The Lab and Nature certainly paint a picture of a more concerned and cautious Australia than brands may have anticipated – highlighting that even before the recent outbreak in Victoria and now New South Wales, a quell in new cases and emergence from isolation had not boosted consumer confidence in the way we may have expected.

So, what does this mean for brands? How can you provide meaningful communication to a largely concerned audience, most of whom are looking to shift their spending behaviour?

Simple – understand them. Of course it sounds obvious, but in practice it may be a little more difficult given the nation is broken into five distinct groups. Having said that, the full report does reveal some common ground: 65% of Australians will buy from local and independent stores, 67% will choose products with minimal or sustainable packaging and 62% will purchase or subscribe to things made by trustworthy brands.

In short, the nation’s collective attitude toward spending seems to be leaning closer to the attitudes of Gen Z than ever before. That is to say, if your product’s messaging is trying to galvanise an otherwise divided nation, it’s going to have to have genuine purpose, it’s going to have to be ethically sound and you have to expect that whatever claims you are making will be thoroughly scrutinised – people are spending more time in front of their devices after all. To learn more about exactly what makes that relevant to Gen Z, check anything that’s come out of Cannes in the last two years.

This is no longer the exclusive opinion of an emerging (albeit powerful) consumer category, but the attitude of a nation with renewed priorities. Equally well, that does not mean now is the time to greenwash your brand or join in on the same sort of bandwagon-esque communication we saw at the beginning of the pandemic. We’ve all heard plenty about the pitfalls of doing so... We know in these “unprecedented” times things aren’t what they were and we’re more than aware Australia is in this together.

What it does mean is that it’s time to localise your comms. Right now, there’s one clear purpose Australians are asking brands to serve, and that’s to provide genuine support at the local level. It may seem daunting but, as McKinsey & Company suggest, rewiring your marketing’s operating model to provide granular presence at scale is a great starting point to maximise your ROI.