With Asia's rebounding economy gathering pace over the last year, the region's affluent 'A' and 'B' segments have been left better off financially, and more willing to make non-essential purchases, specifically when it comes to consumer electronics.
But while current ownership figures suggest a healthy sector, the intent to purchase figures show a slightly different picture. While remaining relatively stable and in postive territory -- for now -- they indicate a weakening desire for new technology.
Synovate's latest PAX (Pan Asia Pacific Cross Media) survey shows average monthly household income has increased from US$4,861 to $5,022, an increase of 3.3 per cent. This rise in disposable income has been similarly reflected by an increase in the level of personal and household ownership of quality items, particularly the technology brands, says Synovate media director Steve Garton.
"There's confidence and there's money in the markets, and that's underpinning consumption," says Garton. "It's fair to say that the people you can find in regional media now versus a year ago are probably more confident and more willing to spend than they were at this time last year."
Over the last year, ownership of laptop and notebook computers jumped from 24.5 per cent to more than 30 per cent, while desktop computer experienced a similar rise, moving from 60.8 to 64.4 per cent. Other personal items, such as internet-enabled mobile phones (33.1 per cent to 42.51 per cent) and MP3 players (25.8 per cent to 33.4 per cent) also proved significantly more popular.
But it was the household ownership results which led the way in consumer demand. LCD and plasma televisions experienced the sharpest rise, growing from 7.8 per cent to 10.3 per cent, a positive change of 31.2 per cent. Digital still cameras experienced the next largest increase in the category, growing from 40.2 per cent to 51.8 per cent, a positive change of almost 29 per cent. Digital video cameras, DVD players and flat screen TVs all experienced marked growth during the year.
"It's a fantastic time to be a marketer of high-ticket items, with an emphasis particularly on digital gadgets, not just in buying the first one, but in people trading up or replacing as well," observes Garton.
But the personal and household purchasing intention categories -- the percentage of those intending to make purchases in the next year -- show the recent consumer enthusiasm for technology products may be tapering off. Eight of the 11 items in the personal intention category experienced a drop, with only luxury watches, designer goods and MP3 players breaking positive ground. Although not as pronounced, the trend continued in the household intention category, with falls in five of the nine categories.
However, there is some good news for advertisers, with the region's affluent 'A' and 'B' consumers demonstrating they still maintain a healthy appetite for media. In the news and business channels, CNNI leads the way with a total reach of 16.7 per cent, and an even higher 21.2 per cent among top management. CNNI vice-president for advertising sales William Hsu says the increases for the network were a result of localised promotion initiatives in several markets across the region. "The places where we did do stuff, those places have registered an increase in PAX in that quarter," he says.
BBC World was the next most- watched channel, improving its reach from 8.4 to 8.8 per cent and nine to 11.4 per cent of top management, six months into its 'Putting news first' rebranding strategy. CNBC and Bloomberg Television both remained stable in terms of the overall PAX sample reach, but both saw significant increases among the top management segment (CNBC 9.7 per cent and Bloomberg three per cent).
Channel News Asia experienced a rise from 3.5 to 3.8 per cent in overall reach, but lost viewers among top management. Discovery Channel remained the number one channel among those surveyed, followed by CNNI, National Geographic and MTV.
In print, all three major dailies showed gains across the total PAX sample and in top management. The Financial Times remained the region's most popular daily on the back of its Asian edition, improving from 0.6 per to 1.5 per cent and 2.2 to 3.8 per cent among top management.
"We know our readers are looking for both Asian and global stories, and they know they can trust the FT's judgement to strike the right balance," says Su-Mei Thompson, managing director, FT Asia.
"The limited degree of regional tailoring we do allows us to deliver crucial features and sections for our market. For instance, our 'Investing in China' page and our 'Asia Insight' reprint series have been well received by readers and advertisers," she notes.
The Asian Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune both saw strong gains during the last year, with AWSJ moving from 0.6 to 1.1 per cent and two to 3.3 per cent of top management, while the IHT jumped from 0.3 to 0.8 per cent and 1.1 to 1.4 per cent of top management. Among the news magazines, Time remained ahead of rival Newsweek in both categories, posting improvements of 5.8 to 6.1 per cent and 8.6 to 9.4 per cent of top management. Newsweek lost readers across the 10 markets, but remained stable among top management.
The Economist finished clear of Fortune and Forbes in the top management category with 4.9 per cent reach, compared to 3.1 and 1.6 per cent respectively. Among lifestyle/entertainment titles, Reader's Digest saw a drop in readers in both total reach and top management, as did National Geographic magazine.
The PAX survey covers 10 markets in both the consumer and print categories, and 11 in TV viewing. They are Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia. In the TV category, Japan is included as the 11th market.