What’s on Tap for Morning Consult Pro in Q1 2025

Morning Consult Pro: Q1 2025 Highlights

Industry & Consumer Trends

Our Q1 coverage will include guidance for navigating a Trump presidency and understanding shifting trends in beauty, personal care, and apparel due to inflation, dupe culture, and economic factors. Additionally, reports will explore the influence of Gen Z and Gen Alpha on shopping, eating, and digital behaviors, the rise of low-cost retailers like Shein and Temu, and actionable strategies for sports-related brand activations.

Key Highlights:

How Brands Should Navigate a Trump Presidency
As the Trump administration takes shape, we’ll publish consistent analysis on how to engage or not engage with actions taken by the Trump administration. We'll also be watching trends on how certain questions that we asked in the immediate aftermath of the first Trump presidency to see how things have shifted or stayed the same.
Publishing as needed

The State of Beauty and Personal Care
Consumers take a critical eye to their beauty and personal care purchases: Those trying to save money are trading down for lower cost alternatives or putting off purchases altogether, and inflation isn’t solely to blame for the downturn in consumer shopping in this category. The prevalence of dupe culture online and consumers’ desire to try new products are also threats to brand loyalty. More budget-friendly mass beauty brands are reaping the benefits of those forces.
Publishing in January. 

Brand Activation Around Sports and Athletes
This will be a comprehensive report covering the rising place of sports in pop culture and how brands can activate. It will take a look at consumers’ current use of sports media, fandom for various sports leagues, interest in and favorability of various sports and athletes to give brands actionable information around how to reach audiences and put together effective campaigns.
Publishing in January 

Examining the Appeal and Use of Low-Cost Retailers
With Amazon entering the low-cost e-commerce foray, a look at the landscape that consists of Shein and Temu. The latter compete on selling at very low prices, so we’ll use proprietary Morning Consult Audience data to dive into who their users are, and examine brand metrics for each platform.
Publishing in February

The State of Clothing and Apparel
Using retail tracker data as well as economic spending data, we will take a closer look at consumer behaviors around clothing and apparel purchases, how that has been impacted by inflation and where purchases are changing or staying the same.
Publishing in February.

Forces Shaping Gen Z: Friends, Fads and Finances
We want to get a sense of how Gen Z thinks about their friends and the communities they’re looking to build, how they think about their own health and wellness, as well as their attitudes on financial security and overshopping. This will provide brands with data on the qualitative aspects of Gen Z’s life which undoubtedly influence their digital behaviors and shopping habits.
Publishing in February

The Power of Gen Alpha’s Shopping Influence
Checking in with the youngest consumers — most of them may not be able to buy things with their own money yet, but they certainly are getting what they want through pester power and the barrage of advertisement that’s already geared towards influencing their brand loyalty.
Publishing in March

How Gen Z Eat and Drink
This report will take a look at an important cohort’s eating habits and how they’re influencing fads across food and drink (think: McDonald’s celebrity meals, the rise of energy drinks). Where possible, we will try to incorporate economic data about Gen Z’s spending across this category as well.
Publishing in March

Economic & Financial Trends

In addition to our monthly updates on consumer spending, inflation, the jobs market and consumer confidence, our economists will dive into the following themes this quarter.

Key Highlights:

Interest Rates
With interest rates coming down, are U.S. consumers noticing the lower rates? How (and if) are different generations, income groups and demographics perceiving and changing their behavior, especially on spending? What is the U.S. consumers’ outlook on interest rates, how does it differ from what the financial markets suggest?
Publishing in January

How are U.S. consumers spending their tax return?
What are the U.S. consumers doing with their tax returns? Are they prioritizing spending or paying down debt or spending it towards emergency expenses
Publishing throughout Q1

Gauging Consumers' Understanding of Tariffs
With President Trump elected again and promising steep tariffs, we will survey U.S. consumers to gauge their understanding of what tariffs mean for the economy, in particular inflation and their spending. We will accompany the findings with the current state of the economy.
Publishing in March

How Perceptions of Inflation are Shifting 
We'll help our subscribers understand how consumer perception of inflation is changing now that the inflation rate is close to the Fed's target but price levels remain high.
Publishing in March

U.S. Politics and the Trump Administration

We’ll be laser-focused on the new administration and its agenda, providing insight into the political capital of its leaders and influencers and the implications of executive and legislative policy decisions for brands and campaigns. We'll also keep a close eye on how Democrats are navigating political wilderness.

Key highlights include:

A Washington Policy Tracker
Weekly updates on trust in Congress, President-elect Donald Trump's approval rating, what issues are getting the most buzz and which leaders in D.C. have the highest favorability.
Publishing in January and updating weekly 

Senator & Governor Approval
Our quarterly report on Senator and Governor ratings in every state will be complemented with a new interactive tracker. Pro+ subscribers will get access to the full set of demographic data behind the scenes.
Publishing in January

State-Level Presidential Approval Tracker
A monthly tracker spotlighting state-level Trump approval in all 50 U.S. states.
Publishing in January and updating monthly

U.S. Right Direction / Wrong Track Tracker
Morning Consult surveys more than 3,000 U.S. adults daily on their views regarding the current state and trajectory of the country, providing an unparalleled gauge of public sentiment
Updating weekly

Navigating Global Risk

Our coverage will equip subscribers with the necessary information to navigate complex international landscapes, safeguard their brand reputation, and make informed business decisions in an interconnected world.

Key highlights include:

Global Leader Approval Ratings
Approval ratings for global political chief executives in over two dozen markets.
Updated monthly

Year Ahead in Geopolitical Risk
A concise global risk outlook along with key charts and insights to guide multinationals, market actors and policymakers through the risks and opportunities that lie ahead in 2025.
Publishing in January

Global Corporate Purpose Tracker
Tracking consumers’ expectations surrounding corporate activism and global trust in business, while diving deeper into the expectations of global consumers around corporate action on key social issues.
Updating in January

U.S.-China Relations Tracker
Tracking key issues in U.S.-China relations, including views of each country as an ally/enemy and forecasts of escalating military and economic tensions.
Updating in February

U.S. Foreign Policy Tracker
Tracking key issues in U.S. foreign policy, including breakouts of voters' top issues by political affiliation, views on global engagement and isolationism, and views on unilateralism and multilateralism.
Updating in February

Global Political Risk Ratings
Global political risk ratings in over two dozen markets to facilitate corporate scenario planning efforts, forecasting and portfolio management.
Updating in March

Have feedback or ideas? Email us at [email protected].