Germans’ Values During the Euro Crisis

Background

To be able to handle and advise companies and brands in Germany ideally (our métier), one has to know how end consumers tick. What’s on their minds. Whether and how their values, interests, needs are shifting due to the crisis and which topics are going to have the greatest priority for them in the future.
This was the starting point for our study. With the goal of being able to attain concrete “Learnings” from it when the situation deals with developing relevant future scenarios for our clients and their brands.

Our Methodology:

• Germany as the area of study
• Method of collection: online panel survey
• Field-time survey Calendar Week 42 / 2011
• Participants: n = 500
• Target group: 54% female, 46% male,
  18-30 years old 42%, 31-45 years old 37%, 46-64 years old 21%
• Technical partner: MMP Group, online panel: mafo.de
• Supplemented by: Dragon Rouge Super Consumers & Key Clients Interviews

Core Findings (excerpt):

1. Mood:
In the midst of the euro crisis and faced with an economic downturn, yet still in the cyclical business upswing for 2011: Lots of uncertainties that lead to an unstable mood, a mood that tends to be more difficult to grasp. One out of three describes their mood at the moment as ‘so-so’, which signifies a growth of nearly 10% points in comparison to the last values barometer in 2010. This mood is marked more and more strongly as the age increases: 39% for respondents over 49 years old.

2. The current values complex
The first-person values continue to clearly define the values ranking:
Health tops the list, closely followed by trust/confidence.
A major portion of the very important values/topics refers to interpersonal matters such as family, happiness and harmony. Paramount values such as nature, social responsibility, culture and tradition are found again at the lower end of the scale.

3. Future scenario
The key topics for the future are of a personal nature. As was already the case in 2010, personal happiness, health and harmony play the most important role in the future, too. Furthermore, “joie de vivre”/enjoyment and less stress/pressure in the future is very important to the respondents.
By the way, for several months now a parallel can be increasingly found in the German media: the “specials” on people with burn-outs are over-represented, even in classic German magazines such as Der Spiegel / Stern / Focus.

Specific details on gender and age
As was already the case in 2010, in the future women are a bit more strongly oriented towards personal happiness, harmony and “joie de vivre” than men. When it comes to the topic of occupational success, a clear-cut convergence of genders occurs. Yet even so, classic topics (to enjoy life, “joie de vivre” etc.) seem to continue to dictate the orientation.
⇒ Brave the crisis thanks to ‘tried-and-true’ behavioural patterns?
⇒ A ‘back-to-the-roots’ movement in a societal sense, too?

The significance of the core values rises with increasing age, so the topic of health naturally has a much greater importance for those over 30 than for the younger generation. Another interesting factor is that a world where nature is ‘intact’ also has a far lower status for the 18 to 30-year-olds than it does for the older generation. Conspicuous here (and surprisingly for us) is that the degree of environmental orientation for the youngest respondents is marked the least. On the other hand, it has clearly gained significance when compared with 2010. Other worries & cares in times of crisis?

Summary

Health along with interpersonal values (trust/confidence and family, happiness and harmony): the prevailing values for Germans in 2011... The mood tends to be more negative and – in a year-on-year comparison to 2010 –has even gotten worse. The negative impacts of the euro crisis on the mood become distinctly visible here. As an example, this is demonstrated clearly in the outlooks for the future, viewed by over 45% as neutral, neither one way nor the other.
As was the case in 2010, one welcome aspect is that above all younger respondents are looking optimistically towards the future.

The reflective mindset towards traditional values that provide a sense of security exists at the expense of values related to society as a whole, such as social fairness/responsibility and aspects pertaining to culture/religion. The present values structure is reflected in the topics concerning the future. Here too, health and interpersonal aspects define first and foremost. Above and beyond these, personal and occupational development are important goals, especially for younger people.

“Learnings” / concrete implications for companies & brands: upon request.

For more information on this topic, contact Anne Luneau.