Brand Strategy Key Findings – Jan/Feb 2012
Green Consumer Statistics – Convenient and Cost-Friendly
Over one-third of American shoppers (36%) – including 41% of those ages 18-34 – report they would pay more for products that are environmentally friendly. However, most will only do so when it is cost-friendly and convenient.
Some 82% turn off lights they are not using and two-thirds recycle, but less than one-half make an effort to buy locally grown foods, unplug electrical items they aren’t using, or buy locally made or used items. Fewer than 25% say they would give up their private cars (by using public transportation), carpool, bicycle, or walk.
Shoppers top priorities are quality (50%) and price (47%) – and they expect environmentally friendly products to also meet these standards.
Source: TheShopperCulture.com
Internet and Cell Phone Use by Race
Among U.S. Internet users, 84% of Whites have broadband access at home, compared to 78% of Blacks and 69% of Hispanics. While Hispanics are less likely to own cell phones (76%) than Whites (85%), research shows that Hispanic cell phone owners are more likely than their White counterparts to access the Internet (40% vs. 34%), send/receive email (36% vs. 31%), and use instant messaging (45% vs. 24%).
Blacks who own cell phones (51%) are more likely than either Whites or Hispanics to access the Internet from their phones. Both Blacks and Hispanics (6% of each) are more likely than Whites (1%) to access the Internet from their cell phones in place of having Internet service at home.
Americans’ Internet and Cell Phone Use, by Race/Ethnicity, 2010
Source: Pew Hispanic Center
Smart Phones Are Changing Internet Use
Mobile statistics reveal that about 97.9 million Americans own smartphones, which is 40% of all mobile subscribers.
Some 35% of smartphone owners say they access non-voice applications on their devices before they get out of bed in the morning. Most commonly they look at Facebook (18%) at that time; another 22% go to Facebook in the early morning once they are out of bed. Other early morning phone activities include checking email (24%) and accessing Internet browsers (23%).
More than eight in 10 smartphone owners use at least some of their phones’ applications (i.e. weather, social media) with 56% saying they prefer to access the Internet via their phones over their computer. One-half of owners have used their phone to make a purchase. The chart below shows how these owners are using their phones to shop.
Source: Prosper Mobile Insights
Shopping Experiences Can End Customer Loyalty
A recent MarketTools study shows that “a bad shopping experience” caused 29% of respondents to stop shopping in a retail store; 25% said the same about their experiences with online retail sites.
In physical stores, the biggest problems are unhelpful/unfriendly sales personnel (71%), long lines or long wait time (41%) and poor merchandise quality (39%). For website shopping, merchandise quality was at the top, with 46% blaming poor quality or damaged merchandise as a reason they have stopped shopping with a site. Other reported issues include high shipping costs (43%), shipping problems (37%) and problems with support or lack of assistance (28%).
Source: MarketTools.com
Number of Millionaire Households Growing Rapidly
The number of American millionaires is expected to continue growing rapidly, despite the Great Recession. In fact, the total number of families with a net worth of over $1 million, including real estate, will double by 2020, according to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services.
In 2011, the U.S. had 10.5 million millionaires, the largest number of millionaire households in the world – even though the financial crisis and recession cut more than 3 million millionaire families from their ranks between 2006 and 2008.
By 2020, 43% of the world’s wealth held by millionaire households will be in America, up from 42% in 2011. The state of California is likely to have the highest number of wealthy households by that year, while Wyoming will have the fewest. New Jersey is expected to have the highest density of millionaires – with one-quarter of all households valued at $1 million or more.
Estimated number of millionaire households in the U.S.
Source: Deloitte Analysis and Oxford Economics
Mobile Action Codes in Magazines
Mobile action codes, which include 2D barcodes, QR codes, Microsoft Tags and watermarks, have seen a huge increase in magazines during in the last year. A recent study by Nellymoser shows that the top 100 magazines (by circulation) had a 439% increase in usage between the first and fourth quarters. A combined total of 4,468 action codes appeared during the year, with advertisers accounting for 4,011; the remaining were editorial codes.
Other findings include:
- By December 2011, 1 out of every 12 magazine ad pages contained an action code.
- QR codes and Microsoft Tags were the most used (97% of all codes in the fourth quarter), with QR codes making up 72%. Microsoft Tags were chosen for editorial use more often than QR codes.
- Video, opt-in/sweeps and social media were the most popular post-scan engagements.
- Beauty, home and fashion ads made up almost 40% of action codes used.
- Of the magazines with the codes, the top 10 contained 28% of all codes printed; most were in women’s magazines.
Source: FolioMag.com
Bullets
- 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.