Forget the Joneses and the Beckhams, These Days Brits Want to Keep Up With Their Friends
New research reveals our jealousies, lies and aspirations
Research by a new price comparison website launched this week, thecomparisons.com, has revealed that it is no longer the Joneses we’re trying to keep up with, or even celebrities, but in fact, our FRIENDS!
The research carried out by ‘Your Say Pays’ was commissioned by thecomparisons.com to help it understand how people benchmark and judge themselves against others in the build up to its UK launch.
The majority of people (39%) said they compared their own success and social standing most against that of their friends. Just 4% said they used their neighbours and, despite the continuous media hype on their influence on society, only 2% of Brits use celebrities as a barometer of status.
Making up lies to impress others featured highly, with a third of all people saying they regularly did this. The most common fib was to spice up social or love lives (35%), closely followed by ‘bumping up’ salary or qualifications (32%).
Women were found to be more career-conscious than men, and were twice as likely to lie to impress their boss, while men unsurprisingly are more likely to lie to impress their neighbours or friends. Women were also found to be more jealous than men and were 10% more likely to secretly resent their close friends because of what they had or who they were.
Originally featured in a comic book strip by Arthur R. Momand, the term ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ dates back to 1913 and refers to the desire to be seen as good as your neighbour, using comparative benchmarks. And with ‘Jones’ remaining as the second most popular surname in Britain, behind ‘Smith’, understanding the profile of the Joneses and their influence on society is surprising.
Using a data resourse of more than eight million people, thecomparisons.com has looked into who the typical ‘Jones’ is today.
He is most likely to be male, and unsurprisingly lives in Wales. Mr Jones favours singledom and drives a hatchback, he holidays in the Med or Spain and enjoys golfing, going to the cinema and food and drink. His favourite newspaper is The Daily Mail and he lives in a semi detached house.
The research also reveals the criteria against which people judge their own social standing, along with the perceptions towards different professions.
Criteria used to gauge other’s success
1) Job or profession – 36%
2) Nice house/neighbourhood – 30%
3) Peer group/social standing – 16%
4) Flashy Car – 3%
5) Designer gear – 3%
The most and least impressive jobs
1) Entrepreneur – 43%
2) Doctor – 16%
3) Lawyer –14%
4) Teacher – 4%
5) Accountant – 3.5%
Benchmarking is a daily occurrence for all of us and with more than a third of people in the UK said to have used a price comparison site to make a financial decision in the past year ¹. Industry growth predicted at annual rate of 30 – 50%, the demand for services such as thecomparisons.com is very high.
It has been reported that up to a third of new online business for car insurance can be attributed to comparison sites with the volume of traffic growing twice as quickly as online retail². Whilst thecomparisons.com will initially play to consumer demand and focus on a series of insurance based products, the brand will quickly broaden its offering to other areas, such as e-retail, money, travel and supermarket shopping.
Many of the UK’s leading insurers are already signed up, including Norwich Union, RAC, KwikFit, Swiftcover, Endsleigh and Lancaster. Customers will not only receive breadth of choice, but will receive fantastic value for money.
Chris McDonald, director of thecomparisons.com, said: “We compare ourselves to other people on a daily basis whether it’s what job we have, where we live or indeed something as simple as how much we’ve paid for our car insurance. It’s only natural therefore to want to be able to compare products easily and quickly and that’s why we’ve launched thecomparisons.com.”
Research by a new price comparison website launched this week, thecomparisons.com, has revealed that it is no longer the Joneses we’re trying to keep up with, or even celebrities, but in fact, our FRIENDS!
The research carried out by ‘Your Say Pays’ was commissioned by thecomparisons.com to help it understand how people benchmark and judge themselves against others in the build up to its UK launch.
The majority of people (39%) said they compared their own success and social standing most against that of their friends. Just 4% said they used their neighbours and, despite the continuous media hype on their influence on society, only 2% of Brits use celebrities as a barometer of status.
Making up lies to impress others featured highly, with a third of all people saying they regularly did this. The most common fib was to spice up social or love lives (35%), closely followed by ‘bumping up’ salary or qualifications (32%).
Women were found to be more career-conscious than men, and were twice as likely to lie to impress their boss, while men unsurprisingly are more likely to lie to impress their neighbours or friends. Women were also found to be more jealous than men and were 10% more likely to secretly resent their close friends because of what they had or who they were.
Originally featured in a comic book strip by Arthur R. Momand, the term ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ dates back to 1913 and refers to the desire to be seen as good as your neighbour, using comparative benchmarks. And with ‘Jones’ remaining as the second most popular surname in Britain, behind ‘Smith’, understanding the profile of the Joneses and their influence on society is surprising.
Using a data resourse of more than eight million people, thecomparisons.com has looked into who the typical ‘Jones’ is today.
He is most likely to be male, and unsurprisingly lives in Wales. Mr Jones favours singledom and drives a hatchback, he holidays in the Med or Spain and enjoys golfing, going to the cinema and food and drink. His favourite newspaper is The Daily Mail and he lives in a semi detached house.
The research also reveals the criteria against which people judge their own social standing, along with the perceptions towards different professions.
Criteria used to gauge other’s success
1) Job or profession – 36%
2) Nice house/neighbourhood – 30%
3) Peer group/social standing – 16%
4) Flashy Car – 3%
5) Designer gear – 3%
The most and least impressive jobs
1) Entrepreneur – 43%
2) Doctor – 16%
3) Lawyer –14%
4) Teacher – 4%
5) Accountant – 3.5%
Benchmarking is a daily occurrence for all of us and with more than a third of people in the UK said to have used a price comparison site to make a financial decision in the past year ¹. Industry growth predicted at annual rate of 30 – 50%, the demand for services such as thecomparisons.com is very high.
It has been reported that up to a third of new online business for car insurance can be attributed to comparison sites with the volume of traffic growing twice as quickly as online retail². Whilst thecomparisons.com will initially play to consumer demand and focus on a series of insurance based products, the brand will quickly broaden its offering to other areas, such as e-retail, money, travel and supermarket shopping.
Many of the UK’s leading insurers are already signed up, including Norwich Union, RAC, KwikFit, Swiftcover, Endsleigh and Lancaster. Customers will not only receive breadth of choice, but will receive fantastic value for money.
Chris McDonald, director of thecomparisons.com, said: “We compare ourselves to other people on a daily basis whether it’s what job we have, where we live or indeed something as simple as how much we’ve paid for our car insurance. It’s only natural therefore to want to be able to compare products easily and quickly and that’s why we’ve launched thecomparisons.com.”
- Over 1,100 people were surveyed in this study across the UK. Your Say Pays is a research panel operated by The Leadership Factor, the UK’s leading source of (customer) satisfaction data. For further details www.leadershipfactor.com or tel 01484 467004 for further details
- Source reference¹: You Gov
- Source reference²: ComScore Media Metrix
Labels: car insurance, compare car insurance online, compare yourself, price comparison
posted by The Comparisons at
22:25
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