Irish Consumer Report provides valuable insight into disposable spend

According to The Marketing Institute & UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School this week (In their Consumer Market monitor report – Q2 2019), the Irish recession is well and truly over, as consumer investment in holiday trips has increased by €6.5billion.

But did weather conditions in 2018 have an impact?  Storm Emma and the Beast from The East hit Ireland in late February and early March, bringing the country to a standstill under metres of snow as temperatures plummeted to -7C, in contrast the temp rose to 32C in June across the West of Ireland – Are Irish consumers being influenced by increasing weather extremes when it comes to the holiday investment or is it just the simple fact that we have more disposable income.

Maybe they are investing in a holiday to cheer themselves up rather than other more expensive investments such as moving to a new house or buying a new car? The report suggests that ‘55,000 homes were sold in 2018 and sales have been flat so far this year suggesting a similar outcome for 2019’ and that the market for car sales is still following a negative trend as the ‘market for cars is the most troubled sector right now; sales for the first half of this year are down by -12.9% for a total of 50,861’.

In contrast the Irish Consumer Sentiment Index for April 2019 (Published in May 2019) suggested ‘an uncertain economic outlook and related worries about the outlook for household incomes caused Irish consumer sentiment to weaken in April’, suggesting an ‘nervous Irish consumer may be concerned that the best of the recovery may be behind them. However, job gains and a growing population mean that the Irish economy should still see a solid increase in consumer spending in 2019’.

These reports are extremely useful for marketers trying to tap into consumers disposable income but make sure to balance it out with your own internal research specific to  customer base you manage or are seeking to target – Take a look at the  The Marketing Institute & UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School Consumer Market monitor report – Q2 2019 via the following link  – Click