Incentivising baby making

Imagine if having children came with more than $150,000 in cheap loans, a subsidised minivan and a lifetime exemption from income taxes. Would people have more kids? The answer, it seems, is no. These are among the benefits — along with cheap child care, extra vacation and free fertility treatments — that have been doled out to parents in different parts of Europe, a region at the forefront of the worldwide baby shortage. Europe’s overall population shrank during the pandemic and is on track to contract by about 40m by 2050, according to United Nations statistics. Birthrates have been falling across the developed world since the 1960s. But the decline hit Europe harder and faster than demographers expected — a foreshadowing of the sudden drop in the US fertility rate in recent years. Those who have many children often say they would have them even without the benefits. Those who don’t say the benefits don’t make enough of a difference.

(Adapted from “Worldwide Efforts To Reverse The Baby Shortage Are Falling Flat,” by Chelsey Dulaney, published on October 13, 2024, by the Wall Street Journal)

China’s counter-Trump measures

China has announced a 10tr yuan ($1.4tr) fiscal package to help shore up its faltering economy, as it braces for increased trade tensions with the US under Donald Trump. Beijing has authorised China’s heavily indebted local governments to issue 6tr yuan ($0.83tr) in new bonds over three years and reallocate a further 4tr yuan ($0.55tr) in previously planned bonds over five years to restructure their finances, officials announced at a press conference presided over by finance minister Lan Fo’an. Analysts say China needs to urgently deal with problems dogging its domestic economy, including a prolonged housing slump that has dented household and local government revenues, before Trump’s tariffs hit its external sector. If fully implemented without Chinese countermeasures, the Trump tariffs could knock several percentage points off China’s GDP at a moment when the economy is highly vulnerable, analysts said.

(Adapted from “China Unveils $1.4tr Package To Shore Up Economy,” by Joe Leahy, Wenjie Ding, Cheng Leng, and Arjun Neil Alim, published on November 8, 2024, by the Financial Times)

Chaos packaging

Companies are selling water in tallboys better known for beer, tampons in ice-cream tubs and sunscreen in whipped-cream cans, as surprising packaging becomes a sharper tool for marketers. Marketing and venture capital consultant Michael Miraflor calls the trend “chaos packaging.” Packages that cause some kind of cognitive dissonance are more likely to capture the attention of shoppers than traditional boxes, bottles and cans. Creative packaging can also help generate free attention on social media. “Classic Whip has done an extraordinary job for us in earned media,” said Lach Hall, co-founder of the sun protection brand Vacation, which in 2022 began selling cans of sunscreen that could be mistaken for whipped cream. “We don’t necessarily have to do any paid promotion for it — just by having this product out in the world, it generates around 5m views a week on TikTok.”

(Adapted from “Ice Cream Tubs Of Tampons And Sunscreen From A Whipped Cream Can: Welcome To ‘Chaos Packaging’,” by Katie Deighton, published on October 21, 2024, by the Wall Street Journal)

Queuing for luxury

Many other luxury brands, such as LVMH-owned labels, ask you to wait your turn until a sales assistant is available to escort you through the door. Why? “Many brands have made the calculation that matching visitors to a sales associate, while generating queues, is desirable, as it provides higher conversion and ‘hurts’ more casual potential customers,” says Luca Solca, senior analyst at Bernstein. According to fashion tech company Retviews a Celine Cabas Triomphe bag, is 41pc more expensive in Beijing than in Paris. For many Chinese tourists, stores on Avenue Montaigne have the appeal of a sample sale. And people will queue for a bargain. But the practice is a potential brand killer when it’s not justified.

(Adapted from “Why Do People Queue Up Outside Luxury Stores, by Mark C O’ Flaherty, published on October 29, 2024, by the Financial Times)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 18th, 2024