Brand Strategy Key Findings – July/August 2011
| Cultural Influences in Annual Consumer Spending | Sports Fans Favorite News Sources |
| Online Spending: Men vs. Women | Mobile Technology and Coupons |
| Postal Mail vs. Email | |
Cultural Influences in Annual Consumer Spending
Whites and Asians typically have the largest household incomes and therefore more disposable income than Hispanics or Blacks. However, Hispanics spend more on women’s apparel than Whites. Blacks spend more on sporting goods than Asians. The following chart provides further details on spending levels by race/ethnicity.
Annual Consumer Spending, by Product Category, by Race/Ethnicity
Online Spending: Women vs. Men
Today, women and men each account for 50% of the Internet audience. The majority of each (85% of women and 83% of men) visit retail sites, but their shopping habits vary as shown in the chart below.
Postal Mail vs. Email
About 53% of U.S. adults say they are more likely to pay close attention to information they receive by postal mail than email. Reasons they prefer postal mail to email include:
- Ability to read information whenever it is convenient for them (79%)
- Ability to refer back to information when needed (66%)
- Ability to take mail to different places to read (46%)
- Information is more private when sent via postal mail (36%)
- Think a lot of online information cannot be trusted (25%)
- Are simply more trusting of information sent by mail than email (20%)
How consumers Prefer to Receive Information, Postal Mail vs. Email
Sports Fans Favorite News Sources
More than two-thirds (68%) of sports fans say they are casual fans who follow sports from time to time, the other 32% are avid fans who try to stay as up-to-date as possible on sports scores and news. Some 74% of avid fans are male, with 26% female. Causal fans are 53% male and 48% female. Three in 10 sports fans (30%) say they are more likely to buy a product that is endorsed by their favorite team or player. Among avid fans, the percentage rises to 41%. The following chart shows sports fans’ favorite news sources.
Primary Medium That Sports Fans Use to Get Sports News and Information, 2010
Mobile Technology and Coupons
One in 10 cell phone owners (10%) have visited a store because they received a coupon on their mobile phone. For 18-34-year-olds, this proportion increases to 20%.
Almost one-half (45%) of shoppers say they prefer to receive mobile coupons via text message, compared to 28% who want to find coupons themselves via an app, and 27% who want coupons texted to them while they are in the store.
Male mobile shoppers are more likely than average to prefer to locate mobile coupons themselves via an app (51%) and to receive them via text while in the store (39%). They are also more likely than average to use mobile coupons in these locations:
- Clothing stores (35% of male mobile shoppers vs. 15% cell phone owners overall)
- Department stores (30% vs. 15%)
- Electronics stores (30% vs. 10%)
- Service locations (16% vs. 7%)
Bullets
- Four in 10 women (40%) spend as much time shopping online as they do in brick and mortar stores and 28% shop more online than they do in stores. Of those who shop online, 40% do so while at work including 51% of women aged 18-34 and 37% of women aged 35-54.
- Some 75% of U.S. adults say they have found a TV commercial confusing. Among those aged 55 and older, 29% say that TV ads are often confusing to them.
- One-quarter of Americans (24%) are online between midnight and 8:00 a.m. They are more likely than average to have incomes of $150,000 or more (37.9%); 59% are more likely than average to be frequent domestic travelers, and 29% more likely than average to frequently stay in hotels.