Growing trend
While the trend of women working outside the home has been more evident in developed countries, it is also present in developing nations—as is the case with Latin American countries. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 53% of Latin American women are linked to the labor market—a proportion which reaches 70% of the women between the ages of 20 and 40 years old. Further, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that roughly 44 million women joined the labor markets of Latin America and the Caribbean in the last decade.

A Nielsen analysis in Latin America of more than 20,000 households across countries in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico further support the findings that there is a clear growing trend of women working outside the home. In Chile, for example, the percentage of working women grew from 31% in 2007 to 34% in 2008. In Mexico, the number of working women increased 10% over eight years reaching 35% in 2008. Of the four countries, Columbia has the greatest percentage of working women at 40% and Brazil follows closely at 36.6%.

Education creates opportunities
As women’s education levels increase, so do job opportunities. By the end of the 1990s, the United Nations reported that Latin American women between the ages of 30 and 45 with a formal education at the elementary level had a workforce contribution of 55%. That rate rose to 60% when women had an unfinished high school education, 65% with a high school education and more than 80% with a professional degree.

Nielsen data reinforced these findings—as the socioeconomic level increases, more women are educated and therefore have more opportunities for employment. The chart below shows occupation trends of housewives in Mexico from April 2008 to March 2009.

Lifestyle drives purchasing decisions
The rising purchase power of Latin American women is similar across most of the countries in the region. To better understand how this growing economic trend is impacting shopping behavior, Nielsen conducted an analysis in the Mexican market to compare the growth of shopping volume among households where women work vs. the total population.

The findings show that time-starved households—those balancing both work and home responsibilities—are looking for convenient products that save time and are easy to prepare. Categories that over index among households where women work include soups, ready-to-eat cereals, mayonnaise, flavored water, ready-to-drink beverages and packaged bread. And since women who work outside the home generally have more social interactions, hair treatments/conditioners and deodorants also have a high spending index.

Driven by the lack of time to go shopping at the supermarket, door-to-door sales is growing significantly in households where the woman works—spending is up 2.8% in 2009. Health care and beauty categories are the primary drivers of this growth—women who work have increased spending 15% in 2009 vs. 2008. Household products have also contributed to this growth, increasing 8.9% among working women vs. a spending decline of 20.9% among women who don’t work.

Reaching women
Women who are balancing both home and career are becoming increasingly important in the Latin American markets—those between the ages of 20–40 with higher education levels make up the highest percentage. Key purchase drivers for this segment include:

• Ready-to-eat food categories
• Convenient shopping outlets
• Health care and beauty products

Jane Crossan,Vice President, Practice Leader, Financial Services, The Nielsen Company

For the past six months we’ve seen and heard about the recovery of the U.S. market: the DOW has ticked up and the Fed chair has said the recession is “likely over.” But ultimately, the consumer will determine when our economy is back on track when you consider that consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. Until the consumer starts spending again, the recovery is likely to be slow and it may feel like we’re in a weak economy for some time. To get a closer look at the consumer’s financial outlook and their going-forward intent,  Nielsen Claritas surveyed more than 2,500 consumers, including 500 households that saw their personal financial institution impacted by a takeover or acquisition. What we found was that while the intensity of the economic panic had subsided since 2008, concerns persist and new habits in spending and saving are solidifying.

The new frugality
Similar to what we’re seeing with the outlook to the upcoming holiday season, the majority of consumers are saying this is just not the time to buy. When posed with a very simple fill-in-the-blank prompt: “At this moment, the time to buy the things you want and need is…” the panel responded heavily with “not so good.” Combine that with those who said the timing was downright “bad,” and you’re looking at 71% of respondents telling us they are no position to buy right now.

These responses underscore the consumer confidence index which began to drop in May and continued to drop through much of the summer. Even back-to-school shopping was lackluster despite a slight rise in that sector in August. The prevailing mood could likely be summed up by one respondent who noted bluntly: “I will not be making any large-item purchases for a long while.”

Spending and saving less
Between pulling back on spending and working to consolidate debt, the average consumer is getting squeezed.

In the past six months…

• One third say they have used credit less while…
• Only 13% say they have used credit more
• Consumers indicate they have controlled spending by using cash, debit and check as methods of payment
• 27% say they have saved less vs…
• 22% who say they have been able to save more
• 16% say they contributed less to retirement over the last 6 months

Even when conditions improve in the future, consumers are viewing the use of credit cautiously, with 30% saying they’ll use credit less. Savings will also continue to be a struggle as only 19% say they will be able to save more even when the economic storm clears.

The middle still feeling the pressure
In October 2008, concern about the economy was felt equally across the board, regardless of household net worth. Now, however, the higher net worth households seem to be faring better with their extreme concern almost cut in half. The two highest net worth brackets showed a noticeable drop in extreme concern compared to the lower three brackets, perhaps because homeowners with higher equity are less affected by recent drops in home values.

What’s interesting is the comparable concern in the middle and lower two brackets.  In fact, the middle bracket (those with a $100-249K net worth) expressed the highest amount of concern in 2008  and 2009, evidence that this is not a “poor man’s recession.” If anything, those in the middle are feeling the most pressure. These mid-net worth households  are likely comprised of  recent first home buyers who traded up at the peak of the market, or took equity out of their homes to fund other lifestyle choices.

Adding to that middle-class worry are growing concerns about personal finance matters at the heart of the American dream.

More than one third of consumers continue to be concerned about their mortgage or home value – not surprising given that recent data shows that one in eight mortgages is delinquent or in foreclosure – and the median sales price of existing home sales is down 16.8% over this time last year according to an Economic Snapshot at the time the survey was fielded. But the greatest concerns are around investments – specifically retirement portfolios as total family wealth has decreased since its peak in June 2007.

So while there may be less panic about the economy in general, these personal factors underscore what we’re hearing: the recovery for the consumer will be a longer, and more personal road back.

“There are hot spots of a recovery,” commented James Russo, Vice President, Global Consumer Insights at The Nielsen Company. “However, until the labor market stabilizes and returns to growth in the U.S, spending will continue to be restrained.”

Nielsen Economic Current Key Indicators
Country	Trend	Jun-09	Jul-09
Brazil		2	2
Canada		3	3
China		2	2
France		3	3
Germany		3	3
Hong Kong		2	2
India		1	1
Italy		3	4
Spain		3	3
Taiwan		4	3
United Kingdom		2	2
United States		3	3
Source: The Nielsen Company 1=Very Strong Growth >/= +5%; 2 = Growth between +1 and +4%; 3 =Neutral Between -1 and +1%; 4 =Negative between -1 and -4%; 5 = Very Negative

As expected, the strongest growth continues to come from the emerging economies of Brazil, China, Hong Kong and India – although all remained unchanged from the previous month. While Taiwan is the only country that showed a measurable gain this month, it essentially remained flat as it was the only country that declined last month. Of note in Brazil, interest rates and unemployment rates are falling with the expansion of industrial activity, and there are signs of recovery in food product categories and non-basic product categories. In Hong Kong, previous growth in household categories due to the H1N1 “swine flu” virus has been slowing, but baby products continue to be the most lucrative category demonstrating the fastest growth.

In North America, Canada continues to outpace the U.S. as evidenced by gains in dollar sales and promotional activity, while in the U.S., frequency of shopper trips and transaction size continued to slow despite aggressive price reductions as consumers remained cautious about the outlook.

Western Europe also remains mired in a prolonged period of sluggishness. However, promotional activity appears to be having a positive effect on sales with the exception of Italy, the only country showing a significant decline this month, where coincidentally, promotional activity also dropped. France saw continued growth in value channels, while unit and dollar sales in Germany remained moderate, and in the UK, there was improvement in volume sales and premium store brands.

Download the latest Nielsen Economic Current.

July 3rd traditionally has the highest sales volume for all three types of meat. Consumers were 50 percent more likely to buy hot dogs during the four-week period ending on July 12, 2008 than any other time over the year. The trend is even more pronounced for bratwurst and knockwurst last year, with consumers 106 percent more likely to buy the thicker sausages during the same period.
Until recently, purchases of bratwurst and knockwurst have been growing, with annual sales rising 8.9 percent between June of 2007 and June of 2009. However, sales of bratwurst and knockwurst by volume have fallen by 6.7 percent over the past two months, ending June 13, 2009, compared to the same period last year.

Sales of hot dogs have seen a marked increase during the past two months, increasing 3.7 percent over the eight-week period ending 6/13/09 compared to the same period the previous year. Considering that hot dogs are the less expensive option, the reversal of these trends may reflect consumers’ tighter BBQ budgets.

As for the beer that consumers will be buying to wash down their dogs, Nielsen predicts that almost two billion servings will be purchased in preparation for the Fourth of July in 2009. Supermarkets are likely to see the biggest increase in consumer purchases across all beer categories, with premium light beer driving almost 35 percent of sales volume.

Across 114 categories representing more than 99 percent of all department sales Nielsen monitors, six categories had price increases of greater than 15 percent over a year ago.  38 categories had price increases of 0 percent to 4.9 percent, while 11 had price declines. The top five categories with the largest price increases over the course of the year:

• Dry vegetables & grains 25%
• Flour 23%
• Jams, jellies & spreads (including peanut butter) 19%
• Car accessories 19%
• Pet food 16%

Higher commodity prices played a role in all of the food categories, while higher crude oil prices drove increases for motor oil in the car accessory categories.  Meanwhile, the following categories decreased in price:

• Fresh eggs -12%
• Milk -8%
• Candles & Incense -5%
• Light bulbs and telephone accessories -3%
• Non-carbonated soft drinks -3%

In the four week period ended January 24, 2009, unit prices across the store were up 5.5 percent – exactly the same as the 2008 Consumer Price Index calculated by the U.S. government.

“U.S. consumers would certainly benefit from lower prices.  But retailers should be careful with how far they push their manufacturer partners to lower prices. If they simply push for lower prices without planning for the right lower prices, they may find it extremely difficult to grow same-store sales this year,” said Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Consumer & Shopper Insights at Nielsen.

Read the entire article about pricing trends in the lastest edition of Facts, Figures & the Future here.