2016 likely to set a record for car sales – but what’s in store for 2017?

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 1-Dec-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that the number of Australians aged 14+ who intend to buy a new car within the next 12 months fell to 563,000 in the three months to October 2016. The recent decline has undone nearly all the steady growth in near-term new car purchase intention throughout the first half of 2016. Total intention to buy a new car within the next four years has also eased from the July peak, although it remains in positive territory year-on-year. There are now 2,264,000 new car buyers in the market.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED

Australians still spend more time watching TV than using the internet at home

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 30-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that Australians (aged 14+) watch over 18 hours of television a week on average (1,095 minutes), compared with over 19 hours in total using the internet anywhere (1,159 minutes). However, six hours of that internet time (31% of the total) includes time spent online at work, school or elsewhere (361 minutes) – places where TV isn’t often an entertainment option. So to compare apples with apples, the average Australian actually spends almost five hours more watching TV than using the internet when at home (798 minutes). Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine says Australians’ average time spent watching television declined from 2004 to 2012, coinciding with the rapid growth in home internet and arrival of smartphones, tablets and smart TVs. However the time spent watching television has steadied over the last few years, suggesting that we may be approaching a "base" level of habitual TV viewership in the internet age.

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ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED

Action-packed! Gen Z and the rise of athleisure wear

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 8.1% of Australians aged 14+ (1.6 million people) bought men’s and/or women’s sportswear in an average four-week period during the year to September 2016, compared with 7.0% in 2011. The survey also shows that Australians’ annual expenditure on sportwear has risen from $A1.1bn to $A1.5bn over this period. While Generation X accounts for the largest share (31.6%) of total dollars spent on sportswear, this is considerably less than their share in 2011 (35.9%). In contrast, Generation Z’s contribution to Australia’s total annual outlay on sportswear has almost doubled in the same period, from 14.2% to 26.4%. Baby Boomers are the only other generation that have grown their share of the total dollars spent on sportswear (currently, they account for 18.6% of total dollars spent, up slightly on 17.9% in 2011).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED

What your mobile phone says about you

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 79% of Australia’s 16.2 million smartphone owners use either an Apple iPhone or a Samsung handset. The average Apple iPhone owner is 41 years old and earns $54,000 a year – three years younger but with $7,000 more personal income per year than the average Samsung smartphone owner. Some 54% of iPhone owners are women, while 51 per cent of Samsung owners are men. Meanwhile, compared with Apple users, more Samsung owners rent their home, work in sales, clerical or trades roles (or are retired), shop at discount stores, watch commercial television, go to theatre restaurants, play pokies, work on the car, go fishing, or play sports like cricket, lawn bowls, softball or baseball. On the other hand, Apple users are the more likely of the two groups to have a mortgage, work as managers and professionals (or be students), to go to concerts, live theatre, amusement parks and the beach, to listen to commercial radio, and do yoga or pilates.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, APPLE INCORPORATED, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS COMPANY LIMITED

Satisfaction with big four banks declines in October

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Research Single Source survey has found that the satisfaction level of personal customers of Australia’s four major banks fell to 79.5% in October 2016, compared with 79.8% in September. This represents a 2.0% decline in satisfaction with the big four since May 2015, when it peaked at 81.5%. The main cause of this decline has been the big reduction in satisfaction among home loan customers, down 3.4% points to 75.8%, compared with a decline of only 0.9% to 80.4% for other customers. The CBA remains the big four market leader, with a customer satisfaction rating of 81.7% (down 0.3%), but NAB was the only one among the big four to record an increase in customer satisfaction (up 0.7% to 78.7%). Meanwhile, the mutual banking sector’s overall customer satisfaction was 91.0% in October, well above the big four’s average of 79.5%.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, GREATER BANK LIMITED, VICTORIA TEACHERS MUTUAL BANK, BANK AUSTRALIA, TEACHERS MUTUAL BANK LIMITED, BENDIGO BANK, ING DIRECT

What’s in store for The Store? Fairfax readers spend big in the $2.6billion online retail clothing market

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Nov-16

As detailed in Roy Morgan’s latest State of the Nation report, Australia’s online shopping market is now worth an estimated $41.3billion per year. In the 12 months to September 2016, the Cross-Platform Audiences for Fairfax’s three leading mastheads were all more likely than average to shop online – and spent more when they did. The result is that Fairfax readers contribute far more than their fair share to the online shopping market. Some 21% of Australians (aged 14+) read the "Sydney Morning Herald" in print and digital, but this audience contributes 33% of all money spent online. Likewise, 15% read "The Age", but 20% of online shopping dollars come from them. Meanwhile, 7% read the "Australian Financial Review", but their value to the online shopping market is almost double, at 13%.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED – ASX FXJ, THE STORE

Utilities providers and the customer satisfaction challenge

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 28-Nov-16

Lumo Energy has won Roy Morgan Research’s Customer Satisfaction Award for September 2016 in the categories of electricity and gas utilities. Some 72% of Lumo’s electricity customers and 77% of its gas customers are satisfied with the company. Red Energy came second, satisfying just under 72% of its electricity customers and 74% of its gas customers in September. Meanwhile, some 7% of all electricity customers and 6% of all gas customers are outright dissatisfied with their utility provider. Roy Morgan’s Helix Personas consumer profiling tool shows that 14% of people in the category of Humanitarians are dissatisfied with their electricity provider, while the Still Working Persona has the highest level of dissatisfaction among gas customers (10%).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, LUMO ENERGY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, RED ENERGY PTY LTD, ENERGYAUSTRALIA PTY LTD, KLEENHEAT GAS PTY LTD

State of the Nation 26: Australian Retail Industry

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 25-Nov-16

Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine has presented the latest State of the Nation Report, with a special Spotlight on Australian Retail. The State of the Nation Report looks at the "invasion" of overseas retailers like H&M, ALDI, Costco, Zara – and in 2017 online giant Amazon, the battle for the online shopping dollar across a range of categories, the vital importance to retailers of properly identifying their customers and the desire of many consumers to have an increasingly "frictionless" retail experience. Levine says that although overall spending on discretionary commodities declined slightly, by 2%, over the past year, retailers are in fact more confident about the future now than they were a year ago – although it appears this very confidence is helping to attract more and more international retailers to "attack" what they perceive as the "rich pickings" available in Australia.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, HENNES OCH MAURITZ AB, ALDI EINKAUF GMBH & CO OHG, COSTCO WHOLESALE CORPORATION, ZARA, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, UNIQLO COMPANY LIMITED, BUNNINGS GROUP LIMITED, DELIVEROO, FOODORA, UBEREATS, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, DICK SMITH HOLDINGS LIMITED, MASTERS HOME IMPROVEMENT AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

‘Experiences’ over ‘things’: Aussies spending more on leisure and entertainment, but less on discretionary commodities

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 25-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that Australians aged 14+ spent almost $A105bn on things in the year to June 2016. Australians purchased around 85.5 million "discretionary commodities" between them, the recently launched State of the Nation Retail Spotlight from Roy Morgan Research reveals. Some 54.7 per cent of Australians bought at least one item of clothing in any given four weeks during 2015-16, ahead of Hardware/Home DIY/Plant and Garden products (22.4%), and Footwear (21.7%). However, compared with the 2014/2015 financial year, expenditure on discretionary commodities is down 2.0%, while expenditure on leisure and entertainment has risen by $A10bn to $A137bn year-on-year.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED

Image conscious: how Australians view different department stores

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 24-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 22.6% of Australians aged 14+ (3.6 million people) buy something at Kmart in an average four-week period. The survey, which was carried out in the year to June 2016, also shows that 19.5% of Australians (3.1 million) make a purchase at Target and 18.9% (3 million) shop at Big W in an average four weeks. One common denominator shared by the three stores is the perception that each "has a wide choice of products". Almost 42% of Australians think Target fits this description, 45.1% feel the same way about Kmart and 49.2% think Big W has a wide choice of products. Meanwhile, 10.0% of Australians (or 1.6 million people) making a purchase at Myer in an average four weeks and 4.7% (760,000) buying something at David Jones. The most commonly held perception of these stores is less about low prices and more about quality, which evidently impacts on customer volume.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, KMART AUSTRALIA LIMITED, TARGET AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BIG W DISCOUNT STORES, MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR, DAVID JONES LIMITED