Well over a quarter of adults in Britain claim to spend on gifts at Easter, with around three and a half million spending at least £50. In our latest TGI Stories piece we explore these high spending Easter gift buyers and their value to marketers.
Not as prominent for many consumers as Christmas in the calendar, the commercial opportunities offered around Easter can risk being ignored by some marketers.
However, our TGI consumer data reveals that a considerable proportion of Britain’s consumers spend significant amounts of money around Easter and engaging this audience has the potential to reap dividends for brands.
Nor is Easter just about spending on chocolate eggs and bunnies. Many consumers take advantage of the public holidays to travel or go for days out – all the more likely this year with Easter in late April when the weather is likely to be rather better. TGI reveals that 28% of adults in Britain claim to have bought gifts for Eater in the past 12 months – 14.9 million adults – more than for the likes of Valentine’s Day, Fathers’ Day or anniversaries, although far below the 72% who claim to buy gifts at Christmas.
Not just chocolate bought by Easter gifters
You would expect food – specifically chocolate – to be the most gifted product at Easter and TGI shows that a third of those who buy for Easter buy such products as presents. However, considerable proportions of Easter gift buyers claim to buy flowers/plants, toys, clothes and drinks – showing there are plenty of opportunities to engage consumers around Easter with a range of gift ideas beyond Easter eggs.
The highest Easter spenders are particularly likely to be parents
Whilst Easter eggs aren’t generally very expensive when compared to buying gifts for family and friends at Christmas, nevertheless TGI reveals that 23% of those who buy gifts at Easter claim to spend £50 or more, equating to 3.4 million people. These Easter high spenders are particularly likely to be parents of young children, which makes sense considering the particular focus of Easter on eggs and other confectionery for children. Those spending £50+ on Easter are 87% more likely than the average adult to be in the TGI Lifestage group ‘Primary School Parents’ (youngest child aged 5-9) and 50% more likely to be ‘Secondary School Parents’ (youngest child aged 10-15).
Easter present buyers have quite different shopping attitudes to Christmas buyers
Those who spend £50 or more on Easter gifts have a rather different set of attitudes to shopping compared to those who spend at least £50 on Christmas or on Mother’s Day/Father’s Day – with important ramifications for marketers in what will best engage this audience. They are far more likely than those who spend this much on Christmas to buy brands their children prefer, to buy a brand without checking the price if they trust it and to say they buy new products before most of their friends
Easter gift buyers particularly likely to engage with a range of media
Similarly, the media biases of high Easter gift spenders are quite different to those who spend on Christmas. For example, they are considerably more likely to be among the heaviest consumers of magazines, cinema and video-on-demand.
