Smart, savvy, and saving money: The New Consumer habits.

An interesting thing happened on the way through the Great Recession: Consumers got smarter; a whole lot smarter. Oh, don't get me wrong, they were plenty smart to begin with, but their spending habits became so well-thought and calculated in recent years that not only are consumers receiving a financial benefit to their savvy ways, but an emotional benefit as well. Looks like saving money boosts your self-esteem as well as your bottom line. As a result, these new behaviors are expected to remain. 

The Today Show featured a segment with their resident money guru Jean Chatzky and main man Matt Lauer where the two talked about new behaviors brought about by our country's recent economic struggles. Their learning came from a just-released study called "The New American Pantry Study" released by the Deloitte and Harrison group. 

It looks like folks are being smarter with their spending (vs. just reacting to a bad economy) and these new behaviors are expected to stick around. After all, the last time we went through something like this (i.e., the Great Depression) America's good savings behavior lasted about 40 years. 

So what behaviors are we talking about? Specifically, we are engaging in these 5 ways of saving: 

• Gratification management. This is the act of "waiting it out" to gain a financial savings on an item. For example: If the Gap has skinny jeans that I want, I don't get them right now at full retail price. I wait until they go on sale. Simple enough. There are plenty of deal-watching websites that can help you do this, too. Of course, there is some risk in the item not being available in the options (size, color, etc.) you want once it goes on sale, or sells out completely prior to a price reduction. 

• Private label experimentation. Folks seem more willing to give private label items a try. Where they find comparable quality, they will switch from brand name to private label. Where they see a significant decrease in quality, they will remain with the original brand. I call this reverse behavior the "Oreo-effect." Seriously, can ANY private label sandwich cookie taste as good as the original Oreo cookie? I think not. But I digress.

• Cooking from scratch. This is more than just cooking at home. This is going back to REAL cooking from scratch that mom used to do. Bulk items are the key ingredient (pun-intended). They offer great savings and are long-lasting. 

• Using loyalty cards more often. New? No. But what is new are the people who are finally adopting the behavior in droves -- men and kids. 

• Extreme couponing. As the name suggests, this behavior is the act of aggressively pursuing savings online, in-store, and in paper to receive the maximum savings benefit. These coupons are used in conjunction with store promotions to get the most savings possible.

Bottom line is this: Being smart with money makes people feel good about themselves, and this behavior is expected to stick around for a while. So what can marketers do? Join the bandwagon. Help your consumers be the smart, savvy savers that they want to be by pointing out how your brand helps them save. And then reward them for being loyal. Maybe with some Oreo cookies. 

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