••• country focus: china
Nielsen study gets the dirt on cleaning in China
Men pitching in to help
Results from a Nielsen survey examining home cleaning and laundry habits show that one-third of Chinese respondents (33 percent) say they clean every day and nearly half of the respondents (46 percent) say they do laundry daily.
While 44 percent of Chinese respondents say the female head of household does the majority of cleaning, that’s not to say men aren’t sharing in the load: 33 percent people say house cleaning is a shared responsibility between the two heads of the household, which is higher than global average of28 percent, and 14 percent of respondents say men do the majority of cleaning. Responsibility for product purchasing largely mirrors who is doing the cleaning– with even greater female influence. More than half of Chinese respondents (55percent) say the female head of household buys the majority of cleaning products, nearly one-quarter (24 percent) say it’s a shared responsibility and slightly fewer (17 percent) say the male head of household is responsible for the majority of purchasing.
“The perception that home care is only women’s work is inaccurate,” says Tina Ding, vice president of Nielsen China. “The female head of household remains a key stakeholder in the cleaning process in many homes but as more men play an active role in housework, marketing strategies need to reflect a more balanced approach – from product innovations to marketing messages. This will require a deeper understanding of how each gender approaches the task of cleaning and where gaps in current offerings may exist.”
Modern retailers come out on top in every region as the self-reported place to purchase cleaning products. A majority (83 percent) of Chinese respondents say they purchased household cleaning products from a large in-store retail chain (such as a mass merchandiser or hypermarket) in the past12 months. Still, e-commerce is an important purchasing channel for cleaning products in China. Forty-three percent of respondents in China say they have purchased household-cleaning supplies from an online retailer in the past 12 months, far higher than the global average of 23 percent.
“Distribution is the top driver of product trial, and it is positively correlated with product volume,” says Ding. “Presently, e-commerce accounts for only a small share of household products sales but it is growing rapidly, particularly in Asia. As increasing economic prosperity in the region drives sales of household cleaners, establishing and maintaining strong relationships with both brick-and- mortar and pure-play online retailers will be important for capitalizing on this growth.”
Respondents in Asia-Pacific are also inclined to shop at traditional stores. Four in 10 respondents in the region say they’ve purchased cleaning products from a small, family-owned shop during the past 12 months, 10 percentage points above the global average.
It should come as no surprise that efficiency and value top the list of most important attributes in a home cleaning product. Fifty-eight percent of Chinese respondents say performance (it cleans well) is very important when selecting a household cleaning product. In addition, 41 percent say good price/value is very important. Nearly four in 10 (38 percent) Chinese respondents say a trusted brand name is very important, while slightly fewer (36 percent) say a previous experience is very important when selecting household-cleaning products is very important.
And secondary attributes should not be overlooked. Nearly three in 10 respondents say packaging that is easy to use or store (28 percent) or that comes in a size that fits their family’s needs (25 percent) is very important. In addition, some consumers are leaning green. Thirty-one percent of Chinese respondents say organic/all-natural ingredients are very important, and23 percent say environmentally friendly/sustainable packaging is very important.
Chinese consumers purchasing laundry detergent also list performance as a top attribute when making a choice – 70 percent say they seek detergents that are best at getting stains out. More than half (57 percent) say they look for high-efficiency products (i.e., products that require less water) and 46 percent say they’re looking for detergents they can use on multiple types of items. Over one-third (40 percent) of Chinese respondents say they seek detergents that don’t contain harsh chemicals and slightly fewer (35 percent) want environmentally-friendly detergents.
••• employment research
HR leaders fret over burnout
Too many barriers affecting retention
The biggest threat to building an engaged workforce in 2017 is employee burnout. The newest study in the Employee Engagement Series, conducted by Kronos Incorporated, a Chelmsford, Mass., provider of workplace management tools and services, and Future Workplace, found 95 percent of human resource leaders admit employee burnout is sabotaging workforce retention, yet there is no obvious solution on the horizon.
In this national survey, 614 HR leaders – including chief human resource officers, vice presidents of HR, HR directors and HR managers from organizations with 100 to 2,500+ employees – provided a candid look at how burnout drives turnover, what causes it and why there is no easy solution despite 87 percent of respondents calling improved retention a high/critical priority.
Organizations “churn and burn” talent, making it tough to build an engaged workforce. According to the survey, nearly half of HR leaders (46percent) say employee burnout is responsible for up to half (20 to 50 percent,specifically) of their annual workforce turnover. Almost 10 percent blame employee burnout for causing more than 50 percent of workforce turnover each year. Though burnout touches organizations of all sizes, larger organizations seem to suffer more. One in five HR leaders at organizations with 100 to 500 employees cited burnout as the cause of 10 percent or less of their turnover while 15 percent of HR leaders at organizations larger than 2,500 employees say burnout causes 50 percent or more of annual turnover.
Too much work and too little pay are problematic but many issues fueling burnout are in HR’s control. Unfair compensation (41 percent),unreasonable workload (32 percent) and too much overtime/after-hours work (32percent) are the top three contributors to burnout, per the study. Still, HR leaders also identified key burnout factors falling under talent management,employee development and leadership that should be in their control, including poor management (30 percent), employees seeing no clear connection of their role to corporate strategy (29 percent) and a negative workplace culture (26percent). Insufficient technology for employees to do their jobs was identified by 20 percent of HR leaders as another primary cause of burnout. This is more prevalent at larger organizations with more than 2,500 employees, where it was cited by 27 percent of respondents.
There are significant barriers preventing HR from improving retention in 2017. Despite 87 percent of HR leaders calling improved retention a critical or high priority over the next five years, one-fifth (20 percent)said there are too many competing priorities to focus on fixing the issue in2017. Outdated HR technology is another problem: nearly one out of every five HR leaders (19 percent) reported their current tech as being too manual, i.e.,lacking automation of repetitive administrative tasks – detracting from their ability to act strategically to fix big problems. The C-suite must step up their commitment, too, according to HR leaders in the study, who say lack of executive support (14 percent) and a lack of organizational vision (13 percent) are additional obstacles to improving retention in 2017.
Despite well-documented costs of employee turnover, organizations are more apt to invest in recruiting new employees as opposed to retaining existing talent. The survey found that 97 percent of HR leaders are planning to increase their investment in recruiting technology by the year 2020, including nearly a quarter (22 percent) who anticipate a 30 to 50 percent increase in such spending. However, budget was continually cited by HR leaders as a deterrent to programs that would benefit retention of existing talent. This includes 16 percent who say a lack of budget is the primary obstacle to improving employee retention in the next 12 months; 15 percent who say a lack of funding is the biggest challenge to improving employee engagement; and 27 percent who say funding is the biggest hurdle to implementing new HR-related technology, such as tools that would reduce manual or administrative work to act more strategically.
••• b2b research
Commerce systems holding B2B firms back
Need to keep pace with the digital-savvy
As reported by Helen Leggatt of BizReports, CloudCraze’s 2017 B2BDigital Commerce Imperative Study shows that many B2B organizations rely on outdated and inflexible commerce systems, leaving a significant gap between customer expectations and customer experiences. In fact, in the survey of 200B2B and B2C businesses with an online presence, Chicago-based commerce platform CloudCraze found that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) were running on commerce platforms that are more than two years old, “demonstrating a lag in the implementation of sophisticated digital offerings,” the report says.
This lag means that, while 55 percent of business buyers expect mobile access to a seller’s commerce platform, and 52 percent expect convenient payment processes, most B2B commerce systems don’t provide these offerings. Asa result, businesses have missed out on revenue. Seventy percent of businesses say they have lost a business deal because of an ordering-specific pain point and 31 percent say they’ve missed out on at least $2 million in sales.
More than one-quarter (27 percent) of B2B organizations plan to spend at least $2 million in the next year on improvements to their commerce systems. The survey found industries are at different stages of digital commerce maturity and each face a unique set of challenges based on the needs of their target buyers.
Manufacturers. Overall, the manufacturing industry is accommodating the complex needs of its customers better than any other B2B industry. The study found that 54 percent of manufacturers say their customers find their online experience very satisfactory, compared to 44 percent across industries.
However, many manufacturers are still operating with inflexible,on-premise systems, causing inefficiencies when it comes to servicing their buyers across sales channels, especially with low-volume customers. As a result, manufacturers are more likely to experience cost inefficiencies than other industries (45 percent versus 37 percent).
Eighty percent of manufacturers have lost a business deal due to customer pain points compared to 37 percent on average across industries. This illustrates the detrimental impact that poor digital experiences can have on a business’s bottom line.
Health care and life sciences. B2B organizations in the health care and life sciences industry are least likely to say buyers require mobile access, quick access to sales representatives, advanced pricing or customized pricing of any industry. The highly complex nature of its products and customer relationships have been a major contributor to the slow development of digital capabilities and expectations.
Health care businesses are most likely to experience pain points when it comes to platform speed-to-market, often caused by the combination of outdated, inflexible systems and the industry’s strict regulatory procedures.Cloud-based solutions can expedite deployment and support sales teams working with complex customer needs, while meeting the complex regulatory and security requirements of this industry.
Software and media technology. While software and media technology sellers ranked themselves as average to above average in addressing their buyers’ needs, the survey found that they were the least able to accommodate complex pricing and ordering requirements of their customers across industries, attributable to the variable, complex nature of subscription-based models. To solve for this, businesses of this field need commerce systems that can handle the industry’s diverse revenue models and can support flexible marketing, promotions and ongoing changes to those supporting models.
B2B in retail. Many retailers in B2B double asB2C stores, such as Staples or Grainger, and therefore allocate much of their resources to support development of consumer-facing commerce platforms. As a result, their platforms are ahead of the curve in offering customer-centric commerce features, such as mobile payment options. But these companies often don’t support the complex needs of B2B transactions. The study found the B2Bretail industry faces challenges providing a seamless, omnichannel customer experience (44 percent) and is most likely to report customers struggle with order replenishment capabilities (39 percent). As a result, retailers in B2Bare turning to SaaS solutions to increase the flexibility of their commerce offerings.
“With digital-savvy consumers fast becoming the professionals inB2B buyer decision-making roles, every B2B industry must be optimized for digital commerce in the next five years,” says Chris Dalton, CEO at CloudCraze.“B2B companies are smart to get ahead of this digital transformation and prepare for the fully-digital world that awaits them.”
••• shopper insights
Gen Z still likes to shop in stores
Young in age, old in values
Despite expectations that the first “digitally native” generation would want to shop online, a new study released by IBM and the National Retail Federation found that almost all members of Generation Z prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores. With the global Gen Z population set to reach 2.6 billion by 2020, retailers need to create more interactive engagement around their brands to serve the “always on,” mobile-focused, high-spending demographic, according to the study.
“Generation Z expects technology to be intuitive, relevant and engaging – their last great experience is their new expectation,” says IBM General Manager of Global Consumer Industries Steve Laughlin. “This presents a significant challenge for retailers and brands to create a personalized, interactive experience with the latest digital advances or risk falling behind. This kind of innovation is not linear or a one-time project – it is a new way of thinking, operating and behaving.”
“Just as Millennials overtook Gen X, there’s another big buying group retailers need to plan for, and it’s even larger: Generation Z,” says Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO. “They appreciate the hands-on experience of shopping in a store. With technology constantly evolving but some shopping habits remaining the same, retailers need to be agile enough to serve both needs. Retailers are constantly focused on experimenting with new innovations both online and in-store to remain relevant to evolving consumer demand.”
The Uniquely Gen Z study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value is based on findings from more than 15,000 consumers aged 13-21from 16 countries. Born after the mid-1990s till early 2000s, Generation Z is the first digitally native group to grow up not knowing a world before cellular phones, smartphones and other digital devices. But the study found that 67 percent of Generation Z shop in a brick-and-mortar store most of the time, with another 31 percent shopping in-store sometimes, indicating that 98 percent of Gen Z shop in store.
The new generation is important to retailers because it has access to $44 billion in buying power, with 75 percent saying they spend more than half of the money that is available to them each month, according to the study. And the generation is demanding: The study found 52percent of Gen Z consumers will transfer loyalty from one brand to another if the brand’s quality is not up to par. They care the most about retailers getting the basics right, with 66 percent saying product quality and availability are the most important factors when choosing one brand over another; 65 percent focus on value.
The study found 74 percent of respondents spend their free time online, with 25 percent online five hours or more each day. The degree to which in-store sales are influenced by digital is inevitable in today’s shopping journey – and continues to grow. The study discovered a number of insights into Gen Z’s digital habits and preferences brands can leverage to reach them:
Seventy-three percent of Gen Z use their phones primarily to text and chat socially with family and friends but members are willing to extend their conversations to brand relationships. Thirty-six percent would create digital content for a brand, 42 percent would participate in an online game for a campaign and 43 percent would participate in a product review.
They have no patience for hard-to-use technology and demand a seamless mobile/digital experience: 62 percent will not use apps or Web sites that are difficult to navigate and 60 percent will not use apps or Web sites that are slow to load.
Gen Z knows personal information is valuable to retailers, so members want to know how brands are using it and how the information will be protected. Less than 30 percent are willing to share health and wellness, location, personal life or payment information; 61 percent would feel better sharing personal information if they knew it would be securely stored and protected.
The study found that Generation Z consumers like to engage with brands online, especially with those that create an interactive environment where customers can shape their own experience. As retailers develop and engage in such practices, they will be able to capture Gen Z ideas for new products, services, engagement and shopping experiences, the study said. The generation is known to be brand champions both online and offline, especially when brands acknowledge and value their opinions.
••• hispanic research
More acculturation, more pets?
Hispanic pet ownership on the rise
Over the past decade, the number of Hispanics in the U.S. with pets in their homes skyrocketed from 11 million to 20 million as the pet ownership rate among Latinos grew from 40 percent to 55 percent between 2007 and 2016, according to market research firm Packaged Facts in the report Hispanics as Pet Market Consumers.
This exceptional growth rate is due not only to the rapid growth of the Hispanic population but also to the accelerating degree of Hispanic acculturation. Hispanics as Pet Market Consumers reveals that pet ownership has become a marker of increasing acculturation within the Latino population. A substantial majority (64 percent) of highly acculturated Latinos (defined as those who are U.S.-born with at least one parent born in the United States) own pets. The 48 percent pet ownership rate among foreign-born, Spanish-dominant Latinos pales in comparison.
As a result, the profile of Latino pet owners is increasingly skewed in the direction of Hispanics who are relatively more acculturated. Highly-acculturated Latinos account for just 27 percent of adult Latinos but fully 32 percent of Latino pet owners. Foreign-born, Spanish-dominant Hispanics represent 35 percent of all Latino adult consumers but just 31 percent of Latino pet owners. In all, highly-acculturated Hispanics and foreign-born Latinos who are bilingual or English-dominant constitute 65 percent of the adult Hispanic population but 69 percent of Hispanic pet owners.
As more acculturated Hispanics continue to make up a larger and larger share of a rapidly expanding Hispanic population, the number of Hispanic pet owners will continue to grow exponentially. Packaged Facts projects that between 2016 and 2021 Latinos will account for half of the growth in the pet owner population. The growth trajectory of Hispanic pet ownership means that pet industry marketers have no choice but to focus not only on what differentiates Latino pet owners from other pet owners but also from other Hispanics.
To begin, when selecting a pet, Hispanics make different choices.Compared to other pet owners, Latino pet owners are much less likely to bring a cat into their home (29 percent vs. 45 percent), are more likely to have a dog(79 percent vs. 75 percent) and, even more distinctively, are more likely to have pets other than cats or dogs. Compared to non-Hispanic pet owners,Hispanics are more than three times as likely (16 percent vs. 5 percent) to own birds. They make up 15 percent of the pet owner population but 34 percent of all bird owners. Latino pet owners also are somewhat more likely to favor reptiles (5 percent vs. 3 percent) or fish (11 percent vs. 10 percent).
Packaged Facts’ National Pet Owner Survey data reveal other distinguishing characteristics of Latino pet owners. For example, Hispanics are more likely than non-Hispanics to want to have a pet they can take with them more places (50 percent vs. 42 percent), a preference no doubt related to the fact that Latino dog owners are more likely to choose toy or very small dogs weighing under eight pounds (16 percent vs. 10 percent). Hispanic pet owners are much more likely to use social media to let their friends and family in on their lives with their pets (50 percent vs. 40 percent) and to believe that“having a pet is a good way to get ready for having a family” (58 percent vs. 45 percent).
Marketers reaching out to Latino pet owners need to understand the implications of the tilt of the population of Latino pet owners in the direction of more acculturated Latinos. Hispanic pet owners are less connected than other Latinos to key aspects of Hispanic culture. They are less likely to turn to Spanish-language media, depend on Spanish-language labels or be influenced by Spanish-language advertising.
Marketers also should acknowledge the special importance of Millennials within the Latino pet owner population because they represent 43percent of Latino pet owners compared to just 30 percent of non-Hispanic pet owners. On average, Millennial Hispanic pet owners are even further along the acculturation spectrum that Hispanic pet owners on average. They are much more likely than older Hispanic pet owners to have been born in the United States (66 percent vs. 39 percent) and to speak predominantly English at home (50 percent vs. 37 percent). As a result, they are even less likely to watch Spanish-language television (42 percent vs 58 percent) or to be influenced by Spanish-language ads (19 percent vs. 28 percent).
As shoppers, Millennial Hispanic pet owners reflect the habits of their generation. For example, they are more likely than older Latino pet owners or non-Hispanic pet owners of any age to use a smartphone app for shopping. They also are more likely to buy products they see advertised on their cellphones.