Australians@Home 2.0 – Aussies hate household chores

Australians are time poor and hate doing chores yet as few as 2% outsource these for fear of losing control.

Caroline Morgan, Head of Insights and Innovation at Samsung Australia presented the results of Australians@Home 2.0 – a major study of over 1000 national, “representative” Australians. Samsung uses the research to develop new features and products – its “AddWash” front loader feature and many of the design firsts in its French and double door refrigerators were driven by Australian research.

Jeremy Senior, Director Home Appliances, Samsung Electronics Australia, said, “The pressures and demands of day-to-day life are constantly changing around us and can vary across households.”

“Because Samsung products are now in 74% of Australian households it is immensely important for Samsung to understand how our technology can support the evolving needs of the home, as well as select, calibrate and design product features for Australia. The 2017 research has given us further insight into how we as a nation are living and has shown how home appliances and technology can help play a role in supporting Australian lives,” he added.

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Morgan said that both studies explore the common pain-points experienced in homes around the county with the latest study also focusing on behaviours and attitudes in the home and the changing role of appliances. “We focus on the Australian consumer – not appliances,” she said.

In addition, her team interacted with more than 277,000 Australians via feedback from social media, email, face-to-face, in-store and in-home interviews as well as measuring trends and data – Samsung is a data driven company.

Morgan said that Australians are shopping more, cooking more and wasting more compared to the inaugural study in 2015. The research revealed we are increasingly valuing fresh (69%), healthy, home cooked food (67%) increasingly preparing meals at home, dining out less and ordering takeaway less often than 5 years ago.

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Consequently, the shopping and food wastage cycle have changed. Despite good intentions of wanting to eat fresher by shopping more often, food wastage is on the increase. Large households have nearly doubled their food wastage to more than $2,200 worth of uneaten food annually compared to $1,280 in 2015.

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Samsung’s answers to this include a four-door (French style) Family Hub refrigerator (with an interactive touch screen, recipes based on food in the fridge, remote viewing) and a flat French four-door with adjustable use compartments, shelves, integrated ice, and water.

On the chores front cleaning the bathroom, dusting, ironing and vacuuming had the highest pain points with cooking and foods shopping having the most pleasure.

SS AatH chores

Vacuuming’s pain points included, must do it regularly (36%), its noisy (33%), I lack time (29%) and it hurts my back (28%). Samsung’s answer to this is its robotic vacuums.

Washing and drying had a love/hate relationship. Samsung’s answer to this is the modernisation of basic washing machines (outside materials and designs), integrated dryers, Wi-Fi connectivity (for command and control), larger capacities (fewer washes) and smarter programs.

The research showed a significant change in the attitudes to smart appliances – especially refrigerators.

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It also showed that Australian’s tend to move around a lot and having good appliances in the kitchen eclipsed design style, storage space, layout, wall layout, surfaces, and lighting.

SS AatH info