Impact report between the hipster-marketers and CEO-billionaires bubble and the rest of the country has rarely been more apparent, observes Mans-Murphy. This has led C Space to put greater emphasis on customer closeness in its COLC research project. For instance, arranging for the finance director of one of the big telecommunications companies, who is a Kensington resident, to go to Peckham with a student, armed with just a 20 note to do a weeks shop. More generally, a change of mood has become evident. Mans-Murphy says he has seen a big discrepancy between some of the responses C Space was getting at the end of last year, and today. When building an ideal lifestyle subscription with customers in Q4, the proposition was packed full of lifestyle and entertainment benefits think cinema tickets, coffee vouchers, spa days, he says. On a recent UK-wide quant study, done on the same week that the energy cap was lifted, we got almost completely opposite results. Customers couldnt care less about lifestyle benefits it was all about financial benefits. Unsurprisingly, the trend was most severe for young families. This reflects a tendency to seek reassurance from rational levers in times of crisis, even if it will probably not make you happier or wealthier. A recent Which? survey indicates that 59% of the population had to make adjustments. The key question is this: what kind of trade-off between mental wallets and financial ones are people making when thinking about these adjustments? Supporting those who are struggling What, though, can be done for those who are really struggling? Where will they look for help? Tolunas Global Consumer Barometer found that 46% globally would turn to family if they needed financial help/ support over the next few months, ahead of banks/ building societies or asking a friend both of which came in at 21%. But might some people be reluctant, out of personal pride, to be open and honest if they are in financial difficulties? Juliano believes not, at least as far as quant research is concerned. Research is so anonymous, you can say anything, she remarks, and people are used to talking about things very openly. We have some data where we ask people how your financial situation is now compared with before the pandemic, and how you think your financial situation is going to change in the next three months. People are reasonably happy to answer questions like that. Also, its not everybody who thinks they are going to be affected by the cost-ofliving crisis; its the majority, but not everybody. Juliano accepts that qual research may be a different matter in terms of openness. Theres certainly a need 26 Impact ISSUE 38 2022_pp20-29_Report.indd 26 22/06/2022 15:31