Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Shopper and Consumer Insight
The beginning of the year brought some surprising good news for retailers: retail sales (excluding automotive) rebounded in January and February.  While the figures were not earth-shattering – sales grew 1 percent and January and 0.7 percent in February – they were significant improvements on the last four months of 2008, where declines ranged from 1.2 percent to 3.1 percent.

Using data collected by the Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel, we saw improved trip performance in the first two months of the year in …

Organic products – which are often priced at a premium over non-organic products – have taken a sales hit over the last 12 months as consumers have cut back discretionary spending, according to new analysis by Nielsen’s Director of Industry Insights, Tom Pirovano.  In March 2008, monthly sales of organic products grew 24 percent; a year later, growth almost came to a standstill of 1 percent, marking a dramatic shift from previous monthly growth rates of more than 30 percent seen in 2005 and 2006.
[click to enlarge graph]

“The recession and …

Global declines in consumer activity appear to be moderating or hitting bottom, according to the new edition of the Nielsen Economic Current, which is based on the company’s key consumer trend data as well economic data to create a concise indicator of consumer behavior.  Out of the 11 major GDP countries, only Germany showed an increase in consumer behavior in February.
“Consumers worldwide appear to be in a holding pattern and we see evidence that consumer spending might be positioned to turn around,” said James Russo, Vice President Global Consumer Insights …

Global consumer confidence has reached an all-time low, according to the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index [download]. Thrifty habits being formed during the downturn will carry over into the recovery.
In the past six months, the index has plummeted to a record low 77 points from 84 points. The catalyst: Latin America, Russia and other emerging nations are now feeling the full effects of a recession that began in the United States, officially, in December.
Though consumer anxieties about the economy take many forms, the most widespread fear centers on job loss. …

Matt O’Grady, President, Nielsen Claritas
New data makes it clearer than ever: the U.S. is in a white-collar recession.
In the news and in our minds we understandably think of lower-to-middle income households as being the hardest hit victims of the housing, credit crisis, and the ensuing loss of jobs. But as we look back on a full year of recession, surprising patterns emerge that indicate higher-income households have been proportionately hit harder.
Since the beginning of last year, there has been a shift in household credit, according to an analysis of Nielsen’s …

Indians tend to be optimistic by default: there is a popular adage that “whatever is happening, that is for the good!”  But Indians have cause to be optimistic in the current economic environment as the global recession seems to only have just brushed India thus far.  According to Nielsen’s consumer confidence index for the second half of 2008, India had one of the highest rankings among the 52 markets the company conducted its survey.
The survey found that 77 percent of Indian respondents considered the state of their personal finances to …

Baby Boomers may be the perfect catch for advertisers in this unstable economy, according to new research from Nielsen.  Not only are Baby Boomers spending the lion’s share of consumer packaged goods, but are also watching more TV and spending more time on the Internet than Millenials age 18-44. Boomers watch 39 hours of TV per week compared to only 27 hours a week for Millenials.   Boomers also use the Internet almost 7 hours per week compared to 6 hours a week those for those 18-44.  Read the full study here.
More …

Tom Pirovano, Director, Industry Insights
Sales of store brands, or private label products, began to spike in 2007 just as we were seeing the first signs of an economic downturn. At first, these private label sales were driven by higher commodity prices, but volume growth began to catch up with dollar growth in mid-2008. As the economy continues to struggle, more and more consumers are replacing their branded products with private label equivalents. Store brands are up 10% to $84.4 billion in annual sales across categories …

A recent video made by two rogue and rude Domino’s employees left a bad taste in the mouth of customers who watched it. But, thanks to some social media tipsters, Domino’s was able to issue their own YouTube response quickly as a remedy to the potentially brand damaging viral video. The buzz online about the brand spiked during the crisis.

Patrick Doyle, President, Domino’s U.S.A., thanked the online community for the tip in his video and the brand also created a twitter account @dpzinfo to communicate.

Home prices around the U.S. appreciated enormously in the first seven years of the decade, but declines over the last two years now dominate the headlines. But which markets showed the biggest early gains and largest recent dip? According to analysis by Nielsen Claritas of 254 counties with populations of a 250K or more found that counties in California and Florida dominated both categories.
Top 10 Counties with the Highest Percentage Decrease in Median Home Value from 2007-09

Rank
County
% Change from 2000-07
%Change 2007-09

1
Merced Cty, CA
192.0%
-37.6%

2
San Joaquin Cty, CA
185.9%
-36.1%

3
Stanislaus …