Recession – and daily life!

Belinda Beeftink, IPA associate director, on changes to consumer behaviour in light of the recession – as revealed by TouchPoints data…

The IPA’s TouchPoints survey has been asking a representative sample of around 5000 adults in GB about their daily lives since 2006, updated every two years. We are in a unique position to be able to track how life has changed through these last few years of recession.

Back in 2006 we asked people about how stressed they were, if they felt they were working longer hours and if they watched the pennies when they went shopping. 72% of adults agreed that life was more stressful, 30% agreed that they worked longer hours these days and 61% agreed that if they watch the pennies when they are shopping, the pounds would look after themselves.

By 2012 the stress levels appear to have fallen! Only 47% of adults agreed that they are feeling more stressed these days. Those who agreed that they work longer hours remained steady at 30% and the number of canny shoppers has grown with 67% of all adults agreeing that they look for the lowest possible prices when they go shopping.

If we compare the last couple of years 2010 and 2012, when we were definitely in recession, we see some interesting changes. In 2010, 62% of adults agreed that they shop around to take advantage of special offers. By 2012 that figure had grown to 68%.

Back in 2010, 54% of us agreed that “I have tightened my belt significantly in terms of what I spend on different things”. By 2012 this figure had risen to 57%.

62% of us agreed in 2010 that we were coping on our current income; by 2012 this figure remained relatively unchanged at 63%.

So we are much keener to look out for special offers these days when we are shopping in a shop or shopping online but only 11% of us agree that we often use cashback sites.

Nearly a quarter of us agree that we actively look for money off vouchers when shopping and nearly two thirds of us agree that we shop around to get the best deals.

There are some upsides to recession. Nearly 20% of us agree that the recession has made supporting our local community more important. But over half of us fear the future and agree that we worry about the future more these days.

Nearly 60% of us agree that we try and buy fewer things and a quarter of us agree that we often share tips with friends on how to save money.

So how does the recession, all this belt tightening and searching for good offers affect how positive we are about life? Back in 2006, 65% of us agreed that we were optimistic about life. By 2012 this figure has fallen to 55%.

Back in 2008 we asked people for the first time whether they agreed that they like to enjoy life and don’t worry about the future – 39% agreed that they did! By 2012 this figure had dropped to 34%.

Spending time with family remains constant and important with 86% of us agreeing that we enjoy spending time with our families back in 2008 and again in 2012. Indeed today despite recession, 63% of us agree that we are satisfied with our lives at the moment.

We also ask respondents to score their mood level by half hour through the day. The top quintile of good mood has dropped across the past three surveys, from three hours 34 minutes per day in 2008, to three hours and eight minutes a day in 2012.

In 2012 for the first time we asked people to tell us how they are feeling in any given half hour using some emoticons. The good news is that we tend to be happy for most of the time. Looking at worried vs. happy you can see that the time we spend being worried is much less, and peaks at around 10 in the morning.

So what effect has recession had on our sense of wellbeing? While our stress levels appear to have fallen we are smarter shoppers, careful to look out for low prices and to shop around for what we want.

In the main most people think that they are coping on their current income level and supporting local community has become more important. We are slightly less optimistic about life and we are a bit more cautious about the future, but overall we are pretty happy!

For more information about TouchPoints please visit www.ipatouchpoints.co.uk