Once cowed by an economic malaise that was a depression in all but name, Canadian consumers are starting to buck up and try new products and services, says the new Yankelovich Monitor.

Liz Jaye, vice-president of Creative Research International in Toronto, which conducts the research for the study issued every other year, says people have adjusted to straitened financial circumstances and are now loosening their pursestrings a bit.

Jaye says research for the Monitor – conducted last summer with 1,200 personal, in-home interviews in French and English across the country – shows increased interest in new moderately priced restaurants, for instance, and consumers’ willingness to try new foods cooked at home.

Elsewhere, Jaye says, in the retail sector there is fresh consumer interest in discount stores, and research shows the public’s opinion of North American cars has gone up substantially.

But despite this apparent welcome news for marketers, Jaye says the Monitor’s research suggests consumers will not accept corporate messages at face value, even though there has been ‘a reduction in crankiness.’

She says this situation means the issue becomes how to communicate with consumers, suggesting the importance of transmitting a product’s or service’s genuine worth in a genuine way.

She says hyping an item will have an effect opposite to the one intended.