THE PHILIPPINES, AUGUST 17, 2012: “People living in rural areas see things differently, thus behave differently.” This is the main reason behind Kantar Media’s dedication to look at people living in rural areas and determine their spending habits.
According to Gabriel Buluran, general manager of Kantar Media Philippines, 50% of the Philippines’ 97 million population live in rural areas. It has also been found that 40% of the sales of fast-moving consumer goods come from rural areas.
In a presentation at the Makati Shangri-La called “Wider, Better, Richer: Sharing rich consumer insights through better market understanding and wider national panel coverage”, Buluran reported on the company’s findings on fast moving consumer goods purchased by urban and rural. Milk products ranked number one in both rural and urban grocery lists. This is followed by snacks/biscuits and fabric cleaning in the urban shopping list while seasonings and sauces and snacks/biscuits make the top two and three spots respectively in the rural shopping list.
Meanwhile, the June-July 2012 data of top TV ad spend by category and the corresponding consumer reaction showed that hair shampoo ranked number one in the ad costs but is also one of the fastest moving goods in the market. This is followed by detergents and laundry soaps then hair conditioners. Entertainment ranked number eight in ad spend but is one of the first things consumers let go of in times of crisis. While wireless telephony ranked number nine and is considered as a “maybe” in consumers’ list of priorities.
The old belief that consumers in rural areas spend less was also refuted by Kantar Media’s findings. The average income in rural areas is Php 14,677. Php 6,605 goes to food and the total expense amounts up to Php13,591. This is compared with the Php 15,515 total expense of a person living in an urban area with an average monthly income of Php 23,881.
Kantar Media aims to provide analysis to companies that paints the “Filipino in hi definition”.
