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Most (76%) of Baby Boomers say they are comfortable with
their age; they are currently ages 41-60. Some 39% even call
these the best years of their lives, with another 34% saying
that their best years are still to come.
Boomers in their 50s are the most optimistic about the future.
Boomers typically like to learn new things (76%), travel (75%),
and try new things (70%). Work is a major priority for 56%,
followed by family (52%), hobbies (39%), and friends (26%).
In the last five years, 30% of Boomers have lost their jobs,
with another 36% having changed jobs. Some 21% have changed
careers in this time period.
The following chart shows American women's priorities, with
their families' health (94%) ranking at the top.
According to a report by the Worldwatch Institute, economic
indicators are on the rise as environmental problems worsen.
During 2005, more steel and aluminum were produced than ever
before, vehicle production reached a record 45.6 million units,
and gross world product reached a record $59.6 trillion. The
number of Internet users worldwide topped 1 billion in 2005,
and cell phone sales reached an estimated 816 million units.
However, while these trends point to unprecedented levels
of commerce and consumption, they are set against a backdrop
of ecological problems. The chart below lists major trends
to watch.
In most countries, citizens trust the media more than they
trust the government (63% versus 52%). However, Americans
say they trust the government more (67% versus 59%) per a
recent BBC/Reuters/Media Center poll. The countries included
in this survey were Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia,
Nigeria, Russia, South Korea, the UK and the US.
American's most important news sources in a typical week
are TV (50%), newspapers (21%), the Internet (14%), and radio
(10%). When asked which sources they trust the most, local
newspapers received the highest rating (81% a lot or some
trust), friends and family (76%), national TV (75%), national/regional
newspapers (74%) and public broadcast radio (73%). Both CNN
and Fox News were mentioned by 11% without prompting; no other
sources were mentioned by more than 4% of respondents.
More than one-half (57%) of luxury consumers (people with
annual household incomes of $75,000+) say that experiential
luxuries give them more satisfaction than home or personal
luxuries, up from 41% in 2003. Experiential luxuries are travel,
dining, entertainment, spa and beauty services, and home services.
One-quarter (26%) of luxury consumers get the greatest satisfaction
from home luxuries such as furniture and linens, down from
33%. Another 17% are most satisfied with personal luxuries
including cars, clothing and jewelry, down from 28%.
These changes in preferences hold true for both male and
female consumers of different ages and income levels.
Each day, more than eight in ten children less than six weeks
old (83%) watch television (including videos and DVDs) an
average of one hour and 57 minutes, per the Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation.
As the children's ages increase, so does TV use. For example,
61% of babies younger than one year watch one hour and 20
minutes, with 90% of 4-6-year-olds watching two hours and
three minutes.
One-third (33%) of children under six have TVs in their bedrooms,
including 19% of those age one or younger, 29% of 2-3 year
olds and 43% of those age 4-6. Some 32% children this age
also live in homes where the TV is on all (13%) or most (19%)
of the time.
Among the 324 clinical trials published in the Journal of
the American Medical Association, The Lancet, and the New
England Journal of Medicine between 2000 and 2005, 59% of
these trials reported evidence significantly favoring new
treatments, while 35% reported no significant difference,
and 7% favored standard care. Further analysis shows that
the trials funded by for-profits groups were more likely to
favor the new treatment.
Among trials evaluating drugs, 40% of not-for-profit, 54%
of jointly sponsored and 69% of for-profit trials had results
favoring the new drugs. In trials evaluating cardiovascular
devices, 50% of not-for-profit, 69% of jointly sponsored and
82% of for-profit trials favored the new treatments.
While visits to diet and fitness websites rose 8% during
2005, the type of information dieters sought also changed.
Searches for "Atkins Diet" and "South Beach Diet" were down
12% and 36% respectively. However, searches for "body mass
index" and "weight training" were up 67% and 61%.
The Weight Watchers website received the highest share of
visits at 51%. The South Beach Diet site ranked seventh with
a 3% share; Atkins was not in the top 10.
The number of people with whom Americans feel comfortable
discussing important matters dropped by almost one-third between
1985 and 2004. In 1985, the average American had 2.94 people
in which to confide, but this had dropped to 2.08 people by
2004. The following chart shows the changing size of discussion
networks.
Other findings about social network changes between 1985
and 2004 include:
- The proportion of people who speak only to family members
about important topics grew to 80% from 57%.
- The proportion who only speak about these topics to their
spouse rose to 9% from 5%.
- The proportion of those with at least one person of another
race as a confidant rose to 15% from 9%.
- On average, African Americans have smaller social networks
than Whites. African American men experienced the largest
decline in confidents, to 1.8 from 3.6.
The impact of blogs (weblogs) in business-to-business is
growing according to a new survey from research company KnowledgeStorm
and ad agency Universal McCann. The e-mail survey of more
than 4,500 people (mostly information technology professionals)
found that more than 80% read blogs, including 18% who read
them daily and 33% weekly.
Some 53% of the respondents said blogs influence their purchase
decisions. For those who read blogs daily, nearly 69% said
blogs affected this behavior.
Additional survey findings:
- One-half (49.8%) of the respondents said they comment
on or contribute to blogs at least once a month;
- 70% reported that they "recommend or pass along content
from blogs to co-workers and colleagues" at least once a
month;
- 59% said they were "somewhat" or "very" familiar with
RSS technology, which lets users subscribe to blogs and
other online content. Only 31% said they subscribe to RSS
feeds or use a RSS reader to access content.
Business executives prefer to get e-mail marketing messages
on Mondays and Tuesdays, according to a recent report from
eROI Inc. In contrast, consumers prefer to receive e-mail
at the end of the week. Wednesdays and Fridays are the best
days to send consumers e-mail messages, to help them plan
their weekend shopping. The best time of day to send e-mail
is during the lunch hour, with a 6.2% click rate on average.
For e-mail newsletters, 25% of B2B recipients want weekly
updates, while 36% of consumers said they prefer monthly newsletters.
The study also found that 65% of respondents said irrelevant
e-mail causes them to unsubscribe. Some 13% of respondents
said they do not like to receive "overly relevant" e-mail
because they feel they are being watched.
A review of the e-mail clients showed that Microsoft Outlook
was the e-mail client of choice for 60% of B2B users, while
Apple Mail, Lotus Notes, Entourage and Thunderbird are used
by about 20%. The rest of the respondents use a variety of
other e-mail clients. For consumers, Gmail is the most popular
e-mail system (used by 17% of consumers), followed by Yahoo!,
Outlook 2003 and Hotmail.
The number of Asian-owned businesses rose 24% between 1997
and 2002, about twice the national average for all businesses.
In 2002, these 1.1 million businesses generated more than
$326 billion in revenues, up 8% from 1997.
Almost one-third of all Asian-owned firms had paid employees.
These 319,300 businesses employed more than 2.2 million people
and generated revenues of nearly $291 billion.
Nearly one-half (47%) of all Asian-owned firms were Chinese-owned
(290,197) and Asian Indian-owned (231,179). Korean-owned firms
were the third largest at 158,031, followed by Vietnamese-owned
(147,081), Filipino-owned (128,223) and Japanese-owned firms
(86,863).
Intel Corporation came in first on the 2006 Customer Respect
Index, an annual study by the Customer Respect Group that
reviews how large corporations treat their customers online.
Businesses included in the study are the 100 largest U.S.
companies, as defined by Fortune magazine, and are ranked
based on usability, communications and level of trust.
Following Intel, the other overall best performers are Sears,
Roebuck & Co.; Hewlett-Packard Co.; Medco; and Procter & Gamble
Co. The most improved site was Proctor & Gamble, which moved
up to number five from number 64 last year.
When reviewing site usability, Intel, Johnson & Johnson and
Wells Fargo ranked highest. For communications, the top-rated
sites were Bank of America, HP and Sprint Corp. For level
of trust, the top sites were Proctor & Gamble, Intel and IBM
Corporation.
Bullets
- Men are likely to indulge themselves by watching TV (17%),
eating a good meal (15%), or working out (14%). Women prefer
to sleep late (14%), shop (13%) or get manicures (12%).
- While 94% of Americans age 18-24 are able to find the
US on a map of the world, only 50% can locate the state
of New York on a US map, and 43% can find Ohio.
- The number of public school teachers leaving the profession
is increasing with almost 50% of newcomers departing within
five years. An estimated 3.9 million new teachers will be
needed by 2014 due to attrition, retirement and increased
enrollment.
- The publication of new book titles and editions in the
US dropped 9.5% to 172,000 in 2005, down from 190,000 in
2004. This marks the first decline since 1999, and follows
a record increase of 19,000 in the number of new books published
in 2004. Almost every category except legal decreased.
- Almost one-half (45%) of Americans say that illegal immigration
enables them to get in touch with other languages and cultures
and to be more culturally open.
- More than one in four (27%) Americans played miniature
golf between June 2005 and June 2006. Some 38% travel more
than 20 miles to a miniature golf site, and 34% travel 5-15
miles.
- Two-thirds (62%) of consumers believe their children
and grandchildren won't have a better economic future than
they have themselves.
- Americans are evenly divided on whether the death penalty
(48%) or life in prison with no possibility of parole (47%)
is the better punishment for those convicted of murder.
- Six in ten workers age 21-30 (60.6%) have jobs with companies
that sponsor retirement plans. However, only 36.6% participate
in those plans.
- Some 70% of Americans believe that legalized gambling
encourages people to bet more than they can afford to lose,
up from 62% in 1989. However, lotteries are making sales
records - 41 states sold $52 billion in tickets during 2005.
This is in sharp contrast to 1989 when 32 states sold $19
billion in tickets.
- Almost two-thirds (65%) of adults think that the use
of cell phones while driving should be banned by law, while
29% of people are against a ban. Some 43% say cell phones
should be banned from public places like restaurants, movies
and museums, with 52% opposed.
- The proportion of American households consisting of one
person living alone rose to 26% in 2005, up from 17% in
1970. By 2005, only 10% of households contained five or
more people, down from 21% in 1970.
The US jail and prison population has increased by 600,000
people since 1995, with one in every 136 people now incarcerated.
- American's most used news sources are TV (50%), newspapers
(21%), the Internet (14%) and radio (10%). About 87% prefer
to reference several news sources rather than rely on just
one.
- The number of online-only catalogs jumped 71% to 1,320
in 2006, up from 772 in 2005. Total online catalogs grew
19.7% to 8,903, up from 7,440 during that same time.
- The number of subscribers to the five largest full-pay
premium cable TV services (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie
Channel and Starz) rose 76% to 81.5 million in 2005 from
46.4 million in 1995.
- Some 84% of US households now subscribe to satellite
or cable TV.
- On average, it takes American consumers six years for
an actual change in the quality of a product to be reflected
fully in shoppers' perception of quality, according to the
Marketing Science Institute.
- Some 68% of Americans, compared to 74% of consumers worldwide
(in 42 countries surveyed), can be classified as recreational
shoppers - people who go to stores as entertainment rather
than to buy necessities.
- According to Iconix, Internet users are twice as likely
to open e-mails marked by visual icons as they are to open
unmarked e-mails.
- Four in ten consumers (41%) talk to their physicians
about prescription drugs they've seen advertised. Some 75%
of these are only mentioning not asking that they be prescribed.
- Five in six Americans (84%) say that hospitals, doctors
and pharmacies should be required to publish their prices
for the goods and services they offer.
- Some three-quarters (76%) of adults have difficulty sleeping
at least sometimes.
- The proportion of physicians without any managed care
contracts rose to 11.5% in 2004-2005 from 9.2% in 2000-2001,
after being stable throughout the 1990s.
- The average weight of American adults increased 2.5 pounds
to 188.3 pounds from 2005 to 2006. While 36% of Americans
are now clinically obese, only 10% (6% of men and 14% of
women) see themselves as obese.
- More than one-half (55%) of Americans have been tested
for HIV, 21% between June 2005 and June 2006.
- Almost two-thirds (63%) of gay men who are HIV positive
have no regrets about revealing their health status to others,
and 75% have feelings of regret only about revealing it
to 7% of those who know. Those they typically regret telling
are parents or other family members.
- Nine out of 10 Greeks (members and pledges of college
fraternities and sororities) drank alcohol in the past 30
days, compared to 65% of other students. Some 60% report
getting drunk weekly, compared to 32% of non-Greeks.
- Nearly two-thirds of nurses have been stuck accidentally
by needles while working - 47% by contaminated needles.
- More than four in ten children age 9-13 feel stressed
most or all of the time because they have too much to do;
77% would like more free time.
- Statewide smoking bans for workplaces, restaurants or
bars have passed in 16 states, and seven of these have banned
smoking in all three. Currently, only nine states don't
have any community smoking bans in effect.
- Several factors influence retail salespeople's productivity
including having confidence in the product being sold (33%),
personal competitive spirit (25%), coaching from a sales
manager (23%), and a commission or other financial incentive
(19%).
- Companies sent 17% more e-mail messages in the first
quarter of 2006 than they did a year earlier; they also
received 20% more e-mail messages.
- Online sales are forecast to jump 20% from 2005 to 2006,
reaching $211.4 billion. From 2004 to 2005, online sales
rose 25% to reach $176.4 billion.
- More than two in three US households (69%) pay at least
one monthly bill online, up from 56% in 2005.
- Online advertising, as a proportion of advertisers' total
media budgets, is expected to increase from 15% to 20% between
2004 and 2006, and to reach 32% by 2010.
- Google accounted for 59.3% of US online searches in March-May
2006, followed by Yahoo! (22.0%) and MSN (12.1%).
- About 38% of companies allow employees to bring their
children to work in emergencies, with 20% being very supportive
of workers bringing their children to the office. However,
42% of companies do not allow children at work in any circumstances.
- A recent survey by eROI shows that two-thirds of people
read their e-mail every day of the week; 90% read e-mail
six days a week; and 75% respond to e-mails six days a week.
Some 50% said they can't go to bed without checking their
e-mail in-box one more time, and 55% of the survey's respondents
said e-mail owns more time in their life than it should.
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