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Kiwi Resilience Shines Through Post 9-11

ACNielsen Explores Asia Pacific Attitudes to the Impact of Terrorist Attacks

Auckland, 12 March 2002 – New Zealanders do not share the pessimism of their Australian or Asia Pacific neighbours about the long term impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to an ACNielsen.online study released six months after the event.

The study of 8,000 mostly professionals across New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in December 2001 reveals that, of the eight nationalities researched, New Zealanders are the least likely to think they were about to enter a world recession.

“While 45 percent of the New Zealanders surveyed felt we are about to enter a world recession, 63 percent of Australians felt that way,” says Jocelyn Hong, Group Marketing Director, ACNielsen New Zealand. “Pessimism amongst Asian populations was even more marked: over 80 percent of respondents in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore felt they were entering a world recession.”

Overall, respondents felt the recession would be long term. Only 48 percent felt the recovery would occur by the end of 2002. The large Chinese and Japanese markets were the most pessimistic as to when the recovery would occur with just 35 percent and 22 percent expecting a recovery to occur by the end of 2002.

The ACNielsen survey has sobering implications for consumer purchasing. It reveals that over 40 percent of respondents in the Asia Pacific region have deferred making any major purchases in the past six months and slightly more (43 percent) are planning to put off buying any major purchases in the next six months.

“Once again, New Zealand consumers were the least likely of the eight countries to put off making any major purchases,” says Hong. “Only 18 percent of New Zealanders surveyed have deferred making major purchasing decisions in the past six months and 24 percent plan to defer buying major purchases in the next six months. By comparison, over 50 percent of those interviewed in Taiwan and South Korea stated they intended to put off purchasing. In Singapore, this number rises to 62 percent.”

The study also shows a number of categories could be specifically affected by consumers choosing to defer purchasing.

“The high value categories typically affected by an economic down turn such as property, motor vehicles, stocks and shares are cited in this study as purchases which will be deferred in the next six months,” says Hong. “In addition consumer technology products such as PCs, cameras and mobile phones were also stated as purchases that will be put off. Consequently, there may be pent up demand for these items in the region later this year.”

“For obvious reasons the events of September 11 have also had a major impact on the entire travel sector and this is particularly reflected in consumer attitudes towards purchasing and changing holiday plans,“ adds Hong.

New Zealanders are less likely to change their plans to travel internationally in the next six months than most others in the Asia Pacific region. Only nine percent of New Zealanders said they would change their travel plans, compared with 13 percent of Australians, 24 percent of those from South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, 30 percent of Hong Kong consumers interviewed and 37 percent of Chinese.

The ACNielsen Regional Online Omnibus is a quarterly syndicated online consumer survey, gathering information from regular users of the Internet across Asia Pacific on their attitudes and preferences and consumption of media, products and services across different markets. Clients can insert specific questions as required. For more information go to the regional online omnibus product page on www.acnielsen.com/asiapacific.

ENDS

ACNielsen, a VNU company, is the world’s leading marketing information company. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the company provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behaviour. Clients rely on ACNielsen’s market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.
For further information visit http://www.acnielsen.co.nz
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