VALS™ Industry Report: Financial Services September 2008
About This Report
Have less: The high cost of essentials, decreased home values, and stock market volatility are causing the majority of U.S. households to rethink their spending, investing, savings, and retirement strategies.
Household impact: Financial conditions in the past several years have not benefitted the majority of U.S. consumer households.
Help may not be on the horizon: Financial institutions face an economy that will take several years to bounce back. Facing the possibility of increased government oversight, their need to understand the consumer has never been greater.
The current state of the economy is on many consumers' minds. The housing crisis, rising consumer prices, stagnating income, and stock market losses continue to feed a media frenzy about a bear market and U.S. recession. In spite of economic-stimulus checks, rising consumer prices and the country's soaring national deficit have made the U.S. economy a top voter concern in the 2008 presidential election. July was a particularly stressful month, because each week saw reports of more bad financial news, including alleged underfunding of mortgage mainstays Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, the collapse of IndyMac Bank-a large California mortgage lender, confirmation of a bear market, and most recently, inflation fears.
After several decades of merger-and-acquisition activity and scandal, retail financial institutions-banks, mortgage companies, investment and insurance companies, stockbrokerage firms-face ever-growing pressure to increase shareholder value in a consumer marketplace more cynical than it has been in recent years and with less financial wiggle room. Many of the current industry challenges are not new but a continuation of conditions present at the turn of the twenty-first century: Many institutions continue to wrestle with these issues. The current housing crisis has precipitated the same market condition that the dot-com era contributed to in the late 1990s: an economic boom turned bust for investors. Unlike the earlier economic downturn, however, present market conditions affect all Americans because the rising costs of essentials (food and fuel) are not limited to individuals or households with stock market exposure.
Table of Contents
Wall Street and Main Street | 1 |
All U.S. Households | 4 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 6 |
Internet Impact | 8 |
Innovators | 12 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 12 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 13 |
Implications | 14 |
Thinkers | 17 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 17 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 18 |
Implications | 19 |
Believers | 22 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 22 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 23 |
Implications | 24 |
Achievers | 27 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 27 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 28 |
Implications | 29 |
Strivers | 32 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 32 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 33 |
Implications | 34 |
Experiencers | 36 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 36 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 37 |
Implications | 38 |
Makers | 41 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 41 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 42 |
Implications | 43 |
Survivors | 46 |
Financial Position and Product Use | 46 |
Perceptions of Financial Institutions | 47 |
Implications | 48 |
Tables | |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: All U.S. Households | 4 |
General Financial Attitudes: All U.S. Households | 5 |
Internet Access and Use, 2007 | 9 |
Information, Advice, and Channel Preference | 10 |
Balance Sheet: All U.S. Households | 11 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Innovators | 12 |
Innovators' Balance Sheet | 16 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Thinkers | 17 |
Thinkers' Balance Sheet | 21 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Believers | 22 |
Believers' Balance Sheet | 26 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Achievers | 27 |
Achievers' Balance Sheet | 31 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Strivers | 32 |
Strivers' Balance Sheet | 35 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Experiencers | 36 |
Experiencers' Balance Sheet | 40 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Makers | 41 |
Makers' Balance Sheet | 45 |
The Economy and My Financial Situation: Survivors | 46 |
Survivors' Balance Sheet | 50 |
Summary Balance Sheet of U.S. Households: Innovators and Survivors | 51 |
Summary Balance Sheet of U.S. Households: Ideals Motivation-Thinkers and Believers | 52 |
Summary Balance Sheet of U.S. Households: Achievement Motivation-Achievers and Strivers | 53 |
Summary Balance Sheet of U.S. Households: Self-Expression Motivation-Experiencers and Makers | 54 |
All U.S. Households | 54 |
Figures | |
VALS™ Diagram | 3 |
Cultural Reference Dimension of Financial-Institution Types | 8 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Innovators | 14 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Thinkers | 19 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Believers | 24 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Achievers | 29 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Strivers | 34 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Experiencers | 38 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Makers | 43 |
Reference Dimensions of Financial Institutions: Survivors | 48 |
Related Sources
- We Are What We Eat, June 2008
- Let's Go Shopping, March 2008
- MacroMonitor Market Trends Newsletter
- U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services
http://financialservices.house.gov - Financial Services Institute
http://www.financialservices.org - Financial Service Industry: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://www.doleta.gov/Brg/pdf/Financial.pdf