Trends interpreted from a cohort analysis of 400 measures on men and women’s lifestyles and values

Introduction

The domestic business environment is currently becoming tougher due to factors like rising raw material costs and energy prices, as well as increases in logistics costs. The following factors that have made advances over the mid to long term are also having a sizable impact on businesses:
・Market maturation due to a declining birthrate and aging population, and the commodification of products/services
・The diversification of communities people belong to, lifestyles, and values due to an increase in information contact points such as the internet and social media
・Increasing climate changed and natural disasters due to a worsening of the global environment
・A tense international situation and rising geopolitical risks
・Social changes such as the acceleration of the digital transformation (DX) due to the impact of covid.

In order to discover new business changes in light of these changes, companies need a high-definition understanding of and insights into consumers, while also looking out for phenomena and changes from a broad perspective including alternative products and services in the market. Furthermore, exploring the background and causes to changes enables us to prepare for future needs and changes in consumer behavior with its impact on business and categories in mind.

Fig 1 presents the framework used when predicting how the various environmental changes mentioned above will impact the category one is entering. By broadly gathering background information and organizing it structurally, we are able to make forecasts based on a multi-layered understanding of consumers. In this diagram, the “lifestyle/values” are directly linked with category needs and consumer behavior, but what should we focus on now? This article will focus on 5 lifestyles and values and examine hints for interpreting needs with.

Fig 1

Five lifestyles and values to watch out for

In this article, we have focused on the following 5 lifestyles and values:
・Wellness (maintaining and increasing one’s mental and physical health as well as beauty);
・Cost performance (how much value is felt for the amount paid);
・Time performance (how much value is felt for time and effort spent);
・Individual orientation; and
・Diversity

“Health” has been a point of interest for many years, but now it is said there is a growing trend for “not just physical health, buy both mind and body health”. In addition, while expressions like “young people’s cost performance consciousness” were heard in the past, they also recently appear “conscious of time performance” too.
In terms of interpersonal relationships, the number of marriages in Japan has fallen to 500,000 couples, the lowest number since the end of the Second World War, through the period where people were unable to meet due to the covid crisis. Some people may also feel that they have become more introverted and individually oriented than before.

Let’s get into an examination of who the five lifestyles and values to watch out for refers to, and the sorts of needs they are associated with.

Current needs as seen in “Cohort analysis on lifestyles and values”

The current study used a Bayesian cohort analysis (see here for details) to structure lifestyles and values based on the 2012 ~ 2023 data on 400 measures x males/females from the fixed-point “Profiler” questionnaire of men and women aged 15 ~ 79 who participate in INTAGE’s SCI*1 consumer panel. This methodology enables us to break down the characteristics of “age” and “generation” which are often confused when examining chronological data.

Fig 2

From this point onward, let’s take a closer look at 5 measures of interest out of the abovementioned 400 measures.

Wellness (maintaining and increasing one’s mental and physical health as well as beauty)

The idea of “body makeup” has become widespread recently, with people now conscious not only of maintaining their mental and physical health, but also of the beauty of their external appearance. Behavior like “men wearing makeup” is now also more widespread, particularly among young people. We thus broke down the measure “I want to be seen as beautiful by others” into three effects for both men and women (Fig 3).
A positive number indicates higher applicability than the average, while a negative number conversely indicates lower applicability than average.

Fig 3

With men, the younger the generation, and with women, the younger they are the more they want to be seen as beautiful by others, that is, have strong beauty consciousness, indicating these are sizable differences between the genders.
It is no surprise that the men’s cosmetics market has grown in recent years. In addition, “young men who use sun parasols” were much talked about last year, and are a reflection of the need to “prevent skin damage due to tanning, and the desire to maintain one’s skin’s condition”. On the other hand, women are becoming more interested not only in cosmetics and beauty services, but body makeup as well, so the protein market is expanding.

Cost performance (how much value is felt for the amount paid)

Fig 4 is a graph of the measure “When I buy products, I think about whether I really need them or not”.

Fig 4

The older the generation, the more carefully men consider cost performance, while with women, this characteristic is true among the New Breed ~ 2nd Baby Boomers, indicating a difference between genders here too. On examination of the reason why this applies to a greater extent among males of older generations, the War Years generation born before the Second World War to the Baby Boomers generation born immediately after the war experienced shortages and poverty during and after the way, so are cautious about consumption, are strongly of the sentiment they don’t want to waste things, and tend to take care of belongings and use them for a long time.

In addition, among both men and women, awareness of cost performance is increasing among university students and workers in their 20s who have just started their working lives with little income or savings, and those aged 65 or over who are starting to live on pensions, compounded by the covid crisis and price rises continuing since 2020. As is expected, it is clear that people tighten their purse strings at “ages” and in “time periods” when disposable income is low. Recently, 100-yen and 300-yen fixed price stores, as well as stores laying claim to offering good value clothes, food, and house-related offers like drugstores, Workman, Gyomu Supermarket, Lopia, OK, and Nitori are performing well, with this due to the influence of increased cost performance awareness among this “time period”.

Time performance (how much value is felt for time and effort spent)

Fig 5 is a graph of the measure “I sometimes use prepared dishes and frozen food products”.

Fig 5

Among both men and women, the younger the generation, and the further along the time period, the more people use prepared dishes and frozen food products.
This is driven by a decrease in disposable time due to the increase in dual-income households and working seniors, producing the need to “shorten cooking time, and want to reduce its burden”. To capture this demand, the prepared dishes and frozen food products sections in supermarkets and convenience stores are expanding. In addition, the expansion of the market size of meal kits, cut vegetables, and liquid dashi is also indicative of heightened time performance awareness due to a focus on performance with “meals as a result” rather than “cooking as a process”.

Aside from cooking, this increased awareness of time performance is observable in all aspects of life.
・The use of word-of-mouth and social media reviews for efficient consumption and experiences
・Saving time shopping with online shopping/home delivery, cashless payment, and self-checkouts
・Saving on travel time through online view/music/game use, meetings, learning, and financial transactions
・Getting the information one wants quickly through short videos and double-speed playback

Conversely, when people start living on a pension, their awareness of saving money increases, so women aged 65 and over tend to avoid prepared dishes and frozen food products. They appear to be pressed into the ultimate choice on a daily basis between money and time/effort. With both cost performance and time performance, people’s “psychology of not wanting to get things wrong” may be becoming stronger as people try to fight back against lost “leeway” by arming themselves with information.

Individual orientation

Fig 6 is a graph of the measure “I don’t want to actively spread my social circle that much”.

Fig 6

For both men and women, the more recent, the less conscious they are of socializing. This is driven by the value of “personal responsibility” that has rapidly taken hold since around 2004, as well as online interactions via social media. Before this, this was seen as an issue for the entire society, and means of socializing were limited aside from the real community.

In addition, the desire to socialize decreases at timings where disposable income decreased due to the “consumption tax increase to 8% in 2014” and “covid crisis and price hikes”, with the outlook of individual orientation taking off here.  Akin to cost performance and time performance, somewhat closed off values may be spreading amidst a loss of “leeway”.

This individual orientation is also linked to “solo consumption” out of a desire to respect the individual even within families, and out of a desire for “alone time”. This may also be a factor in the increase in people going to yakiniku BBQ, karaoke, camping, traveling, and other places alone, which Japanese people would have been reluctant to do alone in the past.

Diversity

Fig 7 is a graph of the measure “I don’t think I need to get married”.

Fig 7

Both men and women think they don’t need to get married the younger the generation, and with the shift along time periods. It is clear there has been a sizable switch in values from the Showa era (1930s ~ 1980s) where “you don’t become a real adult until you get married”.

This is driven by the fact individual orientation has not only spread, but that for some people, disposable income is not increasing and they cannot see a bright path ahead at present, so hesitate for financial reasons. This is even more prominent among women, with this outlook rapidly taking hold amidst the decrease in real-life encounters due to the covid crisis.

In addition, the peak time they think they don’t need to get married differs by gender, in their 20s with men, and in their 40s with women, although there is a tendency for those 35 and over thinking so among both men and women. There is clearly a boundary line where they decide whether or not to actually get married that intersects at around 35 for both men and women. In society at present where there are plenty of options one can eat without cooking, such as eating out, buying ready-made meals, home delivery, retort products, instant foods, and frozen food products, one can get shopping done online and automate household chores including with robot vacuum cleaners, washing machines with dryers, and dishwashers, which enable us to live comfortably even if we reduce the time we spend on chores. One of the reasons for the increase in people not getting married may be that people can now enjoy this increased disposable time as “alone time”.

Conclusion

We have used cohort analysis to structure lifestyles and values, and interpret five trends. To summarize the trends that we have examined thus far, it seems that it will become more important to “provide value that captures diversified scenes, performance awareness, and emotions unique to each individual”.

In this article, we deliberately focused on measures that were apparent in an easily understandable way. By breaking down them into 3 effects, this makes it possible to quantitatively clarify what we vaguely intuitively understood, and while we understand that changes chronologically to date, that is, the effects of “time period”, we tend to confuse the effects of “age” and “generation”. I trust readers can appreciate the uniqueness of this approach, as well as the scope it can interpret.

In the next article, we will categorize the 400 measures x male/female = 800 measures, and explore lifestyles and values likely to become more prominent going forward.

---

[SCI® (nationwide consumer panel survey)]
Daily shopping data gathered continuously from 53,600 male and female consumers aged 15 ~ 79 nationwide. It provides information on consumers purchase status including “who, when, where, what, how many, and the price they purchased it for” for barcoded products like food, beverages, daily sundries, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and cigarettes.
SCI Shopper Index data is the tabulation of daily shopping amounts and shopping frequency based on receipt information collected by SCI when consumer goods are purchased.
*SCI is statistically processed, and does not disclose any information that could identify individual survey monitor panelists.

---

Reproduction and Quotation

◆This report is copyrighted by INTAGE Inc.
Please check the following prohibitions and precautions, and specify the source when reproducing or quoting this report.
“Source: INTAGE “Knowledge Gallery” article published MM/DD/YYYY article”

◆The following are prohibited:
・Alteration of this article in full or in part
・Sale or publication of this article in full or in part
・Uses that are against public order and morality, and uses connected with illegal activities
・Reproducing or quoting panel data* for the purpose of advertising or promoting companies, products, or services
*Panel data include: SRI+, SCI, SLI, Kitchen Diary, Car-kit, MAT-kit, Media Gauge, i-SSP, etc.

◆Other precautions:
・INTAGE Inc. shall not be liable for any trouble, loss, or damage caused by the use of this report
・These usage rules do not restrict the use of quotations or other uses permitted under the Copyright Act of Japan

◆For inquiries about reproduction and quotation, click here