January and February 2012

• Some 33% of moms say one of their children knows more about smartphones than they do.
• The cost to keep the office candy jar full averages $546 per year.
• The average American woman owns 17 pairs of shoes, but wears only three on a regular basis. Some 51% own more than 10 pairs, and 13% have more than 30 pairs, not including athletic shoes.
• Today, 25% of people getting divorced are over the age of 50. In 1990, this age group made up less than 10% of divorces.
• More than nine in 10 women (94%) say they continue to use cleaning techniques they learned as children. Some 80% of moms teach their daughters how to clean, and one-half of moms (50%) still call their own mothers for cleaning advice. About 42% report that keeping their homes clean has become more important to them over the years.
• More than one-half of new-car shoppers (58%) or used-car shoppers (53%) expect to be pressured by the dealer, with similar percentages also expecting the dealer to have the upper hand during the process.
• People whose looks are rated (by others) as being in the top one-third of attractiveness are 10% happier than those whose looks are rated as being in the bottom one-sixth.
• Some 72% of men have worn the same underwear two days in a row.
• Almost 29% of U.S. adults drink alcohol at least once per week, including 10% who drink weekly and 5% who drink daily. Some 49% drink at least once per month and only 22% never drink.
• Forty-six percent of women and 38% of men say they secretly wish they could throw away an item that their significant other has on display at home.
• One-half of Americans prefer to receive cash as wedding gifts, but only 32% prefer to give cash. Some 38% prefer to buy gifts from registries, while 23% prefer to receive gifts from their registries.
• Sales of audio CDs fell 9% between May 2010 and May 2011.
• The U.S. Asian population includes 14.7 million people who are Asian alone, plus another 2.6 million who are Asian in combination with one or more additional races. Asians make up 5.6% of the total U.S. population, but account for larger percentages of populations within some states like California (15%) and Hawaii (57%).
• Some 73% of women have a favorite bra.
• One-quarter of 9-17-year-olds (25%) say that sending and receiving text messages with friends counts as reading.
• Women are less likely to lie as they age, most (91%) say it’s because they are more comfortable with themselves. Other reasons include feeling that “it’s the wrong thing to do (71%), being “bad at it” (13%) and worrying that other will think of them as a bad person (10%).
• Some 74% of men and 76% of women say they use their smartphones in the bathroom. Thirty percent of men never go to the bathroom without their phone, compared to 20% of women. A small number of men (20 percent) and women (13 percent) even admitted to conducting work calls from the stalls.
• Some 62% of 25 to 34 year olds have smartphones, as well as 53% of 35 to 44 year olds and 30% of 55 to 64 years olds (the fastest growing age group for smartphone adoption in the past year).
• By the end of 2011, 97.9 million people in the U.S. owned a smartphone, representing 40% of all mobile subscribers.

Brand Strategy

• Users of broadband Internet spend 48% of their spare time online on a typical weekday.
• Seven in 10 adults (70%) say they are willing to spend more for products and services from companies with excellent customer service.
• Online advertisements requiring a customer to type in information are 12 times more likely to be remembered than static ads.
• Almost one-quarter of adults with college degrees (23%) ignore search engine ads, compared to 17% of those with high school diplomas or less education.
• Today, more than one-half of Americans (57%) say they often recommend products and services to others, down from 75% in 2008.
• Some 81% of smartphone users have bought at least one product after researching it on their phone and 75% say they use their phones while they are in a store to find out more about products.
• By 2015, video ad spending will reach $7.1 billion, up from $2.6 billion in 2011. Growth in the past year was 52.1%.

Healthcare

• One-quarter of teens (23%) have tripped or fallen while sending or receiving text messages.
• Three-quarters of American adults say exercise is somewhat (42%) or very (33%) important in their daily lives.
• A 2011 study showed that 26% of U.S. adults accessed health information or tools on their mobile devices within the last year.
• Seven in 10 American consumers (70%) sometimes or almost always look for organically produced items when trying new foods.
• Americans eat an average of 3,754 calories each day. The recommended daily intake is 2,500-2,800 for adult men and 2,000 for adult women.
• Americans bought $2.6 billion in gluten-free foods during 2010.
• Some 62% of moms say they avoid beverages that contain sugar when shopping for their children.
• Teen drivers run 40% more yellow traffic lights when they think their friends are watching.
• Seventy-one percent of Americans say they blame the parents when they see an obese child.
• One-half of women age 65 and older rely on Social Security for 80% or more of their income.
• Two-thirds of women (68%) say the weight printed on their drivers license is not accurate.
• Three-quarters (76%) of Matures (age 66+) have some type of dietary restriction, compared to 58% of Boomers (47-65), 50% of Generation Xers (35-46) and 51% of Echo Boomers (18-34).
• More than 620,000 Americans have knee replacement surgery each year – twice as many as hip implants. The demand for knee replacements by those ages 45 to 64 has tripled since 2002 to reach over 254,000 in 2009. These younger patients often have to undergo subsequent revision surgeries due to loosening, fractures, and wear and tear. Some 14.7% of males and 17.5% of females typically require revisions which are often more costly, complicated and risky than the initial knee replacement surgery.
• The global number of mobile health app users will reach 247 million in 2012, up from 124 million users in the prior year.

Business to Business

• Only 3% of Americans believe that and Ivy League education makes someone a better worker.
• Sixty percent of women ages 40-59 say they are less concerned that they used to be about what others think of them, compared to 43% of women ages 20-39. Some 48% of women ages 40-59 have a positive outlook on life, compared to 36% of women 20-39.
• U.S. companies spent $56.13 per person on logoed promotional products in 2010.
• One-third of full-time employees in the U.S. say they are overqualified for their jobs; 3% say they are unqualified. Those with college degrees are more likely than those with less education to say they are over qualified (38% vs. 30%).
• Some 38% of women say they are paid less than men in comparable positions, up from 34% in 2008.
• More than one-half of American adults (57%) say that college students receive a fair to poor return for their investment in education.

Energy

• The global market for waste-to-energy technologies was valued at $19.9 billion (U.S. dollars) in 2008 and is expected to increase to $26.2 billion by 2014. While the biological WTE segment is forecasted to grow faster from $1.4 billion in 2008 to approximately $2.5 billion in 2014, the thermal WTE segment will still make up the majority of the entire industry’s worth. This segment is expected to rise to $23.7 billion in 2014, up from a value of $18.5 billion in 2008.
• One in 10 cars on the road have their “check engine” lights on.
• The U.S. Army executed $93 million in energy savings performance contracts during the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, compared to a total of $73 million in the full fiscal year 2011.
• The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that wind power could account for 20% of the nation’s electricity supply by 2030.
• More than one-half of U.S. households spend more than 20% of their budget toward energy costs, nearly double what they spent 10 years ago.
• Electricity prices have increased by 51% in nominal dollars (inflation is not taken into account) since 1990, while the nominal prices of residential natural gas and gasoline have almost doubled and tripled, respectively.