The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian restaurant industry is plain to see. In March 2020 alone, the sector lost an estimated 800,000 jobs.

Things aren’t going to get easier anytime soon. According to Caddle data, just 16.9% of Canadians plan to resume dining out right away after restrictions are lifted.

What can brands do to win back the customers? This was what Caddle looked at in partnership with Cult Collective.

Based on data from our panel, there’s some good news for restaurants. Most customers eventually plan to get back to their old habits once the crisis passes. However this will be with slightly altered priorities of what they look for in an eatery — ones centred on cleanliness and service.

Pre-pandemic: How did consumers choose a restaurant?

To get a sense of the magnitude of the hit the restaurant industry took, consider how Canadians chose to order food before the pandemic.

The culture was much more centred around dine-in than takeout, leaving the industry much more exposed.

Before the crisis, most Canadians would visit restaurants more than they would order takeout. Just over 63% said they dined out at least once a month, while the equivalent figure for takeout was just over 40%.

What impact did coronavirus have?

With all restaurants closed to dine-in customers, the business from the more than 60% of Canadians who went to restaurants at least a few times a month was gone.

But it did not translate into more takeout orders. More than 80% of Canadians either maintained or reduced the amount of food they had delivered.

Consumers’ own economic concerns are restricting demand, but this is not the main reason Canadians gave for not ordering more takeout. Over 43% of respondents viewed “safety and cleanliness issues” as the biggest barrier to ordering takeout and delivery.

Will things go back to normal?

When restaurants are able to open again, the resumption of consumer habits will not be immediate. Just 16.9% of consumers say they will resume their old dine-in restaurant habits right away, with 17.6% saying the same for takeout options.

After two months, 60% of people anticipate they will have returned to their old habits for both takeout and dine-in food.

However, 22% say they expect they will continue visiting restaurants on a long term basis, with 33% saying the same for takeout.

How to win customers over?

When restaurants reopen, they will be competing over a smaller pool of diners. Winning over customers will be crucial. How can businesses get an edge? Cleanliness, service and experience.

For both trying a new restaurant and returning to a restaurant, cleanliness  and friendliness were chosen as the top options.

What does this mean?

So what should restaurants make of this data? Brandon Poole, Managing Director, Cult Collective Toronto, says it shows how important tracking customer experience will be to the recovery of restaurants.

“This data shows that, increasingly,  restaurants will need a formal and robust CX data strategy. Brands without formal tracking of customer motivations, intent and behaviours prior to the COVID-19 crisis will have the most difficult path to recovery.”

“Restaurant brands must plan for a long-term focus on food experience, customer experience, and restaurant/service environment as they rebuild and reinvent their brand.”

“Restaurant brands are digital brands now. They will be better prepared for and insulated against severe socio economic crises if we formally build in digital transformation strategies to increase engagement, purchase intent and affinity through the customer journey.”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic should mean a big boost to online grocery delivery. 

The reported struggles of consumers to book time slots for deliveries suggest a major increase in online grocery purchase.

However this week’s COVID-19 Rapid Response report suggests that the pandemic is impacting how we buy groceries in more ways than a simple shift to online ordering. 

On the evidence from Caddle’s 10,000 daily survey responders, Canadians are switching to different grocery stores as well as ordering more online.

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Are we buying more online?

According to our research, about 1 in 4 of us are ordering more groceries online than we did pre-pandemic, while 13.4% of our panel tried grocery delivery service for the first time. 

Similarly, 22% expected that they would use an online grocery service in the next month.

For changes that took place in a matter of weeks, that’s a relative big shift in use — which would explain stories about capacity issues.

But will the surge last?

Is this a permanent shift to online grocery?

Not completely. How much of these new online shopping habits will keep up once the pandemic is over? Based on our panel responses, about half of them.

Of people who told us they were shopping for groceries online more since the start of the pandemic, 52% said they would continue at this level after the crisis. 

Some of the new users will also be converted into long-term customers. 60% of the shoppers who told us they tried getting groceries delivered for the first time, said they anticipated they would use delivery services more at the end of 2020 than at the start. 

So what will the net impact be? Just over 13% of people say they expect to use online grocery delivery more after the pandemic than at the start 2020. The figure tends to be higher for those with children under 18, who are also the primary shopper, suggesting a stronger overall impact. 

What’s happened to in-store visits?

There is a more pronounced, albeit short-term change in how we shop at brick and more stores.  

Since social distancing measures were implemented, going to the grocery store is something most Canadians do once a week at most. 

Approximately 80% of our 10,000 daily panel say they shop weekly or less frequently, with 42% currently shopping less than once a week. 

Not only are there less frequent store visits for stores to compete over, but shoppers are going to fewer stores on average. Just over 70% of our panel told us they went to fewer stores.

While we’re visiting less stores, we are willing to try different stores to our usual supermarket. Just over one in five of our panel said they had switched in the supermarket during the crisis.

What was the biggest reason to switch supermarkets? Rather than price or proximity, shoppers were more likely to switch due to availability of products.

As well as stocking what people are looking for, strong enforcement of social distancing in-store would win over shoppers. From a list of precautions listed, panel members selected this as they one that would reassure them most.

Why we’re cutting out takeout

With restaurants already taking a hit due to enforced closures, operating exclusively as takeout or delivery-only businesses, Caddle’s data has more bad news for restaurants: Canadians are also reducing the amount of takeout we order.

Just 8.5% said they’d had food delivered in the last week, and 34% said they were ordering much less takeout than prior to the pandemic.

Given the uncertain economic situation, money was, unsurprisingly, a big reason people gave for ordering less takeout. But it isn’t the only reason.

Preference played a part too. 26.4% told us they just preferred having home cooked meals.  Concerns over cleanliness, potentially due to the pandemic was the reason for 18% of people ordering less takeout. 

Support for local businesses

Despite the reduction in purchases from local restaurants, Canadians are very much alive to the problems being faced by local businesses — and they want to help. Despite their own economic hardships, they are doing what they can to support.

Just less than a third of the panel said they were buying more local goods and services compared to before the pandemic. 42% said they had made a purchase specifically to support a local business during the pandemic.

They also want to see other businesses doing what they can to support local producers. Almost three quarters of our panel told us they want to see grocery stores stocking more local goods to support businesses.

Key Takeaways

No mass switch to online grocery yet

As it stands only 1 in 8 of us think we’ll order more of our groceries online after pandemic than we did before.

First trial key to growing online grocery 

Those who used it for the first time were much more likely to say they will use it more than prior to the pandemic. With little over 10% of the panel reporting they have tried for the first time, businesses should be doing all they can to encourage this first trial.

Competition for store visits hotting up 

People are visiting fewer grocery stores and going less frequently – increasing competition between stores, to gain or retain customers – especially when 1 in 5 people have already switched stores. 

Just 11% of Canadians believe Tim Hortons’ recent changes to its Roll Up The Rim contest have improved the promotion.

That’s the verdict of Caddle’s 10,000 panel of daily survey responders. 

With its restaurants only open for drive through and delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tim Hortons new, largely digital contest got a thumbs down from our panel. 

Caddle members told us that they welcomed the improved sustainability from a shift away from paper cups. However, this was not a big enough issue to impact sentiment of the program overall.

Instead, we found that a key factor determining how Canadians feel about the new Roll Up The Rim process was simply whether they won a prize or not.

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What changed in Roll Up The Rim?

Initially, Tim Hortons had planned to make sustainability a bigger part of this year’s contest. The four-week campaign also would have split into two phases. 

The first 14 days would see customers who purchased a beverage getting a chance to roll up a paper rim. The second half of the campaign would be digital only. 

Alongside this, 1.8 million free reusable cups were to be distributed to launch the campaign, with customers getting an extra digital ‘roll’ for reusing their cup.

However in response to public health concerns from the coronavirus pandemic, Tim Hortons announced that the campaign became digital-only for its entirety.

Caddle surveyed the panel after the 2020 Roll Up The Rim Campaign launched. So these findings are a verdict on the campaign as it ran, not as it was initially proposed by Tim Hortons.

What did consumers make of Roll Up The Rim 2020?

Across our entire panel, just 11% felt that the changes improved the contest, with 40% saying this year’s Roll Up The Rim was worse than previous years.

For those who actually participated in this year’s contest, the picture was a little less negative. 

Over a quarter of panel members who had tried Roll Up The Rim told us this year’s version was better, compared to 38.2% who said it was worse. 

This suggests at least part of the problem could be perception. Overall, Canadians held slightly more favourable opinions when they had participated in the new Roll Up The Rim format. 

Which groups were most receptive?

Looking deeper into the demographics, men preferred the new Roll Up The Rim format more than women — especially when they had participated this year.

For all panel members, 13.8% of men preferred the contest compared to 42.4% who liked previous years better. For women, 9.4% enjoyed the changes compared to 46.3% who found it less appealing.

Among those who participated this year, the change is more marked. For Men, 37.4% preferred the 2020 format, while 27.6% liked it less. For women who played, the difference was 24.7% in favour compared to 41.2% against.

Our data also suggests that the changes appealed most to younger Canadians, rather than Tim Hortons’ traditionally older market. Meaning new format was potentially least popular with the groups most likely to go to Tim Hortons in the first place.  

Including participants and non-participants, 15.8% of Gen Z Canadians preferred this year’s contest, compared to 10.3% of Millennials, 9.8% of those in Gen X and 8.9% of Baby Boomers. 

Did the sustainability strategy work?

The good news for Tim Hortons is that the added sustainability of their 2020 campaign did break through with consumers.

Just over 45% of our panel said the new format improved environmental sustainability, compared to 40% who said it made no difference.

The problem Tim Hortons faces is that sustainability isn’t high on the list of things people look for in the contest.

Just 4% of the panel picked environmental sustainability as something they looked for in Roll Up The Rim — the lowest percentage for any of the options available.

Far more important to customers were the odds of winning and the number of prizes, and other Caddle data underlines this point.

Winning is everything

Segmenting panel responses according to whether respondents won a prize or not, provided a useful insight.

Canadians who won a prize in the 2020 Roll Up the Rim contest, were markedly more positive about the contest.

44.1% of prizewinners said they preferred this year’s format, compared to 23.5% who preferred how the contest worked in previous years. 

Key Takeaways

1. Know your audience

Sustainability and a more digital offering do not appear to be what Tim’s core market was looking for in the contest.

The goal of a contest should be promoting loyalty among core customers, and should be designed with them in mind. 

2. Don’t write off digital

Despite the overall lack of approval for the new format, the fact that those who played were more receptive suggests there positives to build on. 

Considering the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as some inevitable consumer hesitancy about change, the data suggests a digital Roll Up The Rim could still work — so long as the messaging strategy is improved. 

3. Prizes win participants

Across all age groups and genders our panel members much preferred the new format if they had participated and won a prize. This is the key to acceptance.

To further evolve Roll Up The Rim in 2021, Tim Hortons should base the campaign around increased odds of winning, and make this the key message, alongside the speed and convenience of a digital format. 

4. Sustainability isn’t the key to contests

Environmental sustainability is arguably a hygiene factor, and as such should not be the main message of a contest campaign. 

A perceived lack of environmental sustainability with the original format of Roll Up The Rim may have been a negative for the campaign. This does not mean that making sustainability the focus would be a positive factor that would attract consumers to the contest.  

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To find out how you can build custom data with Caddle’s daily survey panel contact insights@caddle.ca

For better or worse, routines are the key to forming habits.

So what happens to our habits when all of our daily routines are disrupted like never before?

With social distancing measures in force, approximately 1 in 5 of the Caddle’s panel reported exercising a lot less.

But how else is the pandemic impacting exercise and diet? Here’s what we found when we asked more than 12,000 Canadians via Caddle’s daily survey. 

The impact on exercise

With 40% of the Caddle panel reporting that they are exercising less, concern about maintaining fitness is widespread. The same proportion said that social distancing measures meant they were concerned about their fitness.

This was the case for the majority of Canadians who said they were exercising less, but also the majority those who said they were exercising more than before the coronavirus pandemic.

Both groups report being concerned about fitness levels, but show clear differences in willingness to take action. So what’s causing the difference? 

Who’s working out at home?

Part of the exercise issue is age. Gen Z Canadians, as is the case with many of the questions in this week’s data, were most likely to report a change in habit as a result of social distancing. 

Just over a quarter (27.1%) said their level of exercise had not been impacted by the pandemic, compared to 38.5% of Millennials and 42.5 of Gen X Canadians.

Gen Z was the generation with the highest percentage of people exercising less (46%) but also the largest proportion of respondents exercising more (26%).

Another factor appears to be attitudes to working out at home. Of Canadians who said they were getting more exercise than before the onset of social distancing, only 18% said they had never exercised at home before. 

Of Canadians who reported they were exercising a lot less since social distancing began, 44% said they had never exercised at home before.

This difference is key as it raises a question about how much any rise in home workouts is driven by people trying it for the first time. Instead are we seeing people more used to exercising at home doubling down on fitness in isolation?

Who is building up their home gym?

Those who are exercising less, who over-index on never working out at home, currently have no plans to change this situation by purchasing equipment.

Those who were exercising less were also less likely to plan purchases home equipment — 57.9% said they were unlikely or very unlikely to buy home exercise equipment.

It isn’t all bad news for home exercise companies.  Overall, around one in five of us feel it is likely we will buy home exercise equipment in response to social distancing.

Meanwhile those who were exercising more, said they were likely to buy home exercise equipment. Almost half (48%) said they were likely or very likely to make a purchase. This could explain the relatively strong stock performance of brands like Peloton in the last month.

This is crucial for companies operating in this space. This data suggests that concerns about fitness will only go part of the way to attract new customers into the market. There seems to be a more significant initial barrier for some Canadians around exercising at home that needs to be overcome — even when they are concerned about a lack of exercise.

Îdentifying and overcoming this barrier could lead to much higher demand for home workout equipment.

Simply providing more exercise content does not appear to be enough of a trigger for everyone. 

The people expecting to consume this content are the group who already say they are exercising more. Those who say they are exercising less, instead say they have no plans to increase their consumption of home workout content. 

Is our diet getting worse?

So if we are concerned about getting less exercise are we trying to mitigate this with a healthier diet? Not necessarily.

For the most part, we’re just eating as we did before. Although social distancing seems to having the biggest impact on the eating habits of younger Canadians.

Over 60% of Baby Boomers reported no change in diet for better or worse, compared to 37% of Gen Z, and 46% of Millennials. At the same time, Millennials and Gen X were the age groups most likely to feel they were eating worse, with each generation’s net positive/negative responses coming in at -10. 

However it isn’t all bad news. Gen Z were the most likely to feel they were eating better as a result of social distancing. Just over 30% of respondents said they were eating better — much more than the 21.6% of Millennials who reported an improvement in their diet.

What are we eating?

Despite more time spent at home, we apparently aren’t using that to prepare fancier meals from scratch. Nor are we looking for options that will cut carbs or sugar as ways to mitigate a less active lifestyle.

Asked what they look for most in a meal, the most popular choice was food that is quick and easy to make.

Alongside this, Caddle survey data suggests younger Canadians are indulging in more comfort food options.

For the panel overall, 29% said they were eating more comfort food, but for Gen Z this number was over 40%.

Are we drinking more?

While we might be concerned that we are eating less healthily, our alcohol consumption hasn’t necessarily gone up.

For the most part we are not drinking more. Across all age groups most Canadians reported that social distancing had not prompted a rise in their alcohol consumption.

Gen Z was again an outlier, but not necessarily because this group is drinking more. While 25% are drinking more since measures to curb the pandemic were taken, 22% said they were drinking less. 

So what does this mean?

Overall, the changes to diet and exercise caused by social distancing measures seem to be impacting younger Canadians the most.

Whether there was a positive or negative impact, younger Canadians were far more likely to say that social distancing has impacted what they eat, how much exercise they get, and how much they drink.

Are these changes representative of a broader openness to new things in unusual times? Potentially. Over a third of Gen Z Canadians reported trying to learn a new skill – the highest of any age group, and this only a matter of weeks into social distancing.

What we’re seeing is that younger generations are embracing change or being forced to radar faster.

The data suggests new habits are being formed right now. The question is: will they survive past the end of social isolation measures

Almost 9 in 10 Canadians expect their summer vacations plans to be disrupted by COVID 19, new Caddle research shows.

An estimated 30% of Caddle’s 12,000 daily survey respondents reported they had vacation plans in the next 6 months. Of those, 88% say they now expect their plans to be disrupted.

This new data shows the degree to which Canadians are facing up to the long term implications of the coronavirus pandemic. Canadians with trips as far forward as September are uncertain they will still happen.

It isn’t just pending trips that are being disrupted. The Caddle data suggests there could be lasting implications for how we travel.

Does this mean less overseas travel?

Already we are seeing that the pandemic could affect how and where Canadians travel even after the crisis has passed.

We asked our panel if they agreed that they would travel overseas just as they did before once things got back to normal. Here’s what they told us:

The results are striking. Only 1 in 3 of our panel agreed that they would continue traveling overseas as they did before. At the other end of the spectrum, 31% indicated that they would be reluctant to travel overseas as they had done before.

The remaining third of respondents are still up for grabs, with 35% reporting they were neutral on the issue.

Clearly travel companies will have their work cut out to convince people to take overseas trips again — even once restrictions have been lifted.

Will we see a rise in staycations?

These attitudes could lead to a boost to the domestic tourism industry. Just under 40% of our panel agreed that they would take more vacations within Canada as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Again, we saw a large proportion of people with no strong option yet suggesting again an opportunity to win even more people over to the concept of a staycation.

What will get people flying again?

The high level of uncertainty right now means people are understandably reluctant to book flights. What could airlines look at to convince people to make bookings?

The Caddle Panel was clear on what airlines need to offer with their cancellation policy. They want flexible policies offering full refunds.

Given the option of lower initial fares, credit fares, or being placed on next available flights, 8 in 10 of our panel chose a full cash refund as the cancellation policy that they wanted to see.

What are Caddle Rapid Response Insights?

The data is based on 10,000 daily responses in the Caddle app. Anyone can join the panel. Just download the Caddle app to get started.

As Canada experiences the impact of COVID-19, we’ll be expanding and diversifying the topics we look at to understand the effects.

For a more details breakdown of this or any of our other COVID data, contact insights@caddle.ca

For over two weeks Canadians have been told to stay home to limit the spread of coronavirus.

How have we been responding so far? We turned to Caddle’s 10,000 daily survey responders to find out.

Responses to questions we posted last week show that while we’re concerned about going out in public, confinement at home is taking its toll as well.

While panel members gave themselves solid grades for their social distancing discipline, they cited concerns over lack of exercise, amount of time indoors, and limited social interaction.

But as we’ll see, not everyone is feeling down about needing to stay in.

Is the message getting through?

After repeated messages from political leaders, celebrities, and brands to stay home to slow the spread of the virus, it looks like the message is getting through.

The vast majority of the panel reported a high level of concern with going out in public. Roughly two-thirds said their concern was either ‘high’ or ‘very high’.

This heightened concern also appears to be translating into stricter observance of social distancing guidelines. We asked our panel to give their opinion on how closely they had followed the guidelines.

Over 85% of people rated their discipline as high or very high for social distancing. 

Who’s the most lax at social distancing?

Despite telling us in previous coronavirus surveys that they are the least optimistic about Canada’s ability to manage the coronavirus outbreak, Gen Z is also the least disciplined when it comes to social distancing.

One in ten said they had not been particularly disciplined with their distance – twice level for the whole panel.

Meanwhile only 70% said they had been disciplined or very disciplined with distancing. This compares with 85% for millennials and almost 90% for both Gen X and Baby Boomers.

As we’ll see below, this could be because younger generations are more likely chafe at needing to stay home all the time.

How are we coping?

Despite feeling like we’re following the rules, this isn’t without an emotional burden. 

Almost 1 in 3 of the Caddle panel reported sadness as the overriding emotion they associated with social distancing. This trend was repeated across all age groups and with men and women. 

What is it that’s getting us down? 

Overall, it’s the lack of exercise and lack of outdoor time that worries our panel most about staying home.

For younger age groups in particular, not being able to get as much exercise was their biggest concern. Of the available options and ‘none of the above’, both Millennials and Gen Z selected less exercise as their top concern. 

What would you like to ask the Caddle panel? Give us your suggestions here

So far at least, worries about a less healthy diet, or drinking more alcohol do not appear to be top of mind. Just under 1 in 7 panel members cited worries about their diet as their chief concern with social distancing.

With grocery stores and supermarkets remaining open, albeit with reduced hours, is the coronavirus actually having a relatively modest impact on what we eat? We’ll be exploring this in an upcoming report.

The biggest obstacle with social distancing for all age groups was with not seeing friends and family. Roughly 1 in 3 respondents reported this was the main issue they encountered with social distancing.

However this is a much more pronounced response for Baby Boomers, 40% of whom cited this as their main problem.

Has boredom kicked in yet?

For younger Canadians, the next biggest concerns were being stuck indoors, and running the risk of boredom.

Both Gen Z and Millennials over-indexed on a frustration of not being able to go out. Canadians in Generation Z were by far the most likely to cite running out of things to do as an obstacle with social distancing.

Nearly 1 in 4 of Canadians born after 1996 reported not having enough to do as their biggest barrier to getting through social distancing.  That’s potentially a lot of people waiting for inspiration of something new to try, if brands are able to reach them.

Is anyone seeing the bright side?

Beyond the topline numbers, there are groups that are feeling more positive about social distancing.

Men it seems are a bit more comfortable with it. Just over 10% reported happiness as the emotion they associate with social distancing. 

While only 3% of men reported feeling excitement about social distancing – this markedly higher than the 0.7% of women who selected ‘excitement’ as the main emotion.

Younger Canadians were also more likely to see the positive side of social distancing. The percentage of Gen Z panel members identifying happiness as their main emotion was 9.8%, compared to 5.4% for Baby Boomers. 

What are Caddle Rapid Response Insights?

The data is based on 10,000 daily responses in the Caddle app. Anyone can join the panel. Just download the Caddle app to get started.

As Canada experiences the impact of COVID-19 we’ll be expanding and diversifying the topics we look at to understand the effects.. If there’s a crucial issue to your business that we can ask, reach out to a Caddle rep to find out more.

Our focus at Caddle is accelerating time to insight. Now more than ever, these rapid insights matter.

That’s why starting today we’ll be dedicating our entire daily survey schedule to coronavirus issues in order to provide our readers with rapid access to the most in-depth cross section of Canadian-specific coronavirus insights.

If you’re not already on the mailing list,  sign up for our free weekly summary here.

So what are Canadians thinking right now? Well, we’ve seen a big shift in attitudes — changes that we’ll likely keep seeing as Canadians respond to an unprecedented and fast-changing time.

Recap: What events are driving these results?

A lot happened between when we first surveyed the panel, and when we followed up.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Canadians abroad to return home, the US and Canada closed their border to non-essential travel, and provincial governments brought in a range of measures to promote social distancing.

How did this affect Canadian attitudes to the COVID-19 pandemic? 

Understandably, this impacted sentiments for all Canadians, as we begin to realize the impact this will have on our lives. 

What’s the one emotion we’re feeling?

Since we last asked the Caddle panel, anxiety has become the dominant emotion Canadians associate with the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked on February 29th, 41% of respondents cited anxiety as the emotion they associated most with coronavirus. As of last week that figure was 58%.

This is at the expense of other types of reactions to the crisis. Every other sentiment tracked by Caddle, including ‘none of the above’ decreased between the two surveys.

But despite this widespread unease, there is still an underlying sense of confidence for how Canada will come through the pandemic.

Close to half of Canadians say they feel positive about Canada’s ability to manage coronavirus, compared to only a quarter who feel negatively.  We’ll be keeping a close eye on this metric and will be reporting back in the weeks ahead.

Have we realised how big this is?

Unsurprisingly, Canadians everywhere are facing up to the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

It has increasingly dominated conversation. Approximately 90% of respondents stated that they have often heard about the pandemic in the past week, compared to 68% three weeks ago.

When we first asked Caddle members about coronavirus, just 37% said concerns were impacting their way of life. 

Since then, with school closures, border closures, and many companies moving to remote working, 80% of survey respondents said the pandemic was likely to impact their way of life. 

Which generation is the most concerned?

Despite frequent reports of younger generations failing to heed social distancing guidelines, it is actually younger Canadians who appear to be most concerned about Canada’s prospects during the crisis.

In every age group, more respondents feel more positively than negatively about Canada’s capacity to cope with coronavirus. However, there is a trend towards lower confidence among younger Canadians.

More than half of Baby Boomers have a positive outlook on Canada’s ability to handle the crisis with fewer than one in five in this group (19.4%) holding a negative outlook.

But the younger the generation the more negative the outlook gets. More than a quarter of Millennials feel negatively about Canadian’s capacity to cope, while 30% of Gen Z have either a negative or very negative outlook.

Age also seems to shape the emotions we feel about coronavirus. Anxiety, unsurprisingly was the overriding emotion across all age groups. Behind this, Gen Z Canadians were more likely to say they felt anger and surprise. In contrast, older generations were more likely to feel sadness. 

Which province is most worried?

According to our data, how optimistic you are about Canada’s ability to cope with the COVID-19 depends on which region you live in.

Provinces with the higher number of cases were more pessimistic in outlook.

The province with the highest number of reported cases at the time of the survey, British Columbia, had the smallest proportion of respondents with a positive outlook with 36% compared to a national average of 47%. 

Canada’s westernmost province was also the most pessimistic. Almost one third of respondents feeling negatively about Canada’s ability to manage the crisis. In fact, the net positivity in British Columbia was just 6%, compared to 21.7 for Canada as a whole.

Quebec is the province the next highest proportion of people with a negative view, with 28% feeling pessimistic about how our nation will cope.

However, this doesn’t mean Quebecers on the whole negative in outlook. Residents were more inclined to express an option either way. 

People in Ontario or Alberta, where confirmed cases are also in the hundreds, are much more likely to neutral when it comes to Canada’s coronavirus prospects.

Social media information is vital

The combination of a rapidly-evolving situation, as well as the increased isolation of social distancing means we will become increasingly reliant on what we hear through social media.

This is something not lost on all generations of Canadians. Across the Caddle panel, more than two thirds stated that social media plays a significant or very significant role in keeping them up to date on coronavirus.

With such a crucial role being played by social media, the reliability of that information becomes even more important, across the world. It even led to last week’s unusual joint statement from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and others that they would be working closely to fight misinformation on the internet.

Will social live up to its potential to be a crucial source of truth? Our panel will be able to give us their thoughts as the situation unfolds.

What are Caddle Rapid Response Insights?

The data is based on 10,000 daily responses in the Caddle app, available for free. Anyone can join the panel. Just download the Caddle app to get started.

These are the findings from our initial surveys. From here, we’ll be expanding and diversifying the topics we look at. If there’s a crucial issue to your business that we can ask, reach out to a Caddle rep for find out more.

Why you need to think about DIY in product innovation

When it comes to product innovation, people have always been interested in creating and developing products themselves. If you are a brand manager who is searching for a new market trend or product opportunity, look no further. According to technavio, the value of the DIY industry is estimated to climb to 13.1 billion by 2021. This is definitely not something you can just shrug your shoulders at! You should be extremely interested in leveraging and building DIY into your business strategy and I’m going to tell you the reasons why.

Do-it-yourself (DIY): The Research

In order for us to extract the most valuable insights and perspectives, we have to ask ourselves some stimulating questions. Why do consumers participate in DIY? What kind of DIY projects are they creating and consuming? Where do people get information about DIY? Considering these questions, we were able to propose the following hypothesis:

Consumers are shifting their focus from ready-made products and alternatively, they are creating/customizing their own.

Do-it-yourself (DIY): Survey Analysis

The survey results are outstanding. We did not expect to have so many DIY advocates using our program. Here are some of the high impact results that we obtained during our research. As you are reading, please keep the following details in mind:

• Respondents are predominately females – 80%
• Millennials and Gen X account for the majority of the responses – 81%
• Approximately 40% of respondents are located inside Ontario

Almost 50% of our members indicated that DIY projects allow them to express their creativity. This is an interesting finding on two levels.

First, you can empower your customers by providing them with access to DIY resources,

Second, by embracing DIY, your customers will feel a stronger connection to your brand.

Our members are going into 2020 feeling empowered to create products on their own terms! When it comes to DIY projects, people will often use platforms such as: Google, YouTube and Pinterest in order to watch and consume instructional content for product development.

For example, the graph provided below is the number of times someone has entered the key phrase “how to” into Google search, a common phrase that indicates someones intention to complete a task independently. As a brand manager, you want to communicate with your digital team and offer “tutorial” style videos to your consumers to encourage DIY using your products. This graph reinforces that DIY is not temporary, but for the last 15 years has experienced steady increases.

Do-it-yourself (DIY): DIY Trends

We decided to consult Google trends in order to identify correlations between our findings and the general search history online. We were able to find a consistent pattern in the DIY environment.

Based on the graph below it is evident that DIY search results peak in October for five consecutive years. When we asked out members on Caddle “what time of year do you prefer to create DIY projects?” we found that 45% said summer and fall. That being said, there are definitely some promising opportunities presenting themselves during Halloween.

If you are anything like us, you want to keep digging. Ask questions like, how can we increase DIY participation in the off season? Or, how does the DIY environment change based on time of year and are there any accessibility issues that may help bridge this gap?

Do-it-yourself (DIY): The DIY Difference

So why are people all about DIY?

Not only does DIY fulfill your need for a basic product or service, but it really provides the participant with a unique and intimate product experience. The ability to work within a strong DIY community is empowering – it requires you to challenge yourself both physically and intellectually.

As we identified in our surveys, DIY allows people to express their inner creativity. If you are able to provide customers with the ability to customize their products and have a stake in the process, you can begin to capitalize on this growing industry.

Do-it-yourself (DIY): Business Opportunities

Whether you are a business looking to tap into this market or someone who is trying to build a person brand and showcase your skills online, the following information will be extremely relevant. Consider the following tips.

Have a strong social media presence

Just being online doesn’t cut it anymore, there is a lot of noise in the DIY community. The DIY business model has become reliant upon video and image based applications (Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube). In order to truly showcase the importance of social media in DIY we asked our members the following question, “where do you typically get information about DIY?”

The response was 52% of our members are using social media to get information about DIY. If you are a digital manager this is right in your wheelhouse. Take this opportunity to make your presence known by leveraging all of the available platforms and create content that is both informative and aesthetically pleasing.

Our advice to you…start building your brand on Pinterest! A whopping 32% of respondents said they get their insights from Pinterest, prior to browsing other platforms. If you are having trouble building this content from scratch, browse social media influencers to get a good idea of the do’s and don’ts.

Buying DIY

So get this, DIY supporters are creating their own products, but they also express interest in buying other peoples projects. 40% of our survey respondents indicated that they are interested in purchasing other peoples DIY offerings.

This type of purchase is far more complex and unique that than the traditional shopping experience. DIY products offer more transparency, sellers are often inspired to showcase their personality, their story and their development process. In a digital age people are basically begging to feel a personal connection between the brands they are purchasing from. Obviously they need to see value in the product, but ultimately customers will choose to connect with brands that embody their values over others.

Supporting Sustainability

There are many different reasons why people participate in DIY and evidently environmental sustainability seems to have the biggest impact. Why is this? Well, DIY advocates pride themselves on their ability to not let anything go to waste!

NBC states that that search requests for sustainability on Pinterest are up 108% since 2018! Traditional manufacturing and mass production is messy and it often leads to excess amounts of waste and environmental damage. A Neilson study indicates that 42% of North Americans are willing to pay more for companies that champion sustainability and social responsibility.

Based on our findings we don’t see this trend to becoming to a halt anytime soon. Consumers, more than ever, are advocating for more transparency amongst brands and they are willing to abandon long time loyalty for better values. Companies and D2C brands that embody this mantra will have better success with the DIY demographic. If you need more evidence of these changes, feel free to check out of blog on plastic and sustainability.

More about us

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog post. If you want to get your hands on some more data just shoot us a message, we are happy to help. If this is your first time on our webpage, you might be wondering what we do.

Caddle is a data insights company that has a passion for understanding market trends. We collect, sort and analyze data in order to provide businesses with the upper hand against their competitors. You can certainly never know too much about your consumers.

We pride ourselves on having our finger on the pulse of Canadians and our 300,000 monthly user base helps do some of the talking. What are you waiting for, let’s work together!

There is an old, unwritten rule, that goes a little something like this “Don’t talk about your finances with anyone”. Some quotes like this are timeless but I think that this one has run its course. Canadian debt is becoming a serious problem that definitely requires more attention.

Financial education is something that should be widely accepted and embraced by all. According to CBC news, Millennial debt has shown a 12.3% increase since 2018 and sits around $515.9 billion dollars. To make matters even more concerning, its younger counterpart, Gen-X is hovering around $767.4 billion.

Now, this statistic does not happen to consider if this is “good debt” or “bad debt”, which we will cover later, but is still cause for concern. We must start asking ourselves serious questions about how we are spending our money, where we should we invest our money, and pursue a new standard that allows for more openness about our financial situations.

Canadian Debt: Good debt versus bad debt

When we hear the word debt, usually the worst comes to mind. What if I were to tell you that debt can be broken down into two categories: good and bad? A survey with over 8000 respondents, conducted by our team at Caddle, indicated that 54% of our members are only slightly familiar with the concept of bad debt. That being said, let’s analyze the differences.

Good Debt

This form of debt involves taking out a loan or refinancing a property in order to use the equity to invest into something that will ultimately generate income. Good debt includes, but is not limited too, investing in your education, opening a small business, or real estate and homeownership. This type debt is two-fold because as you are making the payments for your loan you are developing a relationship with your financial institution and therefore, increasing the likelihood of getting a larger loan in the future.

Bad Debt

Bad debt is when you borrow money in order to purchase a product or service that will decrease in value instantaneously or over time. Some examples of bad debt include cars, jewellery, clothing, consumables, and credit cards. Not only is the product or service that you have purchased going to decrease immediately, but you will also have to pay interest on the amount spent.

Canadian Debt: Credit Card Debt

With Canadian’s debt statistics on an upward trajectory, it’s important to identify some of the key contributors. With low interest rates, low unemployment, and rising wages, it is uncommon for us to be experiencing this particular issue. The most common culprit when it comes to bad debt is the credit card. Average non-mortgage debt per Canadian citizen is predicted to hit $31,000 by the start of 2020.

Consequently, we are also seeing increases in Canadians carrying credit card balances, in the amount of $4,465 on average. Now, depending on your existing credit card provider you may be able to leverage the benefits and mitigate the risks. Most credit cards come with some sort of rewards incentive to differentiate themselves from the competition. You can make the most out of these rewards if you are diligent and pay your owing balance by the end of each billing cycle. Some of the common credit card benefits include:

• Cash back
• Travel rewards
• No annual fee
• Purchase insurance
• Travel insurance

If you are not aware of your credit card rewards system, go check right now! Most companies incentivize certain purchases such as gas, grocery, or pharmaceutical.

Canadian Debt: Saving Money

Saving is one of the those concepts that sounds and looks easy, but never works out the way you planned. For me, I decided to look back at one of my most recent financial statements and see what I am spending money on. I had over 5 different monthly subscriptions! Why am I paying for Crave, Netflix, and Amazon video? Whether it is our skin care products, coffee, food, streaming services, or web services, we often don’t realize how complacent we become with our spending habits. Let’s dive deeper and look at what Caddle members had to say about savings.

Canadian Debt: Recommendations

Debt is something that can be conquered if you are willing to invest your time and become a diligent record keeper. It is important to utilize the available assets and never be afraid to ask questions. Often, people are intimidated by advisors and have preconceived notions about the amount of money required to begin saving and get out of debt. As someone who is currently working in the financial industry no amount is too little to begin saving. There is no better time than now to evaluate your financial future. Get started by using some of the tips provided below:

• Use the Caddle app to earn cash back and save on your monthly expenses, obviously 😉
• Use financial apps like Mylo in order to save the additional change on every purchase
• Talk to your financial advisor or do some window shopping (make sure you are getting the best services on the market)
• Ask questions about your credit card and rewards programs (check out this list: best credit card Canada)
• Look into debt consolidation if you owe money to multiple institutions
• Open a High Interest Savings Account (HISA), Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), and a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)

Good luck with your savings and remember to answer those surveys to help create awareness about topics that interest you. They can help promote product changes and influence brands to provide you with more of the services you desire. 

More About Caddle

Thanks for reading our blog post! If this is your first time on our webpage you may be wondering who we are and what we do?

Caddle is a data insights company that has a passion for understanding market trends. This information is then translated to the market industry leaders for the benefit of understanding the buying behaviours of their consumers. We keep our finger on the pulse of Canadians with over 8000 daily survey respondents and 300,000 monthly app users. Contact us for more information and resources.