A spate of data security scares fuels an on-going trend, says David Crosbie

My American colleague happened to mention to me the other day that she had received at least three emails in recent weeks from companies she’d shared personal data with admitting that the security of those data had been compromised in some way. One of the companies she mentioned had in fact contacted me as well, to inform me of the same problem.

Then came the news that the personal data of 77 million global users of Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) had been hacked into, which is only the latest in many news stories about information security, or lack of it, in today’s digital world.

Every year in our Roper Reports Worldwide study, we ask over 30,000 consumers globally which three issues they are most concerned about. In 2010, 8% – getting on for one in ten – of these consumers cited personal information getting into the wrong hands. This year’s results will be released in our Mood of the World 2011 report, coming soon.     

What this annual ‘concerns’ question reveals is that consumers around the world are plagued by a variety of worries, concerns and fears, which they of course try to mitigate through the products and services they buy. In fact, a sizeable proportion of global consumers agree they only buy products and services from a known or trusted brand. These findings help to inform our Safe and Secure trend, which is one of the 12 global consumer trends in our TrendKey framework.

Thanks first to 24 hour rolling news and then to online social networks, information (accurate or otherwise) spreads more quickly than ever before, and it can be envisaged that the spread of fear, coupled with the quest for reassurance, will continue and grow in coming years. In a world of increasing complexity and connectivity it is more challenging, yet at the same time more important, than ever that companies and brands provide credible reassurance and peace of mind at every touch point.

Online researching has changed the way we shop

By Anna Clark

Be it organising my friend’s hen (bachelorette) weekend, or choosing a new mobile phone, I always seem to have something I’m researching.

These days, with so much information at our fingertips I usually spend lots of time researching to find ‘the best deal’ or ‘the best product’, but I sometimes find myself getting so involved with the minutiae that I get to the point of just wanting whichever one ‘will do’.

The issue for me nowadays is that there is almost too much information available, and it can be contradictory.  When attempting to choose a new phone recently, I read official reviews, looked at websites that compare the network coverage, and asked my friends who I deemed experts…and came up with conflicting opinions.  Perhaps the learning here is that what is good for one person, isn’t right for another.  This presents a challenge for online review sites: wouldn’t it be better if you knew that the person writing the review was ‘like you’, or if you knew they didn’t have an ulterior motive?

Inevitably, if you look for long enough, there’s always a horror story.  And somehow even if there is only one negative review among a whole host of positive ones, that has a stronger impact than the multiple good reviews.  Just one negative review can cause anxieties to creep in, and can take the edge off the excitement about your new purchase, or your next dinner venue. 

At risk of sounding like a luddite, in choosing a restaurant for the hen do, I ended up going out and looking at the restaurants in the area, chose the one I liked the look of, and then went out of my way to avoid reading reviews because I didn’t want to be put off!

We know from our Roper Reports Worldwide 2010 data that 55% of consumers globally spend quite a lot of time researching brands before making a major purchase, and while at times I feel all this information makes the decision process harder, it’s clear that in general, the availability of information nowadays has changed the way consumers buy.

So what about the future of reviews and researching purchases?  Often reviews can seem out of date by the time you read them, so are real-time reviews the way we’re heading?  And will tools become more sophisticated, pre-empting your search and sending you the latest reviews direct when you start looking at a product, or only giving you reviews from people who are similar to you?

Either way, this availability of information and reviews is set to continue growing, making it an issue companies must take into account.  With tools enabling consumers to make their views heard, keeping them happy is more important than ever, and companies need to ensure they deal with any complaints swiftly, and effectively, to prevent that one bad experience being the one people hear about.