Consumers Believe Some Industries Need Regulation

More than one-half of Americans say that oil companies (55%) and drug companies (51%) should be more regulated by the government than they are, according to a recent Harris Interactive survey. The chart below also shows how few people think the 17 industries listed are "generally honest and trustworthy."

Moral Values Defined

Overall, Americans define moral values as personal values like honesty and responsibility (36%), followed by family values such as trying to protect children from sex and violence on TV and the Internet (26%). Others cite social issues such as abortion or gay marriage (10%), preventing human rights abuses and discrimination (10%), and compassion and concern for the sick or needy (8%). Nine percent said all of the above are part of their definition of moral values.

Black Population Online

According to a 2005 survey by eMarketer, Black Americans are beginning to catch up in Internet use. More than one in 10 Internet users (18.4 million people) are Black.

The proportion of Blacks using the Internet grew from 34% in 2000 to 57% in 2005, compared to Whites whose use went from 50% in 2000 to 70% in 2005. In 2004, Black households were only 51% as likely as White households to have Internet access; by 2005 this rose to 69% per the National Urban League.

Americans Dissatisfied with Country's Role in the World

According to the Pew Research Center, fewer than three in ten Americans (29%) are satisfied with the way things are going in the country, and even fewer (16%) are satisfied with the way things are going in the world. Two-thirds (66%) say the US is less respected by other countries now than in the past.

More than four in ten (42%) believe the US should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own, up from 30% in 2002. Only 37% believe the US should either be the single world leader (12%) or play a shared leadership role but be the most assertive of leading nations (25%). Most (54%) say the US should cooperate fully with the United Nations, down from 67% in 2002.

Sexual Content Hurts Branding

Sex in print ads may make men like the products/services more and increase their purchase intent, but it hurts likeability and purchase intent among women, according to MediaAnalyszer Software & Research. Both men and women are less likely to recall the brand that was being promoted in a sexy advertisement. Men's recall of the brand or product with sexual content was 9.8%, compared to 19.8% in non-sexual ads. For women, recall for sexual content ads was 10.8% versus 22.3% for non-sexual ads.

Weekend E-Mails Have Better Response

The number of permission-based advertising e-mails read and clicked on by consumers now has lower response rates on Wednesdays, as many marketers have targeted this day to send their missives, according to eRoi. Currently, the best response rates are achieved on Sundays (30.8% read and 7.2% clicked through) and Fridays (27.0% read and 5.3% clicked through).

Trusted News Sources

Two-thirds (66%) of consumers like to keep up with the news and pursue it as one of their multiple leisure-time activities, and another 15% consider themselves "news junkies," saying it is their favorite leisure activity. Some 71% have a specific set of news sources that they trust to give them fair and balanced information, and therefore generally ignore other sources. A little under one-half (43%) rely heavily on independent sources such as Internet chat rooms, blogs or other alternative media. Two-thirds (65%) actively look for news and information which challenges their political opinions and social beliefs. However, only 43% believe that most of the news they see is accurate and unbiased. The following chart lists the most trusted news sources.

Word of Mouth Marketing

According to a recent BIGresearch study, word of mouth marketing is the most influential media when it comes to making purchases.

Retirees Back at Work

About 7 million previously retired Americans (one-third of all retirees) have returned to working for pay, typically after being retired for 1.5 years. These working retired people account for about 10% of all workers age 40+. Most (54%) work part-time, 36% work full-time, with the rest looking for work.

Working retirees have an average household income of $87,000 and are twice as likely as non-working retired people to have college degrees. Some 60% still carry mortgages on their homes. Two-thirds say they have returned to working because they wanted to, with the rest doing so out of economic need.

Predicting Work Changes

Fast Company magazine makes the following predictions for the future of work in America.

Judging Quality of Healthcare

Almost all Americans believe that the skill, experience and training of their healthcare providers are very important to the quality of care. However, a lot fewer think the costs have a great deal to do with the quality as indicated in the chart below.

Healthcare Costs Rising as a Percentage of Benefits

Healthcare costs have almost become the largest portion of employers' benefits costs, and may soon replace retirement benefits as the largest cost. Healthcare costs as a percentage of benefits has jumped from 26.7% in 1980, to 38.3% in 1990, to 43.2% in 2004. In 2004, retirement costs were 47.1% of total benefits, down from 61.6% in 1980.

Healthcare Delays

The healthcare records of about 77 million Americans were transferred between healthcare professionals in the last three years, according to the Technology CEO Council. These transfers took six days on average to reach the right recipient. About 18 million of these individuals experienced delays in treatment while providers waited on the records. In addition, 16% of patients had duplicate tests because the records were not available soon enough.

Bullets

• Three-quarters (75%) of mothers of 5-10-year-olds believe that playtime is just as important as school time.
• The average length of a cell phone call in 2005 was 3.04 minutes.
• Relatively few Americans (16%) believe that the government should encourage marriage, while 82% think the government should stay out of marriage. The idea that government should stay out of the issue is shared by 76% of adults living in traditional families and 80% of those in nontraditional families. Traditional families are defined as those headed by opposite-sex, married couples with children.
• More than one-quarter (27%) of new car shoppers in September 2005 considered buying compact cars, up from 19% a year earlier.
• A new word in consumer products is "third screen" which is defined as a video screen, particularly the screen on a cell phone, that a person uses almost as often as their television and computer screens.
• The real median household income declined 3% from 2000 to 2004.
• Gay and lesbian consumers (51%) are more likely than their straight counterparts (34%) to be interested in purchasing hybrid electric vehicles.
• Almost one in six Americans (16%) has sought professional advice during their lives to pay off debt.
• Most human resource managers (77%) have been forced to hire someone who otherwise wouldn't have gotten the job, most commonly due to cronyism (34%) or nepotism (21%).
• The probability of being in an interracial relationship declines with age. In 1990, 14% of 18-19-year-olds, 12% of 24-25-year-olds, and 7% of 34-35-year-olds were involved in interracial relationships. In 2000, this rose to 20% of 18-19-year-olds and 16% of 24-25-year-olds; statistics on 34-35-year-olds were not available.
• Credit-card debt is at an all-time high, averaging $9,312 per household.
• Almost 1.24 million vehicles were stolen in the US during 2004, which is 1.9% less than the prior year.
• At the end of 2005, American households, on average, had 2.13 vehicles in the driveway.
• The number of vehicles in America as grown 20% over the past 20 years, while the population has increased less than 13%.
• Nearly all gays and lesbians (96%) took at least one short leisure trip in the past year, compared to 56% of mainstream travelers. Eighty-four percent of gays and lesbians hold US passports, compared to the national average of 23%.
• The average cost per year of a public college (in state) is $12,127, a 25% increase since 2001.
• 2005 was the fifth consecutive year that silver was the most popular color for vehicles in North America. Twenty-six percent of vehicles produced were silver, with 16% produced in white, its closest competitor.
• Almost 2.27 million Americans were incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails at the end of 2004. Since 1995, the prison population has grown at an annual average rate of 3.2%.
• In 2005, almost three-quarters (73%) of Americans worried that their bank accounts and/or credit cards could be used to steal their identities, up from 51% in 2004.
• Infertility affected 7.3 million Americans (one in every eight couples) in 2002, up from 6.1 million in 1998.
• In 2004, 20.9% of US adults were current smokers, down from 21.6% in 2003 and 22.5% in 2002.
• More than one-third (34%) of Americans experienced errors in medical treatment during the last two years, compared with 30% of Canadians, 27% of Australians, 25% of New Zealanders, 23% of Germans and 22% of people in the United Kingdom.
• About 70% of television programs - other than daily newscasts, sports events and children's shows - contain some sexual content, and average 5.0 sexual scenes per hour. This is up from 64% of programs with 4.4 sexual scenes per hour in 2002, and 56% of programs with 3.2 sexual scenes per hour in 1998. Sexual content is defined to include both talk about sex and depictions of sexual behavior, ranging from kissing and fondling to sexual intercourse.
• The number of emergency room visits grew 26% to 114 million in 2003, up from 90 million in 1993, while the population grew only 11%.
• High blood pressure is the leading ailment for medication purchases among Medicare patients, with more than one-half (52%) buying medication for this ailment in 2005.
• Although 61% of Americans are generally familiar with science and technology, only 41% are aware that genetically modified foods are currently sold in grocery stores.
• The funding for biomedical research (application of science to clinical medicine) more than doubled from $37.1 billion in 1994 to $94.3 billion in 2003.
• The US emergency medical care system received an average grade of C, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. This organization measures, by state, access to emergency care; quality and patient safety; public health and injury prevention; and the medical liability environment. Overall, the system is characterized by overcrowding, declining access to care, soaring liability costs and a poor capacity to deal with public health or terrorist disasters.
• The 20% of adults who listen to news/talk radio are more likely to be male (58%) than female (42%), and 42% are age 55+.
• The average percentage of marketing budgets devoted to alternative media (Internet, mobile phones, video-on-demand, and other digital delivery options) will almost double from 8% in 2005 to 14% in 2006.
• Some 19% of teens have blogs (online journal or newsletter intended for public consumption).
• Some 21% of consumers are attracted to retailers that contribute a percentage of sales to charity.
• Only one in four (24.2%) permission-based marketing e-mails are opened.
• Nearly one in seven advertising dollars (14.1%) were devoted to online ads in 2005, up 69.8% from 8.3% in 2004.
• When a consumer has a negative experience with a customer call center, the likelihood of repeat purchasing declines 86%.
• A recent survey of business-to-business e-commerce buyers and suppliers found that 74% use extranet Web sites for a portion of their business-to-business buying and selling, with 31% saying the number of these transactions had increased during the past year.
• Business-to-business companies' spending on all marketing research jumped 7.5% in 2005, over the $7.32 billion spent in the prior year. Spending on online market research in the U.S. totaled $1.18 billion in 2005, up about 17% from 2004.
• A 2006 survey of senior marketing executives and managers for a variety of industries in business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets found that 40% of respondents rated their customer data systems as "weak" or "very weak" in critical areas. This included the timeliness and depth of transactional data; the availability of useful data, reports and analytics; and the relevance of available data to marketing strategies.
• According to a VisionEdge survey of 126 marketing executives, 71% of companies said one of their priorities is to increase share in existing markets, but only 50% have a process in place to track it. Also, 47% of companies reported that increasing brand value is a priority, but only 19% have a tracking process.
• Most companies will increase spending on Web marketing this year, according to the 2006 WebTrends CMO Web-Smart Report. About 35.5% plan to increase spending 10% to 25%; 26.0% will increase spending by 25% to 50%; and 21.6% will expand spending by more than 50%. Some 16.9% plan to maintain their Web budgets at the same level as last year.