Getting consumers to part with their hard-earned cash for your goods and services may be particularly tricky at present. People are feeling the financial pinch and so are more reluctant than usual to splash their cash.
In order to boost your chances of success, it may pay off to engage with your target market and find out what they’re thinking. To help ensure your efforts are successful, it’s a good idea to take advantage of market research incentives.
Consumer confidence dips
Highlighting the importance of this issue, new figures from GfK have revealed consumer confidence in the UK has dipped further. The firm’s October Index recorded a fall of two points compared with the previous month, leaving it at -30.
Four of the five measures used saw decreases. For example, respondents’ perceptions of their personal financial situations over the last year deteriorated from -21 in September to -24 in October, while their interpretation of the general economic situation fell from -54 to -62. The climate for major purchases also dropped by one point from -31 to -32.
Cause for concern
Commenting on the findings, Nick Moon, managing director of social research at GfK, said: “Just as the economy moves out of recession consumer confidence dips again. While we are not quite back to the levels of this time last year, the Index has not been this low in six months.
“While the Olympics are thought to have boosted GDP in the last quarter, the late Summer boost in consumer sentiment has now faded. The government will be concerned that the economic bounce will follow a similar path and deflate during the autumn.”
He added: “The fragility of the recovery is underlined by the fact that people are more worried about their own financial situation over the next 12 months. This certainly doesn’t suggest there will be a spending boom on the back of the official emergence from recession.”
Take action
Rather than despairing at figures like this, it could pay off to adopt a proactive stance and ensure your firm is as well placed as possible to take advantage of the opportunities that do still exist. By engaging in effective market research, for instance, you stand to boost custom and this is good news for your bottom line.
Come to us
Here at Ovation Incentives, we’re experts when it comes to research incentives and should be able to help you achieve the results you’re looking for. We offer more than 1,200 redemption options across 60 countries, meaning wherever your target audience is based, we may be able to help.
Our Universal Voucher System is a fully client branded and user-friendly incentive platform and it can be integrated into any existing panel management software or points platform without difficulty.
The benefits
By taking advantage of our panel reward schemes, you should find it easier to locate and attract panel members for your research. Also, your survey completion rates may be improved, along with member activity.
In addition, you stand to bolster panel retention and member loyalty and you should benefit from an impressive return in your investment.