The Indian Consumer’s New Year’s Resolution:ACNielsen survey

Company News, December 30

MUMBAI

With less than few days to go before the end of the year, over half (59%) of the India’s online population has already decided on their New Year’s Resolution, with 67 percent of them promising to exercise more, and 74 percent planning a better home/work balance, according to ACNielsen, the world’s leading market research and information company.

The ACNielsen Online Consumer Opinion Survey, the largest half-yearly survey of its kind, was conducted in late October/early November, surveying 25,408 internet users in 46 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, the Baltics and Middle East.

Across the world, Latin Americans are the most likely to make a New-Year’s Resolution (71%) followed by people across Asia Pacific (65%). At the other end of the scale, 60 percent of North Americans said they had no plans to make any resolutions for next year.

Surprisingly, it’s the Indian men who are more in favour of having a New Year Resolution (60%) compare to women (54%)”. Another interesting findings that the research shows, that people in India (74%) surpass their Asia Pacific (61%) counterparts in their desire to strike a better work life balance in the coming new year and said Sarang Panchal, Executive Director, Customized Research, ACNielsen South Asia.

Though it always a common complains that New Year resolutions are hard to keep , most people participated in the survey who plan to make one, expect to keep it too. 99 percent of Indians who are making a new-year’s resolution also expect to stick to it.

Most popular New-Year’s Resolutions

Besides exercising more and seeking a better work/life balance, going on a diet (32%), spending more time with family (28%), and taking up a new hobby (26%) were other popular New Year’s resolutions for consumers globally.

While ‘exercise more’ and ‘better work/life balance’ took the top two places for people in all regions, the order of importance for the rest of the top five New Year resolutions varied, with “spending more time with the family” came as the third most popular resolution for Indian(50%) which is again quiet different from the rest of Asia Pacific (31%) ‘taking up a new hobby’ ranked third for people in Asia Pacific.

It’s worth noting that ”exercise more” is the most popular New Year resolutions for Indians in their 50’s (68%) and it changes to “spend more time with family” as soon as they cross 65 (70%). For younger generation at their 25s it is “work life balance” is the most sought after New Year resolution (82%). 67 percent of online Indian consumer under the age of 20 would like to “quit smoking” in the coming year.

“People make New Year’s resolutions to make up for the things they should have done but didn’t in the past year,” Panchal added. “Judging by our survey findings, there is a strong connection between the top three most popular New Year’s resolutions among global consumers – ‘Exercise more, better work/life balance and go on a diet’ – are all designed to set us on a path to a better and healthier 2007.”

Asia Pacific markets took out the top positions globally for most New Year’s resolution. Vietnam topped the world with most people seeking a better work/life balance (84%), spending more time with family (54%), avoiding disastrous personal relationships (50%), and a change of job (28%); Thailand tops the world with most people planning to take up a new hobby (58%) and cut down on alcohol (18%) in the new year. Philippines has the most people in the world wanting to exercise more (77%) as their New Year resolution and in Malaysia, it’s going on a diet (52%).

While over half of the world’s consumers are planning to make changes to their lives in 2007, there are always exceptions, where people have not bought into the idea of a new year’s resolution – led by over 80 percent of Finns, Swedish, Hungarians and Danes. In fact, eight of the top 10 countries where people do not plan to make any resolution hail from Europe.

And in Asia, while more than a third of Japanese claim plan to make a new-year resolution, 13 percent are quite clear that they won’t stick to it – Happy New Year!

About ACNielsen

ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world's leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behavior. 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. To learn more, visit www.acnielsen.co.in