Archive for October, 2009

Marketers With an Understanding

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Consideration of labor force participation rates can provide marketers with an understanding of drivers of some key consumption trends. In Australia, the most important long-term employment trend has been the increase in the participation rate of women in the workforce. In 1971, this stood at 37.1 percent, and in the latest census of 2001, had risen to 55.3 percent (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1971, 2001a). This increase in the participation rate of women in the workforce has had profound demographic changes on household structures and sizes, which will be discussed later.

On entering the workforce, women may delay having children, have fewer children,or not have children. Having more women in the workforce has also led to an increase in the number of two-income households. (In the 2001 census, around 43 percent of all families in Australia had both parents in the workforce.) The nature of consumer behavior also changes. For example, as the number of females in the workforce with dependent children increases, the requirement for convenience also increases.

This is especially so given that male partners also tend to continue to work. As will be discussed in a later section on household expenditure, families are
eating out more often and are buying takeout, frozen, and preprepared meals. These female labor force participation rates correspond with a growing demand for services, such as child care, dry cleaning, house cleaning, and gardening.

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The Consumer Emphasis

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

The great depression of the 1890s brought about high unemployment and lowered living standards.It was during this difficult time that a basic minimum wage was established to protect the workers. National identity was a key issue, and the Commonwealth of Australia was formally established in 1901, bringing together the individual colonies into a single federation (Hancock 1995). Soon after this, the “White In the 1960s and 1970s, thousands migrated to Australia to pursue their dreams, culminating, for many, in the “time of excess” of the early 1980s, when the focus was on spending. The economy went into a recession in the late 1980s, and this continued into the early 1990s. The consumer emphasis of the late 1990s was on maintaining personal relationships, obtaining value for money, and getting back to basics, including refocusing on the family and home (McColl-Kennedy 1998).

At the turn of the twenty-first century, Australia experienced more positive growth, but this was tempered with a greater sense of uncertainty, with the tragic events of Bali in October 2002. Despite a hardy, historical pioneering rough-and-ready bush image, modern Australia is an urban community with a social structure centered in the cities, particularly on the east coast.

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Marketing and Consumer Behavior

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

To understand marketing and consumer behavior in Australia, it is important to briefly consider the nation’s historical development. European settlement commenced in 1788 in the form of a British penal colony. Transportation of convicts, many of whom were Irish, continued until 1840 (Hancock 1995). These convicts could gain a “ticket of leave” after serving their sentences in Australia. Thus, they formed the basis of the working class.

This contrasts with the majority of free white settlers who were skilled Protestant artisans from England and Scotland who came to this new country in search of a better life. As a result, two distinct classes were emerging by the late 1800s—the Protestant urban upper class and the highly unionized and predominately Catholic labor force. There have been tensions between these groups for much of Australia’s history,and many cultural values of “a fair go,” egalitarianism, and distrust of authority (the tall poppy syndrome) can be traced back to conflicts between these two groups.

Australia” policy was introduced. This meant that settlement was restricted to Europeans. This white migration policy continued until the 1960s, when immigrants from the Middle East as well as other European countries were allowed entry. Asian migration commenced in the 1970s, and this has continued until today, making Australia a truly multicultural society (Hancock 1995).

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