Ireland loves brands and anyone can have our data ... except social media companies

The vast majority of Irish people can't even imagine a world without the internet, while more than half of us reckon technology is "destroying" our lives, according to the section of the Ipsos Global Trends study that looks at consumers and technology.

In addition to needing technology and fearing its dystopian impact, the research paints a picture of Irish consumers who are loyal and trusting when it comes to brands’ traits, which may leave us more vulnerable to being gouged by unscrupulous operators selling nonsensical notions at vastly over-inflated prices.

That openness and positivity leave us vulnerable to exploitation when it comes to pricing. We are less price sensitive and do not respond as quickly as consumers in other markets

It also suggests we are among the countries least concerned about what the Government will do with the information it can glean from our online activity and among the most concerned about the almost unfettered power in the hands of social media companies.

When the researchers from Ipsos asked Irish people if they were "generally willing to spend extra for a brand with an image that appeals", 57 per cent said an enthusiastic yes, placing Ireland in fourth position in the global league table, behind China and India on 73 per cent and South Africa on 69 per cent.

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By contrast, only 33 per cent of Italians said they would be happy to spend more on a brand with an appealing image.

No surprises

Gerard O’Neill, chairman of research company Amárach, has tracked Irish consumers’ attitudes for many years. He said that while there was much of interest in the research, there wasn’t much by way of surprises.

“Brands matter more to Irish consumers,” he says. “We are very brand loyal and very brand aware. It is changing but only slowly, and we are very open to positive brand messages and view them in a less cynical way than in other countries. But that openness and positivity leave us vulnerable to exploitation when it comes to pricing. We are less price sensitive and do not respond as quickly as consumers in other markets.”

He points to all the ways Irish consumers pay more, from energy and transport to loans and insurance. Our willingness to trust online recommendations if they’re from a well-known site or app – put at 68 per cent – is another sign of our willingness to trust brands, “so if you are a business you better be scoring well”.

While three-quarters of Irish consumers told researchers they preferred to buy locally produced goods rather than products from abroad, Ireland was a long way adrift of China, where the percentage was 90 per cent, and Australia, where 85 per cent of people prefer to shop local. Eight countries valued buying local more than Irish people, while at the other end of the table was Singapore on 53 per cent, followed by Britain on 69 per cent.

When it came to the internet, 81 per cent of Irish people said they could not imagine the world without it, which ranked Ireland as the third most dependent on the technology. By stark contrast, 36 per cent of French people said they could conceive a life without being forever connected to everything via their mobile phones, tablets, computers and televisions.

And while we do appear to be more reliant on the internet than most, when presented with the grim statement, “I fear that technical progress is destroying our lives”, 54 per cent of Irish people agreed. People from Brazil and France on 66 per cent were most likely to agree, while Germans were the least likely to agree, with a still significant 45 per cent of people there agreeing that tech progress was “destroying our lives”.

And the robot wars haven’t even started yet.

Despite the mass migration online, prompted at least in part by Covid-19, a significant 38 per cent said they still found shopping online more difficult than shopping in traditional stores, compared with 29 per cent of Americans, the country best equipped for shopping online.

Generational shift

O’Neill says this backs up evidence of shopping online having been made more difficult by Brexit. He suggested those who say they find shopping online harder than shopping in traditional shops are likely part of “a generational shift”.

When asked if people believed they could find better deals shopping online than shopping in traditional stores, 65 per cent of people here said they could. This may seem like a sizeable figure, but was in fact towards the bottom of the league table and well behind China on 94 per cent, Brazil (90 per cent) and India (83 per cent).

There is what could be interpreted as good news for the Government when it comes to privacy concerns. The research would indicate that Irish people are among the least concerned about how information collected about them when they go online is used by the authorities. While 60 per cent expressed concern, the figure meant Ireland was the third least concerned nation, finishing just ahead of Denmark and Germany. By contrast, 81 per cent of people in India and 77 per cent of people in Brazil agree with the statement.

More Irish people believe it is “inevitable that we will all lose some privacy in the future because of what new technology can do” than those in any other country, with 88 per cent of people accepting that it will happen, placing us ahead of Australia and Canada who were tied on 87 per cent.

Despite an apparent resignation to the loss of privacy by technology, Irish people are by no means blind to the downside of this. Only 34 per cent of Irish people agreed with the suggestion that “people worry too much about their privacy online [and are] not concerned about what companies or the government know” about them.

The vast majority of Irish people believe social media companies have too much power, with 86 per cent of Irish people agreeing with this statement. This was second only in global terms to Brazil on 91 per cent. A general concern about the power held by social media companies was reflected in this figure not falling below 75 per cent in any country surveyed.

But what about our comparative lack of concern with what the State might do with the information it gleans from our online activity?

"We see it as a benign thing, and a digital government is important when it comes to better and more democratic services – but we are far more anxious about what the private sector is doing," O'Neill says. "That is a shout-out to regulators that indicates if the Government was more challenging and more demanding of tech companies in relation to data protection they would be pushing an open door."

The Ipsos/Irish Times data presents Ireland among its European counterparts and larger nations. The full survey includes 25 countries. ipsos.com