New Zealand has officially entered Alert Level 3. With only a handful of new Covid-19 cases now being reported each day, the mood of the nation is generally improving. However, what is also clear is that what we have experienced in lockdown is going to forever change how brands and public sector organisations engage with consumers, citizens and employees in the future. Over the long weekend, Kantar ran another survey wave to gauge the attitudes of Kiwis to the Covid-19 situation. Here are some of the key findings.
Should Kiwis be concerned about others’ social distancing?
A key message from the Prime Minister is that we are not ‘out of the woods’ yet, and we must maintain our social distancing. Over the weekend, and just before we entered Alert Level 3, there was a demonstrable drop in the number of Kiwis who were concerned that other people weren’t following the lockdown or social distancing, from around a half to just under two-in-five. But should we remain concerned with our behaviour when it does come down to social distancing?
When we asked how many people outside their own bubble Kiwis had been within two metres of, for 10 minutes or more in the past 24 hours, the average response was 1.4. Just 4% of citizens surveyed said that, in the last week, they were in a gathering of 10 or more people outside their bubble.
Kiwis continue to spend more on home cleaning and personal hygiene
For the past seven weeks, we have been closely observing Kiwis’ shopping habits and, in particular, what they are buying more of. Our shopping habits have certainly changed, and with the exception of a couple of weeks’ panic buying in the early stages of lockdown, the Covid-19 situation’s impact on shopping across categories has been relatively stable in the past few weeks. Here is the latest snapshot of what we’re currently buying more of.
Fewer occurrences of preferred brands being out of stock
While Kiwis’ spend on certain categories increases, we are seeing less Kiwis needing to switch brands for some products because their preferred brand is out of stock. This has dropped significantly in the last week, from 45% to 30%, indicating that brands are now meeting increased demand from their consumers.
Kiwis’ current media consumption habits
Last week the Government announced a support package for the media sector to free up cash for commercial media companies following the drop in advertising revenue that occurred when we went into the Level 4 lockdown in March. The chart below indicates which types of media Kiwis are using more of during their leisure time.
Source: KANTAR Covid-19 April 28 update
