Thai Consumer’s New Year’s Resolution:
Exercise More and Strike a Better Home / Work Balance

Thailand leads the world with most people wanting to take up a new hobby in 2007

26 December 2006
Bangkok

With less than one week to go before the end of the year, 88 percent of the Thais have already decided on their New Year’s Resolution, with 70 percent of them promising to exercise more, and over half (67%) striving for a better home/work balance, according to ACNielsen, the world’s leading market research and information company.

The ACNielsen Online Consumer Opinion Survey, the largest half-yearly survey of its kind, was conducted in late October/early November, surveying 25,408 internet users in 46 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, the Baltics and Middle East. In Thailand, 500 internet users aged 15 and above were interviewed.

Thai consumers ranked among the world’s top three in making new year’s resolution
Thailand, ranked third globally with 88 percent of Thais planning to make a new year’s resolution, and over half of them optimistically expect to stick to it. Leading the world in planning to turn over a new leaf, nine in 10 Vietnamese plan to make a new-year’s resolution, followed closely by Koreans (89%). (Table 1)

Most popular New Year’s resolution among Thai Consumers
According to the survey, ‘exercise more’ and ‘better work/life balance’ took the top two places for Thais and others in all regions. Similar to Asia Pacific consumers, the order of importance for the rest of the top five New Year resolutions of Thai consumers were ‘taking up a new hobby’ ( 58%) ranking third ahead of going on a diet ( 49%) and spending more time with the family (47%). Interestingly, Changing a job was the least popular plan for Thai consumers. (Table2)

“People make New Year’s resolutions to make up for the things they should have done but didn’t in the past year. Judging by our survey findings, there is a strong desire to make a New Year’s Resolution among Thai consumers – ‘Exercise more, better work/life balance – are all designed to set us on a path to a better and healthier 2007,” said Ms.Chantira Luesakul, Managing Director, ACNielsen ( Thailand ) Ltd.

It’s worth noting that Asia Pacific markets took out the top positions globally for most New Year’s resolution.Thailand tops the world with most people planning to take up a new hobby (58%) and cut down on alcohol (18%) in the new year while Vietnam topped the world with most people seeking a better work/life balance (84%), Philippines has the most people in the world wanting to exercise more (77%); and in Malaysia, it’s going on a diet for 52 percent of Malaysians.

Across the world, Latin Americans are the most likely to make a New-Year’s Resolution (71%) followed by people across Asia Pacific (65%). At the other end of the scale, 60 percent of North Americans said they had no plans to make any resolutions for next year.

While over half of the world’s consumers are planning to make changes to their lives in 2007, there are always exceptions, where people have not bought into the idea of a new year’s resolution – led by over 80 percent of Finns, Swedish, Hungarians and Danes. In fact, eight of the top 10 countries where people do not plan to make any resolution hail from Europe. In Asia Pacific, more than half of people in New Zealand (63%) Japan (62%) and Australia (57%) shared the similar thought.

And in Asia, while more than a third of Japanese claim plan to make a new-year resolution, 13 percent are quite clear that they won’t stick to it – Happy New Year!

About ACNielsen
ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world's leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behavior. Clients rely on ACNielsen's market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns. To learn more, visit www.acnielsen.com.

Table 1

Table 2