As we focus our attention on 2010, clearly the global marketplace is redefining itself. Not only in economic terms but more importantly in consumer terms. Consumers are more diverse, demanding and connected than ever before. To help give you a clearer look into what’s ahead, Nielsen has assembled videos from our global team to deliver insights into what consumers watch and what they buy. With evidence of a recovery emerging, understanding the global trends and local conditions is essential to success.

The primary benefit of taking vitamins and supplements, according to more than 60 percent of those surveyed, was to boost the immune system, a response most common in Asia.  In the U.S., 62 percent of respondents said they took vitamins and supplements to ensure a balanced diet, a response only matched by Japan with 60 percent.

Regions where vitamin and supplement usage was lowest was Europe (30%) and Latin America (28%), with France and Spain bringing up the bottom with only 17 percent and 13 percent of consumers saying that they take vitamins and supplements. The primary reason for not taking vitamins was that their diets were already balanced and saw no need to take them. Interestingly, consumers in Poland, Russia and the Baltic states felt that “it is too difficult to understand which product to use,” suggesting an opportunity for marketers to refine their message in these markets.

• Same category, different market: often requires a different shopper strategy — While some universal truths exist within categories across borders, success of activation strategies relate to a variety of factors such as local culture, evolving retailer dynamics, pre-store/in-store decision-making, historical promotion strategy, etc. Nielsen’s cross market and cross-category Shopper Modality studies reveal significant differences in levels of category involvement, experimentation and choice drivers.
• In-store is usually not the best place to start selling — A huge amount of shopper decision-making is made on auto-pilot. Nielsen DeltaQual^TM tells us that shoppers don’t evaluate all products in-store to make the “perfect” choice-they accept the acceptable, according to sub-conscious choice rules which become ingrained over time to form habitual shopping behavior.
• The best shopper activation strategy is to meet consumer needs – Success is more about meeting consumer needs rather than hitting price points. Ensure an appropriate consumer fit for pack size/count/variety/range through understanding occasionality and/or needs-and as those needs change overtime, build in flexibility to adapt.
• Too many promotions are detrimental to brand and category health in the longer term — Scale and frequency of promotions will set up shopper expectations and create a behavior in shoppers which encourages deal-seeking. Empirical data shows that the more shoppers get used to the deals offered by sales and promotions, the more resistant they are to paying full price.
• Siting matters as much as depth of discount for in-store promotions — On average, feature and display alone provides 66% of sales uplift regardless of discounts offered. Focus investments on securing site rather than diluting price point, and shift the discussion and quantify the opportunity with a discount versus no discount.
• Shopper perceptions do not always equal reality — It’s not always about reality, but what consumers believe. Align in-store execution with consumer perceptions-or address the root cause of perceptions: deeply-held beliefs can be hard to overcome.

These and other shopper truths will be explored in greater detail in the April edition of Consumer Insight.

According to a global survey conducted by Nielsen and the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry (AESGP), U.S. consumers place more importance on price and value when choosing over-the-counter (OTC) medications than consumers in other countries throughout Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East. 

Thirty percent of U.S. consumers consider price to be important when choosing OTC products, while only 17% of global consumers do, Nielsen reported. Only Japanese consumers place more importance on price (33%).

And while just 15% of global consumers consider whether the product is a good value for money, one-quarter of Americans consider this factor being purchasing an OTC medication.

“With increasing medical costs and a fragile economy, the U.S. consumer is more price and value centric than ever,” Matt Dumas, managing director, NielsenHealth, noted.  “These findings highlight the rising importance of generic drugs in the U.S. market, which is underscored by low OTC product loyalty scores versus global markets.”

Nielsen’s Global Online Consumer Survey was conducted in April and May 2008, among 28,253 Internet users in 51 markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East.

View the full press release.