November 2021 - Consumer Mindset

In last month’s Consumer Mindset report, I wrote about the “reset button,” the initial calls from public health authorities to step back and evaluate the extent of socialising in the community.

For nine months, the public concern about COVID-19 has been in decline, and our tracker reached an all-time low last month. However, this lack of concern has translated into more people meeting more people and ultimately COVID-19 spreading through the community again.

Uncertainty Returns

As a result, we have seen a re-focus by the public on the pandemic and after a few months of not topping our Cultural Index table (most significant news stories), COVID-19 has returned to the forefront of peoples’ minds.

However, this time, the increase in concern has resulted in an increase in uncertainty – confusion and misaligned expectations of where we should be as a country.

As we approach the end of the year, this will marginally impact consumer confidence, however, there remains to be a strong level of resilience (again) within society and the economy.

Patience and Priorities

Our projections suggest that the public are already re-evaluating their socialising and while we have yet to see this translate into a reduction of socialising and mobility, there is an increase in the number of people saying they intend to hold back from socialising as much and prioritise who they see and what they do.

As a result, this month, there is a reduced demand on areas such as indoor dining, sports and cultural events. While there remains to be significant volume of demand for these spaces, the recent rise in cases has definitely made people reconsider.

2022: Finding the Equilibrium

Ireland is now at a stage where the public are being asked to reduce socialising in order to reduce cases, and as a result each individual and household will begin to establish the optimum level of people they can meet, while mitigating the risk of transmission.

The impact on this new balancing act will be the continuation of last minute decision making, prioritising what activities or people are most important and choosing brands and locations which offer safe and enjoyable experiences.

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash