Travellers going upcountry for the Easter Holidays go through security screening on Thursday before boarding an Easycoach bus to Western Kenya. Kenyans are planning to spend more money over Easter than other East Africans.
Majority of consumers in Kenya and Uganda are expecting to spend more over the next four days than they did during the last Easter season despite the high cost living, a new Ipsos-Synovate survey has revealed.
The survey which was conducted over the past two weeks in the three major East African economies, shows that 42 and 39 per cent of respondents in Kenya and Uganda respectively said that they will be spending more than they did last year while 26 per cent in both countries said they will be spending less.
A third of the respondents in both countries said that they do not know how much they would spend or they would spend the same as last year on clothes, food, shoes or flowers this festive season.
In Tanzania however, 24 per cent said that they would spend more than last year, 46 per cent said they would spend less while a third said they did not know how much they would spend.
“Kenyans will not travel but they intend to spend more over Easter. The expenditure patterns are focused on eating out. There does not seem to be much to do over the Easter season,” said Maggie Ireri, managing director Ipsos-Synovate Kenya.
She said that despite the findings of the survey, firms seem not to have given this Easter season the kind of advertising spend they have allotted other seasons including the Christmas and Valentines festivities adding that this provides an opportunity for marketers to package an Easter concept.
“Looking at the advertising trends for the past three weeks, there does not seem to be much hype about Easter,” said Ms Ireri who added that consumers understand the commercial “traditions” associated with Christmas and Valentine ’s Day and are willing to plan expenditure around these events.
Plan to buy gifts
During festive seasons, product and service marketers build a lot of hype to persuade consumers to spend more and the trend has been that advertisers allocate significant amounts of advertising and promotions budgets for Christmas Season and Valentine’s.
“Although Easter has its fair share of consumerism attached to it, the level of consumerism during the period does not even come close to that of Christmas and Valentine’s Day,” she said.
The survey indicates that almost half of consumers in Kenya plan to buy a gift, compared to 37 per cent in Uganda and 48 per cent in Tanzania.
More than half of those who are planning to buy gifts in the three countries will be spending money on clothes and food while a small portion will be buying shoes, red roses and cards.
The survey involved 2,024 individuals in Kenya, 1,024 in Uganda and 676 in Tanzania.
