SPONSORED CONTENT
Editor's note: This is the third collection of sponsored reports regarding the impact of COVID-19 on consumers. To view Part 2, click here.
Psychological insights into consumers’ COVID reactions
ACUPOLL’s tracked the everyday lives, hearts and minds of consumers since March 18, 2020 across 20,000 consumers. Report VIII explores the underlying psychology and attitudes toward mask-wearing and the crisis:
- Mask-wearing varies considerably across activities; while only 7% of consumers never wear a mask in stores or restaurants, 21% never wear a mask even when visiting with friends/family in person –reflecting less fear of their germs than strangers’.
- Mask Avoiders perceive the threat of Coronavirus to their safety, community health and the economy like everyone else – but this is superseded by perceptions that the virus threatens American values, traditions and freedoms. This yields insight for reframing the debate and encouraging mask use.
- Dan Young, Ph.D. – who is a former P&G cognitive scientist (1985-2015) and co-developed our Spark MCR System 1/System 2 screening methodology – conducted qual interviews to dig deeper into COVID psychology. His work uncovered high emotionality, rational inconsistencies, displacement of frustrations onto other people, in-group/out-group dichotomies in thinking and difficulty mentally processing our current environment.
- Statistical analysis identifies four COVID attitudinal factors – reflecting fear, self-assurance, confident compliance and skeptical non-compliance – that influence variation in mask-wearing behavior.
- Fewer than two-thirds of people are going to get the vaccine fairly soon once it’s available; more than one-third are not in a rush.
- We also explore cognitive biases and System 1/System 2 conflicts illuminated by COVID … and present in our daily lives.
Download Report VIII to see more detail, and sign up for ACUPOLL’s twice-monthly updates!
The latest wave of research was conducted from July 20-30, 2020.
Uncovering innovation opportunities through consumer motivators: How to gain insights into choice drivers during pandemic-related disruption
The landscape of our lives has undergone incredible, seemingly unpredictable, change as COVID-19 continues to sweep the globe – and we have been in a state of constant revision for how we live, interact, work, play and shop. Yet amid the chaos there actually is a good amount of predictability to how these constant revisions take shape. By focusing on how people work through disruptions emotionally, InsightsNow has been able to leverage behavioral psychology to predict how people will react and how marketers and innovators can help them through their journey.
So how to predict and examine behavior for brand success in a time when nothing seems predictable, and daily lives and expectations seem to change constantly in ways beyond comprehension? InsightsNow looks at emotional and behavioral frameworks to examine and foretell behaviors. The foundation of the emotional model most useful for this pandemic-related disruption starts with classifying the motivators of our choices into four categories: functional, social, psychological and sensorial.
In order to look more closely at these motivators, InsightsNow has been tracking insights from our proprietary, trend-identifying Clean Label Enthusiasts® (CLE) consumer research community. These ongoing study participants are primary shoppers with a specific set of behaviors around the clean-living movement, behaviors that strongly influence their buying decisions.
It’ll be a bit of time yet before everyone truly gets a sense of the new normal, when consumers start to truly desire completely new-to-the-world offerings and are ready to take on greater and more exuberant risks with products and experiences. However, monitoring patterns that emerge when studying consumer behavior through a framework that looks at motivators will lead to better predictions about when this will occur.
The research is ongoing, with the current report referencing the latest wave from June/July 2020.
Consumer Priorities Shift in 2020: What is the Market’s Future Outlook, Expectations and New Needs?
A fresh optimism is noticed in the market, as half of the households believe spending will return to normal within six months. As the day-to-day behaviors shifted in Q2, American consumers still hold strong spending intentions … but a new market need arises, with consumers looking towards brands for reassurances, added safety measures and free, fast delivery or pickup options.
Please join QualQuant Signals and follow 1,000 American consumers, on a quarterly basis, to explore the associations between consumer sentiment and current purchasing behaviors in the “new normal” landscape.
This body of research, conducted in May 2020, uses our proprietary hybrid Qual/Quant online survey technique and is designed to:
- Track consumer sentiments, purchase intent and trends in 2020 and beyond.
- Assist businesses in overcoming new market threats while identifying open opportunities with stronger market potential.
- Provide quick tips on how to build new communication strategies around the current landscape and stressors.
During COVID-19 the priorities shifted; Quality, Durability and Discounts are no longer as important during the purchasing process. It appears these luxuries are overridden by basic market needs such as home delivery options and product availability. Therefore, having an optimized in-market strategy, experience and communication/messaging is of higher order at this point in history to capture revenues.
Download the QualQuant Signals “2020 Future Outlook Tracking” report available here and contact us to learn how to optimize your communication strategy.
For further information; please reach out to SVP, Kimberly Marsh at Kimberly@qualquantsignals.com
QualQuant Signals ‘Future Outlook’ survey research was conducted in May 2020.
Decision Analyst: Consumer reactions to COVID-19
Although they have been venturing out a bit more, American consumers are currently feeling more stressed and frustrated with the pandemic and the virus' resurgence in the U.S. Many people have negative feelings about their financial outlook, most are likely to avoid flying and feelings are split about how children should return to school. All of this stress and confusion points to lingering concerns for the U.S. economy. The Decision Analyst Consumer Reactions to COVID-19 Report contains our observations from surveying over 5,500 U.S. consumers over nine waves.
In mid-March, when COVID-19 began to have a bigger impact in the United States, we decided to field a research study to understand a number of issues Americans are facing:
- Who is being impacted by the onslaught of changes?
- What behaviors are changing and why?
- How are people feeling about what is happening around them?
- What are their biggest concerns?
- How do they expect their behaviors to change going forward?
Across the waves, some parts of our survey have remained constant, while other topics have been added or removed. Each page in our report presents the results from each wave in which that data was captured.
For more information about our report, please visit: https://www.decisionanalyst.com/press/2020/covid19panelpulse/.
The research was conducted in waves from March 17 - June 29, 2020.
Navigating to a new normal: Are we there yet?
In the midst of rising case counts, increasing death rates, politicized debates on masks and see-saw decisions on school resuming this fall, people are begging like kids in the backseat of a torturously long road trip – “Are we there yet?" Chapter 6 explores hot topics like who is refusing to wear a mask and how many people are there doing so? We also share insights on people’s travel plans, shopping habits and how they are feeling about returning to focus groups.
This 30-minute video presentation combines footage from interviews with respondents with data and recommendations on how our current state of affairs will impact your business and what you can do about it.
Pandemic, recession, social injustice protests and a high-stakes election – the new normal is going to be influenced by each of these major events. Since April 3, Ignite 360’s series, Navigating to a New Normal is exploring life today with 16 diverse consumers in weekly 1:1 conversations. Topics pivot and evolve week by week, driven by current events and behaviors that are changing.
Our qualitative insights are married with ‘always on’ quant data from 1,250 U.S. adults 18+ (including Spanish-speaking) running since April 12.
We then apply our storytelling skills to find and bring the story to life in a compelling, visually forward manner along with relevant thought starters for businesses and brands.
It’s the what, the why and the now what for the most complete story and recommendations for your business. Follow along by downloading the video for Chapter 6 and check out the rest of the story on our website.
Chapter 1: Welcome to the Base of Maslow’s Hierarchy
Chapter 2: Walking Through the Uncanny Valley
Chapter 3: Now. Next. Future. Navigating Your Business to a New Normal
Chapter 4: The Scary, Risky Evolutionary Need to Connect
Chapter 5: Listening: Black Lives Matter
Chapter 6: Are We There Yet? Finding Our Way to Normal
Chapter 7: The Beginning of Change – COMING THIS MONTH
The research began April 3, 2020 and is ongoing with new Chapters continuing.
