MANILA, Philippines – Though Filipinos may not be the most satisfied about their lives right now, and are somewhat less content about their life today as compared to a year ago, findings of the latest Eye on Asia survey show that Filipinos still think that the Philippines is a place where people are more optimistic about their future.

“In the face of all this instability, Filipinos have actually been quite stable,” Steve Yi, chief strategy officer of Grey Korea, said in a recent phone interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Grey Group Asia Pacific, a global marketing communications company, recently released its 2009 Eye on Asia study, which looked at respondents’ attitudes toward life today and in the future, work, and finances amid a global recession.

The study, which was conducted between December 2008 and January 2009, covered a total of 8,000 respondents, or 500 respondents from each of the 16 countries included in the survey – Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The study covered respondents aged 18 to 65 from all socioeconomic classes.

Eye on Asia also looked at attitudes toward brands and marketing, and proposed a “unique segmentation” of consumers based on how they “think, feel and react to brands” rather than the traditional geopolitical boundaries, which the study called “Asian Brand Tribes.”

Optimism in Asia

Yi said that while Asians in general may not be too happy at the moment, they’re not that unhappy.

“They may not be very happy currently, for a variety of reasons, but they are not that unhappy, compared, say, to the West,” Yi said, adding that Asians also have high hopes for the future.

“Asians are very optimistic about the future. For example, we asked the question, ‘compared with 12 months ago, would you say that you are more content, less content, or about the same?’ We found that a lot of people scored very low, because obviously, compared to 12 months ago, the situation’s very bad,” Yi said, pointing out that the survey was conducted during a global economic downturn.
Household finances

“But we also asked them the question, ‘how do you see your own household finances changing in the next year?’ And we found that a lot of people also saw their finances actually improving,” Yi added.

“In the Philippines, 48 percent answered that they see their finances improving in the next 12 months – that’s quite a large percent, given the current situation on the market right now.”

On the question, “how satisfied are you with your life today,” the Philippines scored 2.58, slightly below the Asian average of 2.72. On the question comparing contentment with life today against 12 months ago, the country scored -0.04. The regional average was -0.09.

As for how they see their household finances changing, nearly half of Filipino respondents (48 percent) see it getting better in the year to come. The country scored 0.24, as against the regional average of 0.15.

Most Filipinos (27 percent strongly agree, 50 percent somewhat agree) also think that the future is likely to be better than the past –scoring 3.02 against the Asian average of 3.03.

The Philippines also scored the highest as the place where people are “more optimistic about their own future” (80 percent strongly agree, 19 percent somewhat agree) – registering a score of 3.79, the highest among the 16 countries, and well above the 3.47 Asian average.

“Countries that are not yet heavily urbanized, like the Philippines, tend to be much more easy-going, a little bit less affected by the recession and tend to be more optimistic,” Yi also noted, adding that highly developed countries, like Japan and Korea, tend to be “quite depressed.”

The Philippines also ranked among the top five countries, in terms of concern for household finances (72 percent very concerned). The Philippines scored 3.67, above the Asian average of 3.31, and fourth only to Vietnam (3.85), Sri Lanka (3.74) and Korea (3.59).

“A lot of Asians are saving for the future. It’s kind of interesting. We found out that more developed countries are saving less. The countries that are stereotyped as saving a lot of money are not saving very much at all,” Yi shared. “As for the Filipinos, about 80 percent believe that they’re actively saving for their family’s futures. That’s actually just above average,” he added.

He cited figures for Korea (60 percent) and Japan (67 percent) as being “well below the Asian average.”

Brand tribes

The study also revealed five distinct “segments” of Asian consumers – the “new” brand enjoyers, the perceived value seekers, individualistic believers, status seekers and function firsts.

“We feel that there is a commonality among Asian consumers that transcends borders,” Yi explained.

“Filipinos for example are defined as ‘perceived value seekers [41 percent].’ That means they get value for money. They want the best quality item they can get for the best price. It may not be the top-of-the-line item, but it will be a very good item,” he said. “Filipinos have the largest number of perceived value seekers among Asians.”

Another 26 percent of Filipinos are called “New Brand Enjoyers.”

“This segment likes to try new brands,” said Yi. “It’s all about the brand experience. They just have to have a different experience … and they’re open to try new things.”

The third largest group in the country is the “Function First” group.

“These people are all about practical products. Essentially, if it’s a product that looks horrible, if it does what it’s supposed to do very well, that’s the type of product these people would pick,” explained Yi. About 20 percent of Filipino respondents fall under this category.

The last two groups each had below 10 percent. “Only 9 percent of Filipinos are classified as ‘status seekers,’ which means that Filipinos are not all about pursuing luxury brands. They’re more about practicality and value,” said Yi.

Only 5 percent are classified as “individualist believers” – those defined as being concerned about what other people think but choose to buy their own brands, or those who enjoy a mosaic of brands, with relatively low interest in established brands.

“It seems that Filipinos are much more communal or consultative in terms of their decision-making so they’re not all about doing whatever they want individually, or trying to be different from their group,” Yi noted.

“The segmentation is important because these groups exist in every Asian country. It’s a different way of looking at consumers across borders,” he added.

How do the Philippine “brand tribes” stack up in comparison to tribes in other countries?

“It’s pretty varied,” Yi said. “Essentially, countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Malaysia have large proportions of perceived value seekers. New brand enjoyers are in countries like Vietnam, China. Individualist believers, not surprisingly, are in countries that are very highly developed like Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

“Actually, each country has a good portion of each segment. Some of the countries almost had even numbers in the segmentation, like 20 percent per segment or very close to it. The important thing is that the segments exist,” he added.

Retail habits

The survey also showed that most Asians still chose to shop through retail stores.

“We thought that in this day and age, there’s a lot of variations on how people shop. We still found that a majority of Filipinos still shop through basic retail stores like department stores. Over 90 percent of Asians still shop in department stores,” Yi said.

“For the Philippines, 98 percent of Filipinos said they shop at the department store. It’s really number one. The next is online – 46 percent of Filipinos responded that they shopped online over the past year. That’s a pretty large percentage, shopping online, at this stage,” Yi added.

Small percentages also shopped through other channels like in direct sales clubs (17 percent) and home TV shopping (13 percent).

“But basically, they’re still going to the store, buying the product, seeing it, taking it out, trying it on, and then bringing it back to the house,” said Yi.

Now on its fourth year, Eye on Asia, which has been recognized as an annual predictor of trends, has interviewed over 33,000 people from 16 countries.

For the 2009 study, the Grey Group conducted a qualitative survey to benchmark attitudes, values and behaviors, using a consistent questionnaire implemented by sister WPP research company, The Kantar Group; and an ethnographic probe, which focused on how people feel about different retail channels across the Asia Pacific region.

The Grey Group, which ranks among the largest global marketing communications companies, is represented in 96 countries, with 432 offices operating in 154 cities worldwide. In the Asia-Pacific region, Grey Group covers 29 cities in 17 countries and has a combined staff strength of over 2,000. Its parent company is WPP.