trading up、trading down

アメリカで“Latte Era”が終焉しつつあるというNews Weekの記事。記事では、“Across the economy, consumers are now opting for smaller, less expensive items. ”(消費者はおしなべて、より小型でより廉価な商品への志向を強めている）と指摘している。そうした風潮を象徴するエピソードとして、３４歳のコンピュータエンジニアがフレンチコーヒー店に足しげく通うのを止めて、エスプレッソメーカーを購入して、毎日のコーヒー代を８ドルから１ドルに節約したという話を紹介している（青字）。より小型でより安価なものを求める消費者行動に影響を与えている要因として、記事はfrugality(倹約精神）、environmentalism(環境保護意識）、job(雇用や賃金への不安）、real-estate markets（不動産市場）の４つを指摘している。不動産市場とは、最近のサブプライム問題に関連している。この記事は、アメリカの個人消費が低迷し、小売企業の業績が冴えない中で、Wal-Martの業績が好調であることの関連で書かれている。すなわち、買回り品(discretionary items)ではなく、必需品(necessities)を扱うWal-Martの強さが証明されたという論理である。消費者の購買行動として、“trading up”と“trading down”の２つがある。前者はより高級品に買い換える購買行動であり、後者はより廉価品に買い換える購買行動である。Nordstromなどの百貨店が業績を悪化させているのに対して、Wal-Martが好調なのはtrading downの風潮すら業績の追い風になるからである。

Ｌａｔｔｅ Eraという表現は、Starbucksを連想させるが、マーケティングの用語として定着するかどうかは定かではない。

The Latte Era Grinds Down

Average Americans were living like the Riches, thanks to easy credit and the real-estate bubble. Now they're trading down instead of trading up.

By Daniel Gross | NEWSWEEK

Oct 22, 2007 Issue

Brian LaCroix, a 34-year-old computer engineer, developed a taste for expensive coffees. Earlier this year, however, he stopped frequenting a French coffee shop in Dallas and bought an espresso machine, slashing the daily cost for deux lattes from $8 to $1. The newlywed and his wife, who have a combined income of about $200,000, have also cut spending by mowing their own lawn. And Brian asked to work from home two days a week to save on gas for his 2002 Ford Ranger. The LaCroixs have been motivated by a combination of factors: frugality, environmentalism and concern about the job and real-estate markets. (Earlier in the decade Yvette, now an operations manager for Fannie Mae, lost her job in the telecom bust.) "We want to be sure that we can afford our home on just one salary without having to dip into savings," says Brian.

For the past several years, American consumers at every rung of the income ladder have been trading up—splurging on a growing array of luxury products, from $4 lattes to $4,000 handbags. With easy access to credit, especially home-equity loans, middle-class Americans began regularly trading up for items that appealed to them, buying food staples at Kroger but splurging on Kobe beef at Whole Foods. Suddenly, everybody was a luxury consumer—for certain items.

But as the saying goes, what goes up must come down. Now many of those same Americans who traded up are shunning luxuries and returning to basics. The upshot: many of the companies that expanded in the hopes of reaching a mass audience of luxury consumers are suffering. Blame the overall slowdown in economic growth, the growing scarcity and cost of credit, and, above all, the sad-sack housing market. "The top 20 percent of households haven't seen a decline in real income, but the bottom 20 percent is suffering and the middle 60 percent is getting by," says Michael Silverstein, senior partner with Boston Consulting Group and co-author of "Trading Up."

Across the economy, consumers are now opting for smaller, less expensive items. In the past three years, sales of compact cars—cheaper to buy and operate than SUVs—have risen from 13.6 percent to 17.7 percent of total U.S. auto sales, even as automakers' incentive spending per compact car fell by 55 percent. Leasetrader.com, a 10-year-old company in Miami that helps people get in and out of car leases, says that up to 15 percent of its customers are seeking to trade down to smaller cars. "This is the first time in at least six years that we've noticed people wanting to do that," says Leasetrader.com spokesman John Sternal.

Mark and Erin Reed Adams, wedding photographers who live in Reynoldstown, a neighborhood near downtown Atlanta, have kicked this trend down a notch. This spring, they bought a pink 2005 Stella scooter on eBay for $2,300. By using the scooter for most transportation, the couple has cut its monthly gasoline bill by $250. "It's also nice that we're doing our part to reduce our dependence on oil and help the environment a little bit," says Adams.