Home Care Packaging Design in Japan

The home care market in Japan caters to its aging population by recognizing not only that these consumers have the most money to spend on products, but they are also increasingly physically restricted. For instance, Kao Corporation released the Attack Sheet in 1999, a laundry detergent in a sheet format, which is a lighter alternative than a heavy container. Kao has recently released a highly concentrated detergent, which is easier for older consumers to purchase and move.

Download as an MP3

Understanding Australia's Business and Consumer Environment: A Guide for Successful Business Down Under

Understanding Australia's Business and Consumer Environment

How will Australia's economy, business environment and consumer trends impact the success of your business? This e-book examines the fundamentals businesses must understand to successfully expand or operate in Australia.

Download Now >>

Heralded as the success story among advanced economies for weathering the global economic downturn of 2008-2009, Australia’s high income levels and steady growth offer good opportunities for consumer goods and services in a wide range of sectors.

Key Findings:

• At the height of the global slowdown, advanced economies as a whole contracted by 3.5% - contrasting with Australia’s 1.4% growth.
• Whereas incomes and consumer expenditure have stagnated across many advanced economies, Australia’s per capita disposable income and expenditure have expanded by 9.8% and 3.5% respectively in real terms since 2008.
• In 2012, Australia was ranked 15 out of 183 economies on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, meaning it is the fifteenth easiest place in the world to start and operate a local firm.
• Australia has an educated population: 99.9% of adults (those aged 15+) were literate in 2011, but suffers from skills shortages.
• In 2011, the population aged 45-49 in Australia had the highest average gross income: A$77,810 (US$80,259).

Topics include:

• Ease of doing business rating
• Corruption index
• Literacy rate
• Future challenges
• Natural resources
• Media consumption
• Consumer trends
• More

Download Now >>

Go Big or Go Home: How Menards is Bucking the Trend of Store Downsizing in the US

Analyst Insight by Jared Koerten, Senior Research Analyst, Euromonitor International

In April 2013, Home Improvement retailer Menards Inc plans to open new stores in St. Peters, Missouri and O’Fallon, Illinois – both of which are in the St. Louis area. The unique feature of these new stores is their incredible size, with each outlet expected to surpass more than 18,500 square metres of shopping space.  For reference, the average outlet size of leading Home Improvement retailers Home Depot and Lowe's were only 10,500 and 9,800 square metres, respectively, in 2012. In fact, even Walmart Supercenter – the hypermarket viewed as the epitome of a large-format retailer – averaged an outlet size of only 17,000 square metres in 2012.

These are not the first mega-stores that Menards Inc has opened. In 2011, the company reopened a store in Eden Prairie, Minnesota that measured over 21,800 square metres and stocked a range of grocery, healthcare, jewellery, toys, and apparel products. The company followed in 2012 by introducing a mammoth store in Golden Valley, Minnesota that topped 23,200 square metres.

New Home and Garden Research: What is it Telling Us?

Analyst Insight by Cruz Del Barrio, Head of Home and Garden Research, Euromonitor International

The new and enhanced 2013 Home and Garden edition is now live. The updated research provides the latest insight on how the home and garden industry performed in 2012 and identifies the key prospects through to 2017. Continued global economic uncertainty took its toll as the industry posted another year of weak growth, especially in European markets. Overall market value sales grew by 2% in 2012 in constant exchange rate terms. While emerging economies maintained their solid performances, Western Europe posted negative growth due to poor performances in several EuroZone markets. The BRIC countries continued to report strong growth but only Russia registered a stronger performance than the previous year. A cooling economic environment and more conservative consumption were the main reasons behind slow growth.

Home Improvement resists the challenge

Each of the four major categories upped their growth on the previous year, with Home Improvement achieving the strongest gain. Difficult access to credit in developed countries meant more people decided to renovate their houses rather than move to a new one. In developing economies, higher disposable incomes are boosting consumption of non-essential items such as home and garden products.

The future remains lacklustre

The market’s future prospects will continue to be impacted by anaemic growth in Western Europe through to 2017, dragged down by the EuroZone. The highest incremental revenues should come from Asia Pacific on the back of solid increases in China and Indonesia (forecast to bring in close to US$15 billion each by 2017). The US, the largest market by far and which accounts for almost a third of total value sales, will continue its recovery over the next five years.

Homewares in Eastern Europe

The homewares market performed well in Eastern Europe in 2012, with stove top cookware taking the top spot in category sales. In homewares retailing, IKEA showed strong growth as a result of diversified product lines at affordable prices.  Counterfeit items, created to look like popular brands, pose a threat; however, homewares will continue modest growth and reach pre-crisis levels by 2016-2017.

Download as an MP3

New Home and Garden Data Now Live

New Home and Garden data shows 2012 was another difficult year for the industry in several Eurozone countries. Nevertheless, the US and Germany remained resilient and posted positive growth. The US also remains the largest market in the world, with a fifth of all sales. Performance in several emerging markets was also positive, from China to Russia and Indonesia, with double-digit growth.

Premier Tech Leverages Synergies in Canadian Garden Care and Home Insecticide Markets

Analyst Insight by Damian Shore, Contributing Analyst at Euromonitor International

Canada is an affluent, ageing market where most own their own houses and consumer interest in both gardening and environmental awareness are on the rise. Wilson WeedOut Preventer and C-I-L Golfgreen 1Step, two new products from leading domestic player Premier Tech, attempt to both play to these trends and exploit the company’s brand equity in a closely related market, home insecticides.

Mergers and Acquisitions in the Paint Industry

Paint companies are increasingly focusing marketing efforts on emerging markets such as Mexico where growth in the number of households has reached 2%. Developed markets such as the US are also growing in the number of households. With the housing market recovering, more consumers are moving or upgrading their homes and buying household paints, and recent company mergers reflect this trend. Sherwin Williams recently acquired the Mexican paint company Comex in order to strengthen its position in the country, and PPG acquired Akzo Nobel in the US.

Watch this video on Youtube

Domestic Home and Garden Companies Winning in Poland

The home and garden market in Poland is fragmented and competitive, with earnings spread out among many small and medium sized companies. Many of these companies specialize in only one product group, such as Black White Red in furniture manufacturing. Furthermore, domestic operators are performing better than international companies in many segments, including garden care and home improvement.

Download as an MP3

Ripolin and Dulux Strive to Deliver Value to Hard-Pressed French Consumers in Decorative Paint

Analyst Insight by Damian Shore, Contributing Analyst at Euromonitor International

In 2012, Akzo Nobel and PPG Industries, two of the biggest players in the French home paint market, both launched paint testers. In spite of a weak economic environment, consumer interest in home decoration remains high in France, particularly among middle-aged consumers with significant levels of disposable income, as suggested by the proliferation of such television shows as “D&Co”. Moreover, the economic downturn has encouraged many households to undertake home improvement activities themselves in order to save money. Can these innovations help to reverse the flagging fortunes of French decorative paint sales by tempting consumers into undertaking more redecoration projects?