Consumer Confidence: An Underappreciated Indicator

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In the world of economics, real numbers, unsurprisingly, have always been the pinnacle of people’s attention. Economy is about money, and what better way to talk about money than numbers representing actual money involved in the economy. However, there is always more to the big picture than meets the eye, and besides the buzz around more commonly used economic indicators, such as Consumer Price Index, and Producer Price Index, the less talked-about, and lesser-known Consumer Confidence deserves much more recognition than it currently gets. Consumer Confidence is, in fact, monumental, in that it reflects on many of the most important areas of the economy, such as housing, unemployment, and inflation. Furthermore, unlike CPI and PPI, trailing indicators that document the past, Consumer Confidence, a leading indicator, often times paints us an accurate picture of what the economy looks like in the foreseeable future, and that is where the key difference lies. Although there is much to be learnt from the history and the recent past, we study economics for the future, and more time and energy ought to be devoted to analyzing stats that predict economy in the future, rather than the past.

 

Consumer Confidence is, in itself, a comprehensive, yet somewhat abstract indicator due to the many factors that come into play when it is calculated. When being asked to consider future expenditure, consumers would weigh their economic circumstances carefully, and give their opinions, namely, confidence level. The higher the Consumer Confidence in general, the more consumer-friendly the current market and economy is, and the more consumption will be taking place. Because it is measured by opinion polls and surveys filled out by the general public, the results are directly from the consumers themselves, and so is highly representative of the overall consumption in the next six months. It is relatively abstract because the Consumer Confidence numbers will be a result of many aforementioned factors combined, without clearly stating how each is faring in specific. Still, it does its job in predicting the general trend of consumption in an economy.

 

While indicators like CPI and PPI presents a picture faithful to economy in the past, Consumer Confidence takes advantage of conditions of the near past and present to make an outline for the future. Granted, we could look at the pattern of recent CPI and PPI, and predict that it is highly probable that the trend will continue. But, these indicators being what they are, in essence, trailing indicators, they have no way of estimating a change in the pattern ahead of time. In economics, timing is crucial, and a leading indicator like Consumer Confidence has the benefit of providing people with the convenience of being able to know what happens ahead of time. The leeway helps governments to be Johnny on the spot when making new policies, and can prevent them from losing money. More analysis on Consumer Confidence can prove quite valuable for governments in the long run, for it will help stabilize the economy, and kill off potential financial setbacks before they take form.

Consumerism as a vital indicator of the American economy

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Consumer spending is, without a doubt, one of the backbones of American culture. In the United States, it’s often impossible to go even one day without buying something, whether it’s purchasing a simple pack of gum or dropping some serious cash on a brand-new car. With these everyday, but vital, contributors to the United States’ economy in mind, it’s no wonder that consumer spending is one of the most important economic indicators for the U.S., accounting for about two-thirds of the U.S. economy. More specifically, retail sales (often the most common picture of consumerism) cover 40 percent of consumer spending. Given the seasonal nature of retail, sales reports are released on a monthly basis to be compared to that same month of a previous year. So yes, one could say that the holiday season and exchanging presents are not just about good will to all, considering sales made during that time are an especially strong indicator of how well (or how poorly) the U.S. economy is doing.

Additionally, it is important to note that, naturally, retail sales directly reflect consumers’ wealth and confidence in the economy. The more household incomes increase and stock prices rise, the wealthier people feel, which inclines them to spend more. If consumers are economically insecure about the future, they will spend less. To best illustrate this concept, let’s briefly look at consumer spending before and during the Great Recession of 2008.

On Oct. 25, 2011, The Economist published an article titled “Hard times: How the economic slowdown has changed consumer spending in America.” Given the year, 2011, the piece was written as the United States was attempting to climb from the depths of the crash that began in 2008, and the above graph depicts how resulting consumer spending changed between 2007 and 2010.

Personally, I was still in late elementary school when the crash occurred, and I distinctly remember that the recession did not hit my family hard until 2011 when my father was laid off from his full time job. As the graph communicates, the recession led to an overall decrease in consumer spending by the nation, and I definitely remember that my family had to reduce our spending, too. Now that I’m studying the topic years later with a more mature perspective, it’s interesting to see how my family’s decreased spending habits at the time reflected those of the nation as a whole, which is something my 11-year-old self could not process.

Most notably, the article points out how consumer spending had changed at large, writing, “Between 2007 and 2010, average annual consumer spending per unit—defined as a family/shared household or single/financially independent person—fell by 3.1% to $48,109. Average prices over this period have risen by 5.2%, so real consumer spending has fallen by almost 8%.” The article then compares these spending habits to those of the “peak years” of 2003-2006, stating that consumer spending actually rose by 8.2 percent during that time. Consequently, recession years brought less spending on luxuries like sugar and nicotine, whereas the earlier prosperous years saw an increase in spending on non-necessities, namely household goods and alcohol, by 13 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

Simply put, as depicted by this short sliver of time that had such a drastic, historic impact on the U.S. economy, when consumers aren’t spending, it’s not because they’ve lost interest in American consumerism; rather, decreased consumer spending indicates a much larger problem within the grander economic landscape. After all, America is nothing without its consumer goods, so a thriving economy is the best way to keep America and it’s (morally conflicting) consumerist values alive and well.

 

SOURCES:

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2011/10/25/hard-times

Greg IP. The Little Book of Economics

Terri Thompson. Writing About Business

Pick A Pickle to Understand Urbanization in China

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We can always rely on food to tell changes in an economy.

Zhacai (榨菜) is a type of pickled mustard plant stem similar to Korean Kimchi. In China, it is popular among low-income group, particularly transient workers. By looking at the change in the sales of zhacai in different regions, one might tell where the workers were flowing into, which reflects how the cities has developed.

There has been large demand for labor forces as China embraces aggressive urbanization since its Reform and Opening-up. More and more breadwinners of rural households have attempted to opt out the life as farmers to pursue an imaginarily decent one in modern cities. In 1950, 13% of people in China lived in cities; by 2010, the urban share of the population had grown to 45%. The idea of using zhacai as an economic indicator was brought up in 2013 by Prof. Ba Shusong, Deputy Secretary General of China Society of Macroeconomics. He predicted that transient workers in east coastal areas would go back to their hometowns in west central China, as labor-intensive industries in the coastal areas had begun to migrate to the central regions since 2008 due to rising costs in land and resource.

According to the financial statements of Chongqing Fuling Zhacai, the biggest zhacai manufacturer in the country, from 2010 to 2012, the sales in Central China, Northwest China and Central Plains increased by 67.4%, 65.2% and 56.8% respectively, while the growth rate of South China was only 8.82% during the same period, which was the lowest in the nine sales regions of the country. The data then consolidate the argument of Prof. Ba.

The concept, however, is not entirely academically accurate. A migrant worker, for instance, might stop buying zhacai because of rising income levels or changing dietary preferences, while he himself was not migrating to anywhere else. Such changes would not reflect the physical move of the consumers.

Despite that, government officials in Guangdong Province might felt a huge relief seeing this number, for it suggests that their pressure on resettling the migrant population will be greatly reduced. Officials in the west central China, however, would have to feel a little bit of anxiety, because they might need to cope with tens of millions of people returning to the towns – they would then be crowded with problems of employment, health care and public services…

Indexes and Indicators

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If you’re reading this, you’re most likely in college or at least very familiar with higher education. If so, you may be aware of the yearly increase colleges make to their final Cost of Attendance (COA). Yes, part of that may be because of the increased expenses and simply an administrative decision, but there is another underlying reason the cost goes up in small (though sometimes not-so-small) increments. Take the tuition of University of Southern California, for example.

 

The Widney House, then known as Hodge Hall at the University of Southern California circa 1880. 

The original cost of tuition when USC was first founded in 1880 was a whopping $15.00 per term. Today, that is about the cost of a single dining hall meal at USC (if not cheaper). But if we examine even the past few years, the tuition at the University of Southern California has increased 3.5% or more every year. The economy experiences inflation and the American dollar’s value starts to depreciate. In other words, you have to start paying more money for the same products, like your panini sandwiches.  

Graphic made by Baylee Nagda from the Daily Trojan Newspaper

 

The inflation, or the “weaker dollar,” versus deflation, or the “stronger dollar” refers to how much value the same dollar bill holds. Though it is important to note that this is not true in every case—sometimes, the rising prices may simply signal a bustling economy and the dollar will increase along with the stimulated economy. 

But why is this important? The strength of the dollar in any nation’s economy can be a strong economic indicator. One way of measuring inflation is through the Consumer Price Index, or CPI for short. It takes a general list of essential things most Americans or the citizens of a certain nation buys and tracks its cost. Seeing where the trend lies in the Consumer Price Index can let us know as Americans, consumers, investors, and global citizens how the foreseeable economic future will be shaped to some degree. This knowledge can influence what we choose to do or not do with our money, influencing decisions.

 

In more specific breakdowns, these statistics are differentiated by Urban consumers and non-Urban consumers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics from the US Department of Labor reveals a monthly Consumer Price Index summary— this past month in July of 2018, the Bureau reported that the CPI has increased 0.2 percent.

 

Graphic by George Petras from USA Today. 

 

However, Dan Caplinger of the USA Today speculates that the inflation rate isn’t always accurately reflected in our everyday lives. He explains that the statistics for the Consumer Price Index that is taken are averages of the general population. This includes different categories of the workforce such as employed, unemployed and the growing group of the baby boomer generation that is starting to retire. Thus, different age brackets and income brackets. Age inevitably has a stronghold of influence on our personal spending, but also the allocation of money even within our “necessities.” An example would be that health care is most likely to cost more the older you get. Yet, some may argue that in the bigger picture of economic activity, a specific demographic will only change consumer behavior so much. Ultimately, consumers will spend when the economy is favorable and spending becomes attractive. 

 

Understanding that the primary goal of CPI statistics are for tracking the economy rather than personal accuracy is important to note. This means that the CPI statistics are not going to be accurate in every neighborhood of the United States, but are referenced as the average cost of an item during a certain time period. Considering all of these factors, we can extrapolate from this data to give us guiding clues about how the economy is going to behave.

The Corruption Perceptions Index

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It seems as though daily someone gives another push to the revolving door that is scandal in the Trump administration. Last week, it got quite the shove, as Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen said in court that the president had directed him during the 2016 campaign to pay off two women who claimed they had affairs with Trump. Cohen’s accusation implicates the president in a federal crime.

Many across the country—and across the world—see the Trump administration and the United States as heavily corrupt. The U.S. is, however, the 16th least corrupt country in the world, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), that is.

The CPI is published yearly by Transparency International (TI), an NGO dedicated to fighting global corruption. It is perhaps the best-known measure of corruption worldwide. The CPI ranks 180 territories on a scale from 0 to 100. The closer the country’s score is to 100, the better that country prevents government corruption. A score below 50 implies the country has deeply-rooted issues with corruption, while a score below 30 suggests the country is capable of meddling in a U.S. presidential election wherein the winner of that election might go against all American intelligence officials and deny the country guilty of any wrongdoing. Just kidding. But it does suggest that corruption for the country is as basic as borscht.

The CPI takes into consideration the results of 10 surveys and studies conducted by a range of institutions. Sources include the World Bank, the African Development Bank, data from the Economist Intelligence Unit, and executives at the World Economic Forum. Transparency International evaluates the quality of studies gathered and employs a team of both in-house and independent researchers to assist in original data collection.

Participation in corruption can affect an organization in negative ways whose effects are felt long-term. In many cases, corruption causes inefficiency, especially when funds are wrongfully used. Bad press is sure to follow instances of realized corruption, likely causing customers to lose confidence in its business practices. An organization’s damaged reputation discourages possible business partners from becoming involved.

At this point, the company might need an entire public relations campaign to regain its footing, costing both time and money. This dedication of resources might rob another area of the company of the attention it needs, exposing inefficiencies and potential financial losses. This scenario can be applied to an entire country and its economy.

Corruption is discouraged when there are tools of accountability in place. They promote a culture that values stout ethical practices while maintaining a system of punishment for those who breach standards. Companies can minimize corruption by implementing easy ways to report offenses.

It’s still unclear whether or not Trump will ever be prosecuted for any instances of corruption, but it’s doubtful that he’ll retain the services of Michael Cohen if he is.

Invisible influence—why traditional supply and demand aren’t the only forces driving commodity prices

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If you’re like me, and every other average American, you’re happy to reach for your 1.96 cups of coffee each morning. You’re probably even happier that market prices for commodity coffee have been in sharp decline since 2015 and that, if you’re reading this, you’re living in the US where the average price of a cup of coffee is $2.70. Life is good for the caffeine addict and the general consumer alike—commodity prices are down. Theoretically, this means that abundant supply and stable demand have reconciled to make low prices and happy consumers.

As a zealous consumer of coffee, it is simple to examine the economy from my perspective as a consumer, my perspective where lower prices equate to a “better” economy. That perspective, however, is not only narrow-minded, but also ignorant. A full economic picture must examine each step of the supply chain, green coffee grower to distributor. Why? Because each player takes a cut of that $2.70 you pay at Starbucks each morning before your 8am lecture, morning meeting, or daily workout.

The free-market economy suggests that prices are determined by two factors—supply and demand.

Coffee

These economic rules may seem fairly pedestrian, but may be visually represented by the above graph showing the steady decline in coffee prices in the late 90s and early 2000s. General consensus credits this decline in the commodity price of coffee to a new entrant in the coffee producer scene—Vietnam (“The Global Coffee Trade,” Stanford Graduate School of Business). In contrast, 2014 yielded abnormally high coffee prices due to a prolonged drought in Brazil which rendered inadequate supply to satiate the appetites of worldwide caffeine consumers. With coffee demand growing relatively uniformly worldwide, market price fluxes appear to be most strongly correlated with supply disruptions.

Supply volatility, however, is not the singular issue.

Here’s the reality—coffee farmers cannot live on their negotiated wages, are subject to the whims of climate (even more so in the past decade), and lack the infrastructure needed to process and roast their coffee beans, leaving them with little bargaining power. While processors like Nestle and P&G certainly take advantage of their roasting infrastructure and supply chain, there is a deeper truth about commodity pricing—consumers demand superior products at low prices. How can free markets support and satisfy all members of the economy, producer to consumer, while operating under these parameters?

An attempt at a short answer to a long question about coffee economics, supply, and demand is this: because consumers, coffee enthusiasts like you and me, want lower prices, companies will fight on our behalf to get those lower prices. That is their role as competitive businesses. When we think about supply and demand, we cannot merely consider how much we demand, but what exactly we are demanding. We—I—demand high quality, superior tasting, convenient, caffeine-rich coffee at a good price every time I step into the coffee shop.  Those are intangible properties I associate with my tangible good. If I’m not willing to pay for those intangibles at the coffee shop, a coffee grower in Brazil will be paying for them instead.

 

 

China’s Population Anxiety

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Recently, two academics from China’s universities proposed to tax all working adults under 40 to build a “reproduction fund”. The proposal aims at alleviating the costs of childbirth and raising fertility. When families give birth to the second child, they could withdraw money from the fund. However, those couples who don’t have the second child cannot withdraw any money until they are retired.

For decades, China has restrictively controlled the number of babies women could have. The one-child policy has been requiring families to have only a child. Those women who violate the policy will be forced to stop pregnancy and undergo sterilization operations by the country’s “family planning” offices. But decades later, the one-child policy has caused a looming demographic crisis that officials begin to realize that it could imperil economic growth and to be anxious for a baby boom.

The one-child policy was eased three years ago. But the damage to China’s population growth had been done and the fertility willingness could not be rebounded anymore. Now the country is dealing with a demographic time bomb, which features an increase in the number of elderly people and a falling birth rate.

As of 2017, people aged 60 and above accounted for about 16.2 percent of China’s population, compared to 7.4 percent in 1950, according to the UN Population Division. The global percentage of people over 60 sits at 12.7 percent. Also, according to the State Council, the population is graying quickly. about a quarter of China’s population will be 60 or older by 2030, up from 13.3 percent in the 2010 census.

The increasing number of aging population means more retirement pension should be provided for the increasing number of retirees. However, China faces a widening shortfall of the financial support. In 2017, China’s pension funds collected 3.3 trillion yuan ($515 billion) and handed out 2.9 trillion yuan in payments. According to Reuters, thirteen pension funds in regions and administrative units around China can only cover less than one year’s worth of pensions.

Moreover, ending China’s decades-old one-child policy has not raised birth rates as high living costs deter larger families. As Bloomberg notes, “High living costs, long work hours and surging child-care expenses mean that many couples feel that they can only afford to have one child — or none.” Although the number of births in China did welcome a rise of nearly 8 percent in 2016 after the government eased one-child policy and allowed a two-child policy in 2015, the rise did not last long and the number of births then fell 3.5 percent in 2017, from 18.5 million in 2016 to 17.2 million.

This does not bode well for China’s economic growth. During the past four decades, China has enjoyed its demographic dividend to boost the economy. With one-child policy, China artificially adjusted its demographic structure to a good one with the ratio of those too old or too young to work to the working-age population dropping below 50 percent. But these days are over. Now, China is still finding a way to regain demographic dividend with its population anxiety.

Consumer Sentiment as an Economic Indicator

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Getting people to purchase a good or service is the primary goal of any functioning company in the world. Corporations spend millions of dollars to understand what makes people tick, on research analysis, focus groups, in-depth marketing, and surveys, and what might influence them to purchase products. The level of confidence that households on a wide scale have in the economy and vis-a-vis their personal finances is extremely vital to any organization. Consumer sentiment helps companies better understand how much of a good to produce, as well as where best to sell. Whether it is an apparel company like Nike attempting to figure out how many shoes to produce this year while projecting its American sales figures, or a technology company such as Apple setting its targets for a new iPhone, companies highly desire the latest consumer attitudes on the economy.

For decades, consumer confidence has been tracked by the The Conference Board by Nielsen, a global provider of information and analytics on the buying and watching habits of people around the world. The consumer confidence index helps measure the health of the U.S. economy and is “based on consumers’ perceptions of current business and employment condition, and their expectations for business, employment, and income for the next six months.” The company surveys thousands of households every month, with five questions total — two related to present economic conditions and three regarding expectations. Each question can be answered positively, negatively, or neutrally. Since 1985, the index has been set to 100. Today, the index is at 95.3 for the month of August 2018, the lowest in a year.

To explain the low confidence, “consumers voiced the least favorable views on pricing for household durables in nearly ten years, since October 2008. Vehicle buying conditions were viewed less favorably in August than anytime in the last four years, with vehicle prices being judged less favorably than anytime since the close of 1984. Home buying conditions were viewed less favorably in early August than anytime in the past ten years, with home prices judged less favorably than anytime since 2006.” In other words, some of the most important things that people purchase, that they spend the largest amount of money on and use nearly every day for a long period of time – cars and homes – have highly unfavorable prices and supply. With cars, the decline in consumer favorability could be explained by a sudden shift in preference from sedans (long a staple of the American economy and road) to more costly, larger cars like SUVs and crossovers, without the adequate supply to satisfy rising demand; additionally, this year marks the highest average cost of a used car in 13 years.

All types of organizations – including investment firms, manufacturers, retailers, global financial management firms, as well as governments – see the sentiments of consumers as key to planning strategy and actions for the foreseeable future. According to Yahoo, because weak consumer confidence may indicate declining consumer spending, manufacturers will likely decrease their inventories in advance. Asset management firms or institutional investors might not invest in new projects and companies involved in the large-scale selling of goods, such as retailers like Walmart. Construction of homes will decline due to lower demand. Governments would need to ready for future tax revenues reduction and quickly figure out where its spending cuts will likely have the least significant impact.

The consumer confidence index is considered to be a leading economic indicator for the United States economy. Additionally, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) considers consumer confidence a global leading economic indicator. Thus, by analyzing consumer confidence, investors, companies and governments alike will get a better sense of what they should do to reflect the latest attitudes about the economy.

Sources:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-has-fallen-out-of-love-with-the-sedan-1535169698

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/06/15/used-cars-price-hit-record-high/700362002/

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-confidence

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-consumer-confidence-important-economic-170019558.html

Consumer Confidence… or Lack Thereof

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For many, August symbolizes beginnings. The hottest month brings a new school year and the long-awaited season of fall. One might think that these changes would encourage people to go shopping and buy new things, but this year, that is not the case. Consumer confidence hit an 11-month low in the United States. But what does that mean, exactly?

 

Consumer confidence is based on several factors. Each month, the American Conference Board surveys 5000 households to measure how optimistic or pessimistic consumers feel about the economy’s current and future performance. This is a leading economic indicator because if citizens believe that the economy is going to do well, they will want to purchase more, regardless of whether it’s smart to do so or not.

 

Earlier this month, the University of Michigan released that total sentiment fell to an 11-month low. The study revealed that the consumer confidence index (CCI) score fell from 97.9 in July to 95.3 in August, Reuters reports. This is how they got this number:

 

The CCI survey features a series of questions asking if the individual feels positive, negative, or neutral about the current and future economy. 40% of the questions concern the current economy, while 60% concern the future. Then, the Conference Board puts the responses into numbers by taking the amount of positive responses divided by the positive and negative responses combined. The scores are then averaged, and then compared to a benchmark value of 100.

 

This sounds complicated, but essentially it’s just an algorithm that quantifies consumer confidence.

 

The CCI is key because manufacturers use it to determine how much of their products they should produce. For example, if Apple sees that consumers are extremely confident this month, they might hire more factory workers to anticipate a boom in MacBook sales. This is a smart way for business to stay ahead of the supply and demand curve.

 

Economists, however, consider the CCI a lagging indicator, meaning it fluctuates after the economy changes, not before. In reality, though, if people think the economy is doing great and spend a lot of money, then in turn it will do great. Americans have the power to boost their economic futures by simply staying positive, but they tend to be pessimists. Current events seriously affect their outlook.

 

For example, the decline in CCI this month stemmed from the bottom third of the economy believing that this is a terrible time to buy large goods. This roots from an increased inflation rate over the past few months. Politics also play into sentiments, as the Trump administration’s protectionist trade policy has led Americans to believe that import duties will continue to rise.

 

Though consumer confidence is falling, one thing is for certain– it will rise again. The economy rises and falls every single day. Congress is constantly pushing new economic legislation. Changing weather conditions determine the price of goods. Trends lead people to buy certain things and not others. While it is scary to not know what the future holds, it can also be comforting.

 

SOURCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtT0cO9038E

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-confidence

 

 

Weather as an Economic Indicator

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It’s a rainy day outside. Your plans to go to the smoothie shop, restart your gym membership, and drive to the beach after you go shopping at the Grove in Beverly Hills have been canceled. You know that California weather tends to be dry and hot for the most part, so you push off your plans to have a rainy-day in. This day consists of watching movies on your Netflix account and cooking with leftovers around the house. This day is a good day to finally pick up that book you bought two years ago about success. One might not think these very actions serve any impact to the surrounding companies and people. In fact, it does. You, in addition to all the other people that decided to stay in because of this spontaneous rain in sunny California, would be reducing your contribution to the GDP and the economic growth in general. Different climates make consumer behavior change.

Weather plays a substantial role in the health of certain markets and therefore influencing the economy. Weather relates to the condition of the atmosphere with respect to temperature, humidity, etc. Different temperatures call for different demands, like the need for winter clothes and the popularity of comfort foods increases when winter is around the corner. Different humidity conditions affect the growth of certain crops, the sales of personal care products, and tourism revenue. In regions where the weather changes drastically, the revenue in many businesses may thrive or cripple. Seasonal businesses can include fresh produce, clothing, tourism, etc.

Blueberries grow in the summer season, “typically grown in humid and northern climates that have winter chills, mild summers, and low-pH or acidic soils.” These conditions limit the places where blueberries can grow. In cases of natural disasters and global warming, the value of the crop can be changed.  

For example, in September 2017, Hurricane Irma destroyed more than 50% of orange crop in Florida. With less supply and now more demand, fresh squeezed orange juice spiked in price. With a reduced harvest, alternatives, such as frozen concentrated orange juice, became more expensive, as well. Based on USA Today, “orange juice drinkers pay as much as $2.30 more for a gallon of orange juice as a result of the broad swatch that Irma cut through Florida’s citrus crop.”

Based on Everyday Health, individuals eat more in the winter, which would yield to an increased demand for food. During the winter time, there is an apparent rise in sales for comfort foods, such as meatballs, lasagna, cookies, and pork chops. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/25/the-hidden-ways-weather-determines-what-you-buy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cbabc329b7cc

Due to the influence weather has on economic activity, technology has found a way to monitor weather in efforts to capitalize on marketing and advertising. McDonald’s, a fast food chain, promotes coffee sales in cold areas and McFlurry sales in sunny areas. With access to current weather, companies can adjust campaigns to gain more impressions and attention.