Today the Conference Board announced that US Consumer
Confidence is at a 5 year high- so B2B should be in for better times. But first
some details of the methodology and measure of the consumer confidence index.
The Consumer Confidence Index is made up of five
measures two of which relate to consumer perceptions of the current situation
and three measures that relate to expectations about the future. Through a
random mail survey consumers are asked to respond in three categories (a)
positive (b) negative and (c) neutral to the five questions. The survey was
started in 1967 on a bimonthly basis and now is done on a monthly basis since
1977 and more details are available in a technical note of the
Conference Board. The questions, paraphrased from the technical note, are:
- Consumer Present Situation Index:
- Do you think that the current business
conditions are positive, negative or neutral? - Do you think that the current employment conditions
are positive, negative or neutral?
- Do you think that the current business
- Consumer Expectations Index:
- Do you think business conditions six months
from today will be positive, negative or neutral? - Do you think employment conditions six
months from today will be positive, negative or neutral? - Do you think your total family income
six months from today will be positive, negative or neutral?
- Do you think business conditions six months
Interestingly, the Expectations
Index in May 2013 rose to 82.4 from 74.3 in April 2013 or a rise of
8.1 points compared to the Present Situation
Index that rose to 66.7 in May from 61 in April or a rise of only 5.7 points.
In other words, consumers are upbeat for the holiday season six months from
now.
As retailers take notice of the consumer sentiment
and expectations, we can expect that in a whole range of consumer goods the
supply chain will start getting revved up and more orders should flow to brand
suppliers.
One might ask: what about capital equipment and
technology spending?….well when consumer demand goes up as the consumer
confidence index is predicting that more production is needed. More production
and faster moving sales will surely spike technology demand as well. For all
B2B is ultimately driven by consumer demand of which the consumer confidence
index is a leading indicator.
Happy days might be here for B2B in the US. This is
the time for B2B companies to step up their digital marketing and sales
efforts. Contact StratoServe.