Thought leadership – understanding the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on our values and ambitions

There’s no doubting the Coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on us all. There’s been a plethora of articles about how our relationship with work is changing and leading to mass resignations and the increasing value we’re placing on our leisure time. After almost two years (and counting!) of disruption to our daily lives, we wanted to look deeper to understand how these changes have impacted the personal values and ambitions that drive us. And if our values and ambitions have changed, what does this mean for brands? Specifically, how do brands respond and what do they need to do to build meaningful relationships with consumers in a post-pandemic world?
We partnered with our good friends Little Wing to answer these questions in a proprietary research study that comprised expert interviews with consumer and business psychologist Dimitrios Tsivrikos, wellbeing and life coach Leanne Evans, and cultural and consumer trends expert Ruth Marshall-Johnson, as well as an online survey with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK adults aged 16+.
Following a round of factor analysis to distil a range of data on personality, values and ambitions, we segmented the UK adult population into six groups based on how the pandemic has changed them. While almost everyone has experienced a complete shakeup of their values and ambitions over the last 18 months, this segmentation reveals how the lived experience of it hasn’t been the same for everyone.
Results of this study are being released in a series of posts on our blog. But if you’d like to discuss the findings in more detail, including what they mean for your brand, please get in touch – we have the consumers of more than 30 brands profiled in our data!