March-April

• Most automobile shoppers (54%) say that their online research was the primary medium which led them to choose a specific dealership.

• Plus-sized women (32%) say their bust is their best feature, followed by their hands (24%) and their legs (20%).

• Working moms (57%) claim the best part of going on a business trip is having some personal time.

• Some 45% of Americans have watched live streaming online coverage of a sporting event. Men (55%) are more likely than women (35%) to have done so. Of those who have streamed a sporting event, 23% do so frequently, 33% occasionally, and 45% rarely.

• One-third of Americans (31%) do not set aside any of their monthly income for savings. More than one in four (27%) save less than 5%; 24% save 5-10%; 8% save 10-15%; and 10% save more than 15%.

• Most drivers (91%) admit to multi-tasking while driving. Some 81% say they drink non-alcoholic beverages and 76% eat behind the wheel.

• A survey by the Shelton Group shows that homeowners would have to see their energy bills rise by an average of $129 per month before they would make energy efficiency changes to their home.

• One in 10 adults (10%) has visited a casino in the past three years. Of these, 27% had visited one in the prior month.

• More than three-quarters of Americans age 65+ (77%) are online. They regularly use email (94%), go online to look up health information (71%), read news (70%), and manage their finances (59%).

• Some 61% of full-time workers have a profile on a social network. Of these, 25% include their company information in their profile, 22% have separate profiles for work and personal use, and 13% are “friends” with their boss.

• Some 76% of couples say they plan to have large, traditional weddings. Ninety-seven percent of grooms are involved in planning their weddings.

• The proportion of Americans adults who believe that global warming exists fell to 51% in 2009, down from 71% in 2007. Some 41% say the issue should be treated as a very serious problem, down from 46% in 2000. The political polarization of this topic is evident in that 63% of Democrats but only 17% of Republicans and 38% of Independents believe global warming should be treated as a very serious problem.

• During 2009, 6.5% of children aged 6-7 had a cell phone. So did 17.7% of those aged 8-9 and 36.1% of those aged 10-11.

• More than one-third of women read their horoscopes at least once per month. Those who read their own also check their husband’s (40%), their children’s (25%) and other family members’ (22%). About 28% say their horoscope can change their mood, depending on what it says.

• Six in 10 adults (60%) like both dogs and cats. Only 2% say they don’t like either kind of animal.

• One-half of Black women (49%) want to be the first to take a fashion look and make it their own, compared to 34% of White women.

Advertising

• Almost one in five online adults (19%) use Twitter (140-character micro-blogging) site or another status-update service. Women (21%) are more likely than men (17%) to use Twitter-like services. Blacks (26%) are more likely than Whites (19%) or Hispanics (18%) to do so.

• The median age for Twitter users is 31, compared to LinkedIn users (age 39), Facebook users (age 33) and MySpace users (age 26).

• Americans active on social networking sites (39%) are more likely than those who are not on social networks (25%) to have posted a movie review online. One in 10 (10%) social networkers have posted a movie trailer to their profile.

• Americans spend an average of $58 on a typical weekday and $69 on a typical weekend day. Men have a higher spending rate than women ($73 vs. $53) on weekdays.

• Women are 75% of primary household shoppers, down from 85% in 1989.

• More than 77% of shoppers believe that companies exploit green claims for marking purposes.

• Some 142 million Americans used social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) during December 2009, spending over six hours total on these sites.

• Google remains the leader in search engine market share with 65.5%, followed by Yahoo (16.8%), Ask.com (3.7%), and AOL (2.5%).

Healthcare

• Eight in ten grocery shoppers (80%) say nutrition labels affect their purchases, and 75% say they get their nutrition information from the Internet.

• One-half of Hispanics say their stress level was higher in 2009 than it was in 2008, up from 44% in the prior year. In comparison, only 40% of Whites and 39% of Blacks said their stress levels had increased.

• While 45% of consumers trust the label “organic” and 33% trust “natural,” 30% do not trust either word on a product label.

• Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say taking vitamins during the recession is more important to them because they need to stay healthy and avoid incurring healthcare costs. Some 72% say that taking vitamins is key to avoiding health issues.

• Most women (85%) have tried to lose weight at least once in their lives.

• Blacks make up 11% of nursing home residents in the U.S. These nursing home residents (59%) are more likely than those of other races (51%) to be dependent on others for all five daily living tasks – dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring and eating.

• Couples having problems conceiving (61%) say they hide their fertility troubles from friends and family, with 54% asserting that it’s easier to tell others they are not planning to have children than it is to discuss their situation.

Business to Business

• Seven in 10 entrepreneurs who started a business during the recession (70%) left their jobs in order to do so.

• The majority of Americans (71%) say that companies have a significant responsibility to protect the environment. Only 10% say companies don’t have this responsibility.

• The average number of years a male worker stays on the same job is 5.2, down from 5.9 in 1983. For women, the average is 4.9 years, up from 4.2 years in 1983.

• Less than one-half (45%) of workers are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61% in 1987.

• People say they have received poor career advice from several sources including a co-worker (58%), a boss (54%), parents/relatives (35%), spouse/significant other (30%), a mentor (21%) and others (25%).

• One in seven men (15%) and one in ten women (10%) admit to having sabotaged a co-worker’s career out of jealousy.