Me, My Life, My Wallet identifies the complex drivers of choice that open and close the customer wallet. Through a multi-dimensional lens called the Five Mys, KPMG International’s groundbreaking study looks at consumers and uncovers predictive insights that navigate the complexity of consumer decision making. The Five Mys include: My Motivation, My Attention, My Connection, My Watch and My Wallet.

My motivation – Characteristics that drive behaviour and expectations

My attention – Ways we direct our attention and focus

My connection – How we connect to devices, information and each other

My watch – How we balance the constraints of time and how that changes across life events

My wallet – How we adjust our share of wallet across life events

My motivation: Consumers crave convenience and more intuitive, personalised experiences. They value peer reviews and social reference, and place more confidence in individual influencers than in companies and institutions. The take out for marketers is Know them, Make it easy for them, Value them.

My attention: The sheer tsunami of information available at consumer’s fingertips means marketers are constantly vying for attention. Understanding how individual consumers prioritise and marshal their time and attention is essential to break through the noise and the chaos and to build deeper, more meaningful relationships. The questions marketers need to ask is how do I maintain value once I have captured the attention of my customer.

My connection: consumers are getting smarter about the world, and the world is getting smarter about consumers.The questions marketers need to ask is how do I make the most of the connectivity and data? How can I understand my customer better?

My watch: how much time consumers have, or think they have, influences how they interact with other people, services and companies. Every consumer will trade time and money. Marketers need to ask themselves how do I reduce the time and effort it takes for my customers to purchase or engage with my brand?

My wallet: Often a symbiotic relationship exists between time and money, the consumer wallet changes according to major life events. How much money they have, how they choose to allocate it and their attitude towards it shifts based on myriad factors, not just our salary or age.

The big take out for marketers is that if you still prescribe to the dated belief that your primary competition is a rival company in the same industry — you need to realign your thinking to new age consumer behaviour because your only true competitor is the consumer’s wallet.  Consumers are subject to finite income flows and certain unavoidable fixed costs that factor into calculating their available spend. But regardless of income and demographics, all consumers present contradictions between their rhetoric and actions. They might stress the importance of budgeting but then show a willingness to forgo value in favour of convenience, or self-improvement. This is where we see interplays between watch and wallet and motivation and wallet. 

For example, consumers in this study emphasised how much of their time outside work was devoted to self-improvement. The new “leisure upgrade” phenomena shows us consumers want the time spent on leisure activities to yield more than just simple enjoyment; they want to learn new skills or improve their health. These goals may prevail over the spend mix of their wallet. For example young families in this study showed paying for premium on-demand and delivery services that bring speed, ease and convenience to shopping and meal times were sought after and very appealing. This appeared to be directly at odds with their cost-saving endeavours.