INCOMES ARE SET to drop by another one per cent in 2013, according to a major new report released today.
The report by the Economic Intelligence Unit has stated that Irish businesses need to target foreign consumers if they want to see an increase in jobs and profits.
It found that having catered to the increasingly frugal domestic market over the last number of years, those companies wishing to grow now need to look further afield in order to increase their margins.
In doing so, the companies surveyed hope to generate up to half their revenues from online over the next five years and with it, hope to create between 6,500 and 13,000 new jobs.
Irish organisations hoping to grow internationally need to rethink how they go about it, however. Professor of marketing at UCD’s Smurfit School, Damien McLoughlin, believes that to be truly successful abroad, they need to stand out from the domestic products in these countries:
It would be insane for Irish firms not to think about participating in the Chinese economy, but they need to go about it in a different way.
Frugal consumer
Those domestic customers that are having to do more with less can’t be forgotten about, however, the report warned.
Citing the launch of Tesco’s ‘Everyday Value’ range as a prime example, its director of corporate affairs Dermot Breen believes that “new habits like frugality are here to stay.”
Paddy Power – who recently sent one of its executives undercover to check out staff conditions – have also noticed the increase in cost-focused consumers, noting that the average bet made with them dropped by 35 per cent in the three years from 2008 to 2011.
Entitled ‘The global consumer opportunity: Are Irish organisations ready?’, the report surveyed over 150 Irish organisations during April and May, which ranged in size and turnover.
The full report can be viewed online here.
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