure the correct audience is reached with the appropriate message. TGI, for instance, can reveal that property buyers / sellers are 50% more likely to believe that “advertising helps make the best purchases” and are most heavily exposed to the internet.

“Home improvers”, by contrast, are heavy magazine consumers, 70% more likely to read 10 or more magazines per month and just under half agree that “magazines give me ideas for how to improve my home”.  This group is also potentially lucrative in amplifying marketing messages, with TGI’s Word of Mouth data revealing them to be 80% more likely to convince others about household appliances and a third more likely to champion DIY and gardening.

Despite prevailing bleak economic conditions, accurate and quantifiable targeting, using insight relating to changes in attitudes and personal circumstances, can help marketers to make the most of exploiting the opportunities that the New Year brings.

As featured in the IMJ

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To find out more about The Media Awards 2012 visit www.mediaawards.ie

It is fair to conclude from the above table that consumer spending confidence remains significantly lower than pre-crisis levels. For instance, there has been a 28% rise in the number of consumers claiming to “spend money more carefully than they used to”, suggesting that the effects of the economic downturn on consumer spending are set to linger. As such, marketers will need to improve the efficiency of their campaigns to target their most lucrative consumers with the most effective messages.

At this lucrative time for retailers, promotions and offers play an even more important role is enticing consumers through the door. TGI reveals that 38% of Irish consumers have responded to promotions and offers that they have seen advertised, up from 26% in 2007. Retailers will also be heartened to hear that consumers in the potentially money-spinning AB social grades are 20% more likely than the average consumer to respond.

Irish consumers are most likely to respond to promotions and offers that they have seen on television with 15% doing so, an increase of more than half in the past 5 years. Similarly, internet and newspaper promotions have each attracted 12% of consumers in the past 12 months – with both experiencing increases every year since 2007. Significant rises in consumer response rates have also been recorded for offers placed in magazines, email and radio.

TGI’s powerful targeting capabilities can also help marketers to identify groups of consumers that are most likely to respond to particular promotions. For instance, TGI Lifestage group “Primary School Parents” (consumers who live with their son or daughter and whose youngest child is aged 5-9) are the most likely to respond to offers and promotions on leaflets posted through the letterbox [150*]. Meanwhile, “Secondary School Parents”, whose youngest child is aged 10-15, are most likely to respond to offers disseminated via email [120].

Delving deeper, consumers who respond to promotions shown on television are a third more likely to believe that “celebrities influence my purchase decisions” – perhaps underlying the sway of celebrity endorsements on TV. Fledgling brands may also be encouraged to hear that consumers who “often buy new brands to see what they are like” are also 20% more likely to respond to promotions found on loose inserts in magazines.

TGI also pinpoints the most efficient channels for particular products to showcase their promotions and offers. For example, consumers who have bought games consoles in the last 12 months are 25% more likely than the average promotions respondent to react to television campaigns, while email is the most efficient channel to target DVD purchasers [125]. With Christmas in mind, it is helpful for retailers to know that people who drink champagne at festive occasions are a third more likely to respond to radio appeals.

Consumers are inundated with promotional appeals, particularly during the frantic final shopping days until Christmas, meaning that precise targeting is essential to ensure that brand messages reach and engage the right people while also maximising return on investment.

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

* [x] = x is the index score. For example an index score of 150 means that consumers are 50% more likely than the average adult to do something.

General Internet Use

Ireland has a greater proportion of its adult population using the internet than the other major Western European countries. Ireland also features near the top of the rankings when it comes to consumers having access to broadband in home – although France is the leader in this respect with three quarters of their entire population having home broadband.

The 2011 ROI TGI survey also reveals that over a fifth of Irish adults have only accessed the internet for the first time in the past 6 months, far surpassing their counterparts in Europe. These recent internet users in Ireland are more than 30% more likely to be in TGI Lifestage groups “Senior Sole Decision Makers” or “Empty Nesters” – groups that represent consumers over the age of 55. Almost 60% of these senior new internet users regularly email and a quarter use social networking sites – although they are half as likely as the average internet user to do so.

Online Video Streaming and TV on Demand

Irish consumers are more likely than their counterparts elsewhere in Western Europe to use online video sites, particularly YouTube which is used by 61% of internet users in the Republic. Not only does online video have a high penetration among Irish internet users, 13% of these consumers are heavy viewers of online video – watching at least an hour per week.

When it comes to TV on Demand, be it through an online video stream or via a set top box on television, Irish consumers also rank highly, beaten into second place only by consumers in GB. In Ireland catch-up TV viewers watch, on average, just over 2.5 hours of programming per week and they are most likely to tune in to entertainment [136] or technology / gadget shows [133]. The new internet users in Ireland also account for 22% of all users of TV on Demand services, suggesting that new users are in part being attracted to the internet in order to access content offered by traditional media.

Capitalising on the significant demand for TV on Demand, the services offered by individual programmers are also experiencing surges in traffic. For example, the RTE player has been viewed by well over half a million consumers in the last 12 months, up from 140,000 in 2010.

Digital Technologies

E-Books and tablet devices seem no longer to be confined merely to the early adopters as waves of consumers across Western Europe are using the latest digital technologies. In Ireland, the 2.2% owning an e-book reader represents almost 80,000 consumers while 87,000 own a tablet computer. These devices, however, cannot yet topple the dominance of laptops and netbooks, which are owned by more than half of all consumers in Ireland, GB, France and Germany.

TGI data can also help to build a profile of the users of digital technologies, for instance women are 21% more likely to own an e-book reader while men are 32% more likely to own a tablet device. Tablet owners are 60% more likely for “products reviews to have a major influence on my purchasing decisions” while owners of an e-book reader are 60% more likely to claim that “I couldn’t live without the internet on my mobile phone”.

E-Commerce

As digital technologies become ever more sophisticated, consumers are using their devices to make online purchases for a variety of household and personal items. In Ireland, the percentage of internet users making online purchases has risen from 56% to 62% in the last 12 months. However, as the table above indicates, there is a wide discrepancy between consumers in different European markets. While the vast majority of internet users in GB and Germany (over 80%) make online purchases, only half purchase online in France and that figure falls to 42% in Spain. Ireland comes third in the rankings with almost two-thirds of internet users buying products online.

When it comes to certain product fields, however, Irish consumers are more likely to purchase online than other consumers in Western Europe. One in three consumers in ROI buy event tickets online, slightly higher than in GB and considerably higher than in France. Ireland does come out on top with online purchasing of airline tickets with 44% of Irish internet users, dwarfing the respective totals in GB, France and Germany. One possible explanation of this trend is that half of these consumers have flown Ryanair in the last 12 months where the majority of passengers book online.

Mobile Downloads

Tablet devices, e-book readers and smart phones have greatly enhanced the ability of consumers to access content on the move. Consumers in GB currently lead the way when it comes to mobile downloads with more than a quarter of all internet users downloading apps; Ireland and France are tied for second with 14% each.

In terms of the specific applications downloaded by consumers in Ireland – almost 10% of Irish internet users have downloaded social media applications. TGI data also reveals that the mobile social networkers are also more than twice as likely to “like to stand out from the crowd” and “tend to spend money without thinking about it” – making them a potentially lucrative target audience for many FMCG products.

Over 200,000 consumers, 7.3% of all Irish internet users, have downloaded news applications on their mobile phone in the past year – a higher proportion than both Germany and France. These consumers are also 50% more likely to be willing to pay for newspaper content online.

(Source: TGI Republic of Ireland 2010 – 2011, TGI Europa 2011)

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

For the first time, more than half of Irish consumers aged 15-34 access websites more than once per day – but what is driving consumers online? The main factors behind the take-up of online communications differ between age brackets: 80% of 15-34 year old internet users find out about new websites by talking to their friends, compared to just 50% of over 55s. Similarly, 15% of 35-54 year old online consumers are encouraged to explore new sites after listening to radio commercials.

Meanwhile, a third of internet users aged 55+ discover new sites by reading about them in newspapers and 21% see the website addresses at the end of TV programmes – indicating that for these consumers, traditional platforms are themselves a significant digital driver. Outdoor media also pushes consumers to digital: 113,000 consumers in the lucrative ABC1 social grade are driven to new sites via posters they have seen.

Not only are Irish consumers accessing the internet in ever increasing numbers, they are using it as a platform to engage with other consumers and brands. In the last 12 months alone, the number of internet users posting comments or reviews online about mobile phones has nearly doubled from 126,000 to 213,000. In fact, 15% of all internet users in ROI post comments or reviews about their products or services.

The growing level of consumer engagement is also reflected in social media – the past 12 months have seen an 18% rise in the number of Irish consumers regularly social networking online. Currently, 1.1 million adults, a third of the ROI population, regularly communicate via social networks. It is also interesting to note the changing social habits of internet users, for example the proportion of online consumers over 55 regularly sending email has risen from 48% to 61% in the past year, while in the same period there has been a fall in regular email use for 15-34s (from 61% to 58%).

Regular social networkers also feature prominently when it comes to word of mouth. They are, for example, 45% more likely than the average internet user to carry the power of persuasion over others when it comes to films, particularly as 23% of this group are heavy cinema goers.

The past 12 months has also seen a significant increase in the number of consumers using TV on demand services. In 2010, just 6% of internet users had watched television programmes on demand via their PCs compared to 20% in 2011. The diverse programming offered by these sites attracts a broad spectrum of internet users. For example the biggest rise in accessing TV on demand has been among over 55s, rising from 1% to 12% during the past year. Moreover, individual catch-up services have also seen significant growth with the proportion of internet users accessing the RTE player rising from 4% to 17% in just 12 months.

As internet users engage online on a more regular basis, the technology used by consumers is evolving from desktop to mobile devices.  Such is the reliance upon mobile for many Irish internet users that 22% claim they couldn’t live without the internet on their mobile phone. In fact, over 400,000 Irish adults use mobile internet at least once per day. Of those consumers that use mobile internet, 26% regularly download new applications, 20% use them to keep up with the news and 12% regularly listen to the radio (137,000 consumers).  Social media, however, has seen a dramatic rise on mobile with regular social networking rising from 14% of mobile internet consumers in 2010 to 31% in 2011.

There is a strong argument to be made for marketers to consider mobile advertising in ROI as Irish consumers are already engaging with brands this way: 17% of Irish mobile internet users  respond to mobile adverts, compared to just 13% in GB.

Consumers in the Republic of Ireland are adopting digital technologies in great numbers with those in the 15-34 age group spearheading this drive. However, traditional media are not only significant drivers of this change by pushing consumers to websites. They are also crucial to the online experience as consumers seek their content but in a more accessible format – whether it be listening to the radio on mobile, reading newspapers online or watching TV on demand.

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

Local print media maintaining momentum in Northern Ireland

Marketers will undoubtedly be encouraged that consumers in Northern Ireland continue to value local newspapers, with the latest TGI data revealing that a standard campaign using only seven day press or four week online local media vehicles still has the potential to reach at least 59% of NI adults. Moreover, 47% of consumers in NI are very interested in reading about local news in their newspapers – up from 38% in 2008. A third of consumers in Northern Ireland also “believe what is in the local paper more than national newspapers” – compared to just 24% who agree in GB, demonstrating the importance of locality to the Northern Irish consumer.

The closure of the News of the World also brings an unexpected opportunity for rival newspapers, including local titles, to boost their readership. A third of the News of the World’s 330,000 readers in Northern Ireland in 2010 did not read any other Sunday publication and 70% of this group almost always buy a Sunday newspaper.

As far as magazines are concerned, readership has remained fairly stable over the past three years, but when compared to 2007 figures, there has been a rise of over 100,000 magazine readers. There has also been a significant rise in the number of consumers reading at least five magazines, with this group up 70,000 in five years and now representing 17% of the total NI population.

The drive to digital among magazine readers is still relatively slow, with just 3% of magazine readers regularly visiting magazine websites, preferring instead to read through printed copies. However, as magazines continue to launch applications for iPad and android tablet computers, we can expect online versions of magazines to become increasingly attractive to magazine readers – particularly as NI consumers that read at least three magazines per month are over a third more likely to own a tablet.

Sunday’s the night for television advertisers

Recently, terrestrial channels have loaded their Sunday night schedules with ratings hits such as Downton Abbey and the X Factor results show. Northern Irish consumers have responded in turn, as now almost one in two consumers watch a terrestrial TV channel between 8pm and 11pm on a Sunday evening, up 11% in two years. The number of consumers watching Sunday evening television is now on a par with Saturday prime time – providing advertisers with a wider array of worthwhile slots to showcase their products.

The profile of weekend television viewers has also changed in the past two years with the younger and affluent audience steadily shifting from Saturday nights to Sundays. The proportion of 15-24 year olds watching Sunday evening television has risen from 32% in 2009 to 37% in 2011, while at the same time there has been a slight fall in the number of younger viewers tuning in on a Saturday primetime. Perhaps most crucially, however, is the emerging trend whereby consumers in the lucrative AB social grade are switching off their sets on a Saturday night (falling from 63% to 58%) and tuning in on a Sunday evening, which has seen viewership rise in this grade by almost 20,000 in the past 12 months alone.

While younger viewers are increasingly turning off their televisions on a Saturday night, 26% of 15-24 year olds now describe themselves as “regular cinema goers”. In fact, there are 20,000 more 15-24 year old consumers visiting the cinema than in 2009. This is coupled with a rise in the number of consumers claiming to “prefer seeing films in the cinema more than on TV”.

Local vocal: the importance of regional talk radio in Northern Ireland

Northern Irish consumers are particularly keen radio listeners with 58% claiming to “listen to the radio every day”. Consumers in NI are also heavier radio listeners than their counterparts in GB: 33% listen to at least 10.5 hours of radio per week (BBC and commercial) compared to 28% in Britain.
Commercial radio has picked up around 40,000 listeners in the past 12 months and for the first time in five years, more than half of the adult NI population listen to a commercial station at least once a week. The past 12 months has also seen important rises in listeners tuning into local entertainment shows and phone-ins, with these genres rising by 40,000 and 20,000 listeners respectively. It also appears that the NI consumer is more disposed to local radio with 40% agreeing that “I prefer local radio because it covers local news”, compared to only 30% agreeing with the same statement in GB.

Outdoor: stopping consumers in their tracks

Out-of-home advertising continues to represent a flexible option for media planners in NI as part of a mixed-media campaign. 79% of Irish adults (and 83% of full-time workers) recall seeing some form of outdoor or ambient advertising in the past week. In fact, half of all adults in the social grade ABC1 saw large posters at the side of roads or buildings in the last week, while 53% of consumers aged 15-24 recall seeing advertising on the side of a bus – up from 40% in 2008.

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

Although the announcement has been billed as a landmark moment for television advertisers, it remains to be seen how commercial TV broadcasters intend to incorporate product placement into their advertising offer. TGI Ireland data can equip marketers and media owners with the insights to identify those consumers that are most likely to be influenced by product placement and advertising in general, helping these stakeholders to effectively use product placement during its infancy in Irish television.

Ireland is perhaps already well-suited to product placement as 42% of Irish television viewers claim to “often notice products or brands that appear in TV programmes” compared to only 34% of British TV viewers. 25 – 34 year olds make-up the highest proportion of those that notice products or brands in TV programmes. The chart below shows the how younger viewers in both Ireland and GB claim to be more perceptive when it comes to product or brand placement, compared to older viewers.

Meanwhile the heaviest consumers of television (viewing at least 40 hours of television per week) are 22% more likely to often notice products or brands in TV shows or films. As heavier viewers, those that notice product placement are also exposed to a wider array of TV programmes: 85% have a subscription with Sky or UPC and 24% watch at least 3 hours of recorded TV per week. In fact, more than 90% of Irish consumers watching three or more hours of recorded TV fast forward through the advertisements – making product placement an efficient means of reaching this demographic.

Television viewers that often notice products or brands in TV programmes are 75% more likely to definitely agree that “TV advertising is interesting and quite often it gives me something to talk about.” Meanwhile, they are also 31% more likely to definitely agree that they “enjoy adverts as much as the programmes.” This would suggest that those TV viewers with a sharp eye for product placement on Irish TV are already generally positive towards advertising. So while advertisers may be assessing the merits of allocating part of their budgets to product placement, the consumers that are most likely to pick-up on this, are also those that are receptive to traditional advertising campaigns.

Sky Living & Tresemmé: A perfect fit?

One of the first deals struck by Sky following the BAI’s decision to permit paid product placement on Irish television, is Tresemmé’s sponsorship of “Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model”, broadcast on Sky Living in a deal that will include product placement.
ROI TGI data suggests a good match between the shampoo brand and lifestyle TV channel as 95,000 subscribers to Sky use Tresemmé products and Tresemmé consumers are 35% more likely than average to list Sky Living as their favourite TV channel. Moreover, almost half of all Tresemmé users claim to often notice products or brands that appear in TV programmes or films – 9% more likely than the average female main shopper.

When it comes to sponsoring television programmes and product placement, there is a close match between Sky Living viewers and Tresemme users. Both sets of consumers are more likely than average to often notice products and brands that appear in TV programmes while the female shampoo brand will be most encouraged that their own consumers and Sky Living viewers are more than 20% more likely than the average female main shopper to tend to buy products from companies who sponsor TV programmes.

Featured in the Irish Marketing Journal.

The latest TGI data shows that median average TV viewing in Ireland is 18 hours a week, compared to 20 hours a week in GB. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), Irish adults are more likely to think of themselves as TV addicts. The good news for advertisers is that Irish adults are much more likely than people in Britain to find TV advertising interesting and something to talk about.

Based on agreement with this statement, the most receptive TGI Lifestage groups are Fledglings (15-34, single, no children, live with parents), Empty Nesters (55+, married or living as a couple, children have left home), and Senior Sole Decision Makers (55+, not married and live alone). Potentially lucrative Empty Nesters are 20% more likely to find TV advertising interesting.

2010 saw the TV on demand audience grow rapidly on the back of events such as the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Half a million Irish adults have used TVOD to date and 240,000 watch TV for one hour or more a week using the service. Although most popular amongst 15-24s, the service also attracts a significant proportion of 25-34s.

In Ireland the majority of TVOD viewers (60%) access services through their TV set, with 30% using a PC. More broadly, though, 400,000 Irish adults admit to watching TV online. Again, 15-24s are the age group most likely to do so and their early adopter status remains particularly pronounced in Ireland. Here, a quarter of 15-24s have watched TV online and 18% do so regularly – compared to only 7% of the 25-34 age group.

Overall, two-thirds of Irish adults ‘prefer’ to watch television programmes at the time they are broadcast, rather than record them. Almost half of adults say they often record a programme on TV then don’t get a chance to watch it. Time poor ABC1s are more likely to watch recorded TV, with Irish ABs 24% more likely to watch an hour or more a week (compared to the national average). Busy and outgoing 25-34s are the age group most likely to watch an hour or more of recorded TV each week.

Base: All adults

Source: TGI Republic of Ireland, TGI GB

Today 60% of Irish adults think it is important to be attractive to the opposite sex, up from 40% in 2000, according to the latest data from TGI. There has been a similar increase in the proportion of adults who think it’s important to keep young-looking, up from 40% to 49% over the same period.

Although these upward trends have been driven by changes in the attitudes of both women and men, traditional disparities remain. Men are more likely than women to think it’s important to be attractive to the opposite sex (65% versus 55%), while women are more likely than men to think it’s important to keep-young looking (58% versus 41%). Overall, women continue to represent three-quarters of those who ‘spend a lot’ on toiletries and cosmetics for personal use.

In Ireland the average woman spends €14 a month on skincare and a similar (slightly lower) amount on cosmetics. In terms of TGI Lifestage, those who spend the most on cosmetics are women from the Fledgling group (15-34, single, no children, living with parents), averaging €16 a month. Those who spend the most on skincare are Independent Individuals (15-54, single, do not live with relations), again averaging €16 a month.

Women tend to use more skincare and cosmetic brands per product category than their male counterparts. Thirty-five per cent of women use on average two or more brands per category compared to only 23% of men. A fifth of women display what TGI defines as a ‘heavy’ usage repertoire for toiletries and cosmetics, averaging more than 2.5 brands per category.

Since 2000 the number of women using cleansing creams, wipes and toners has climbed strongly from 68% to 83% today. The proportion using body creams and lotions has increased from 66% to 85%, and the proportion using eye make-up has increased from 54% to 77%. For men the trends are less clear cut. The proportion using face cream or lotion has been fairly stable through most of the decade at just under 40%.

The media consumption of women who ‘spend a lot’ on toiletries and cosmetics is skewed towards magazines and cinema. Almost 90% read magazines and they are 80% more likely to read at least five magazines each month. Meanwhile they are 55% more likely than the average to be heavy cinema-goers (once a month or more).

Word of mouth is particularly important for this group. Women who ‘spend a lot’ on toiletries and cosmetics are 50% more likely to talk to many other people about toiletries. They are also twice as likely to have a lot of knowledge about this sector and twice as likely to be confident of their ability to convince others.

In today’s image-conscious society the beauty sector appears to be relatively well placed. The number of women visiting beauty salons has risen from 760,000 in 2008 to 830,000 today (from 43% to 47% of the population). A fifth of women and 7% of men say they would consider having cosmetic surgery. Moreover, the proportion of adults who sometimes ‘treat’ themselves to something they don’t need now stands at 69%, up from 61% at the start of the decade. Of course, for many people ‘looking good’ is now more of an essential than a luxury.