Despite the weak economy, there is demand for "luxuries"

Want to sell cars or washing machines or facial creams, shampoos, in recent years it has become difficult for the international consumer goods companies ignore the Brazil. Low-income consumers are buying just about anything, and are increasingly interested in products relatively expensive.
Is a trend that remains intact despite two years of economic stagnation. The increase of inflation concerns and a drop rate of investments shook consumer confidence and the Government's popularity, with a wave of protests in June stating the degree of discontent.
Even so, all the evidence suggests that the Brazilians ' love affair with luxury products remains unshaken. A survey last month by LatAm Confidential, a research service of the "Financial Times" about the buying habits of Hispanic food, showed that although spending are under pressure, the Brazilians still want expensive, high-quality products.
Of the 6,500 Latin Americans who participated in the survey, 51.2 percent said the price is the most important consideration, with the cost being a particularly important consideration in Argentina, where inflationary pressures have been increasing.
But the quality of food and diet-related issues are on the list of secondary concerns, although important in Brazil.
Quality is the main concern of 40% of those surveyed, compared to 46.7% who see the price as a big issue. One in 15 Brazilian consumers see health and diet as the most important factors when purchasing food, a much higher proportion than in the other five countries where the survey was done.
And more: the Brazilians habits may be spreading. In search of "FT", 35.2 percent of Peruvians said that quality is the most important to them, compared to 40% who say the price is the most important.
Although only 28.7% of Mexicans have the quality as their main concern when buying foods, analysts contend that low-income consumers are becoming more selective, perhaps because low-income families that have already achieved a better social position are eager to demonstrate that they are better placed than their relatives.
Gerard Schoor, who runs the consultancy Office Integration in Mexico City, says: "a lot of people do not have sufficient purchasing power to purchase houses and cars, but they have enough money to buy a desired item every two months, be it an expensive face cream or a pair of sneakers".
Separate surveys of the Brazilian market LatAm Confidential comes showing that luxury brands are still faring well despite the economic downturn. Consumers in great grip seem willing to save with other things, buying toothpastes and razors cheaper.
And it's not just the sales of expensive electronics from Apple that fell this year--following a global trend, benefiting mainly the Samsung, the South Korean company that competes with the American company. The Brazilians also are buying more products from cheaper private label brands offered by supermarket chains, and more consumers are taking advantage of discounts offered in large volumes by the shops of the type "cash and carry".
In March, 36% of households bought at least once in the "cash and carry", compared to 33% in March 2012.
The Brazilian retailers own brands have a market share of about 5%, compared to a global average of 16%. The revenue of supermarkets with their own brand products-usually 15% to 20% cheaper than the other brands-have more than doubled in the last six years, reaching r $ 2.9 billion in 2012.
For Neide Montesano, President of the Brazilian Association of own brands and outsourcing (Abmapro), the trend is clearly related to the inflation (around 6% in Brazil), with the lowest prices helping consumers to "preserve their purchasing power".
Even so, the data of the LatAm Confidental show that sales of more expensive products have been keeping well in a number of categories. Sales of "premium" or "mid-market" accounted for 16.4% of purchases of beer by surveyed in August, compared to 14% in December last year, when the research began to be made.
The most expensive brands of margarine accounted for 48.6% of purchases in August, an increase of 2.9 percentage points on the April number. And the same trend was evident in sales of chocolates, with the most expensive products responding regularly by 8% of sales in the last three months.
The search for quality among Brazilians who care about the body may be more evident in the market of cosmetics and personal care products. Sales of higher-priced cosmetics and intermediate track have been keeping well, responding on a regular basis by more than 20% of sales per month. The presence of more expensive shampoos and intermediates price is increasing consistently, from 69% of sales in March to 72.2% in August.
The international groups are registering extraordinary successes. Unilever, for example, one of the groups that are having much success in the personal care industry, launched in Brazil your TRESemmé shampoo, back to the middle market range, at the end of 2011. In a matter of months, the product, sold in hairdressers, Salon style began to evaporate off the shelves of the supermarkets, at the expense of alternatives but cockroaches as Silk shampoo, the product of Unilever's own economic price.
In October 2012 Unilever announced that the TRESemmé had reached a market share of 7% in less than a year. Search LaTam Confidential suggests that Brazilians, no matter how pressured, yet are happy to pay a few dollars extra for TRESemmé, whose sales have been keeping well in recent months.