The cost-of-living crisis is dominating the media and occupying many people’s minds. The cost of basic, essential items such as food and energy bills have increased rapidly in a short period of time and much faster than average household wages.
The battle for people to keep their heads above choppy financial waters is intense.
For many, the domestic budget is under tremendous strain. The sums simply don’t add up. It is difficult to make payments and stressful to cope in an environment that keeps on deteriorating.
Even little home luxuries like streaming services have increased price increases with just 30 days’ notice.
People are doing more hours, working second jobs, and trying to make positive changes – switching accounts, making energy-saving decisions, and engaging more actively with retailer discounts and reward schemes.
The constant media coverage adds to the sense of turbulence as food banks become more prevalent and strikes take place more frequently.
How has the current climate really affected our outlook?
So, what kind of havoc is this cost-of-living crisis causing for people? How has it affected how they feel about brands and service providers?
Most of the available research on the cost-of-living crisis focuses on how people say they feel. It reports their stated attitudes and responses – the rational answers that people are comfortable recording.
This logical ‘System 2’ response of stated attitudes is only part of the picture.
There is an exciting opportunity to add value by revealing the deeper ‘System 1’ emotions that prime our behavior and choices. Maru’s proven system 1 enabled software helps clients understand consumers holistically: not just what they say they think but identify how they really feel by revealing their unarticulated words.
To do this, we spoke to 1,000 nationally representative UK consumers to better understand how companies and brands can best respond and connect with consumers in times of financial stress.
We asked participants what feelings they would say a brand should deliver to be truly supportive of customers during this time of hardship. And we asked them to express how they feel about what brands are currently doing to help with the cost-of-living crisis. In a very real sense, we set out to understand the difference between how people want brands to make them feel and how they are actually making them feel.
