• Retail
• FMCG
• Premium Goods
• Financial Services
• Technology
• White Goods
• Travel & Holiday
• Automotive
• Food Service
• Consumer Services

• Marketing
• Consumer Insight
• Consumer Strategy
• Consumer Planning
• Brand
• Category Insight
• Research

• Marketing Agencies
• Market Research Firms
• Advertising Agencies
• Branding Agencies
• Consumer Trends Analysis Firms
• Category Insight Firms
• Economic Researchers

	Day 1 – 23rd March: Conference
	Day 2 – 24th March: 1. Simplicity-Based Messaging – Creativity Workshop 2. Environmental Sustainability Messaging Workshop

• Gaining a deeper, cross-category understanding of the post-recession consumer to help brands understand how to position themselves most effectively

• A 360° analysis of consumer trends in different purchasing situations and identifying how to tap in to the consumer’s motivations for this behaviour

• Learning how brands have communicated with the values and concerns of their consumers, gaining tools to implement this knowledge

• Illustrating how consumers feel about their financial security, and which groups of consumers have significantly changed their behaviour because of this
• Analysing some of the key social, cultural and political factors shaping consumer behaviour after the recession
• Categorising the list of value priorities of the post-recession consumer and whether these values, such as environmental sustainability, are likely to become more or less important as time progresses
• Learning from purchasing patterns during the recession, such as decreased customer loyalty, and understanding the values of social responsibility, quality and sustainability, that may ensure future brand loyalty
• Consumer trends and multi-channel communications – how technology is changing ways of communicating to the consumer and the implications this has for purchase patterns post-recession

• Understanding how the concept of value for money has been transformed through the recession, with consumers being more deal-conscious
• Analysing the importance to the consumer of premium qualities such as the experience, values, authenticity and simplicity in the message and how priorities are changing towards them
• Explaining the increasing shift in emphasis towards the experience of premium brands for consumers
• How retailers and brands will be able to use this knowledge to keep value in their products, maintaining profitability for them, and adding value for the customer

• Factors that affect the amount of disposable income consumers have, such as the speed of paying off mortgages
• Predicting to what extent the credit crunch trends towards thriftiness will stick, and how consumer spending can eventually be boosted to ensure economic growth
• Understanding the impact of credit trends on retailers, and how this will change in the future

Gary Price, UK Marketing Director, Aviva plc
Dave Skelsey, Director, Strictly Financial

• Understanding how broadband providers benefited from the recession and current consumer attitudes towards them
• Predicting the impact of bringing integrated internet TV to mass market
• Analysing trends in FCMG brands resulting from the recessionary trend towards consumers entertaining in the home

Whilst consumers delay making large purchases during the recession, the key for home electronics and white goods manufacturers is how to draw people to their brand when they eventually make that purchase.

• Comparing the consumer values, preferred channels, and ideas of price that apply to white goods, with discretionary large purchases
• Analysing the importance of trust in brands: values of authenticity, products with longevity, simplicity of messaging, and the importance of consumer experience
• Addressing the new consumer awareness of sustainability in this category and emphasis on cutting energy bills
• What other categories can learn from these “in home” values

• A review of consumer receptiveness to technology brands, with particular emphasis on youth segments
• Consideration of the most important values held by these consumers, such as simplicity and authenticity
• Evaluating what lessons can be learnt from the technology category for other discretionary purchases

There are some things that, even in a recession, consumers are not prepared to compromise on, such as a lavish birthday dinner with friends, Christmas gifts, or their morning coffee at work.  But how can brands utilise this insight to unlock the spending power of the consumer out of the home?

• Learning how premium food and drink brands were impacted by the trend for scratch cooking rather than eating out, and whether this trend is likely to continue
• Hearing from experts in the hospitality industry, to understand how brands can cope with the increasingly price-conscious consumer out of the home
• How staying indoors has affected the pub and restaurant industry and what can be learnt from other categories to drive consumers back to their brand

Understanding how fashion brands are reacting to the consumer’s new attitudes and behaviours.

• Learning from revolutions on the high street; understanding how brands will have to adapt to a more empowered consumer
• Analysing the values that consumers require in the fashion category
• Hearing from luxury fashion brands that succeeded during the recession, to understand how consumers really feel about this sort of discretionary purchase

• Analysing the benefits of holidaying in the UK for brands and retailers and whether this is likely to persist post-recession
• Understanding how to integrate environment and social responsibility values into the travel industry

• The values that will drive people back to car brands, including environmental sustainability values, and re-branding strategies to harness this
• Evaluating how the luxury-essential equation and the emerging consumer values will affect the automotive industry in the future

• Understanding the role of the sustainability agenda in consumer behaviours and priorities
• Sustainability and the cosmetics industry – how to reconcile essentially indulgent, superficial and selfish treats with caring for the world

• Messaging the values that matter most to the consumer, and tools for targeting the different moods of the consumer depending on their purchasing context
• Cross-category lessons that can be drawn from post-recession consumer trends, such as attitudes towards premium brands and areas where consumers are not prepared to compromise: the “essential-luxury” equation
• Learning how brands and retailers can shape consumer behaviour in the future through gaining a deeper understanding of their chief concerns

• Explaining why simplicity is so important post-recession
• Simplicity in the product, the retail environment, the multi-channel communication and in the message
• How brands are battling to rebuild loyalty and trust amongst their consumers
• Understanding the importance at this particular time of regaining brand loyalty through authenticity, and how to communicate these values to the consumer

• Breaking down the sustainability agenda into its constituent parts, and how these apply to the consumer in terms of priorities
• Analysing different consumer personas and categories in which sustainability is playing an increasingly important role
• Understanding how to maximise the potential of “green” messaging, even when it is merely expected, for example in a mainstream retailer