Bullets July 2013

Bullets

Business to Business

• Almost two thirds of Americans (64%) would prefer to work virtually rather than in an office. (Ricoh; 973-882-2023)
• 73% of individuals trust recommendations of friends and family versus only 23% who trust radio and TV ads and 19% who trust direct mail. (forrester.com)
• By 2015, nearly 70% of all information storage capacity will exist in virtual and cloud environments. (emc.com)
• In most states, somewhere between 50% and 60% of small businesses do not have websites (swiftpage.com)
• By the time a B2B purchaser actually engages with a company or with a sales rep from that company, they’re 57% of the way through their decision process.(emarketer.com)
• Smartphones and other devices are changing the way today’s executives do business. A close look at how executives use these devices revealed that most carry four or more devices, 56% of them say their smartphone is their primary business tool, and 51% of executives under 40 have made a business-related purchase after viewing a video. (google.com)

Brand Strategy

• Almost two-thirds of Americans (64%) would prefer to work virtually rather than in an office. (Ricoh; 973-882-2023)
• Two-thirds of U.S. shoppers (67%) get ideas for their household shopping trips from circulars and flyers. (BrandSpark International; 647-727-4578)
• New research suggests that Facebook fatigue may be setting in with some users. Twenty-seven (27%) percent of Facebook users surveyed in the U.S. plan to spend less time on the site in 2013, compared with only 3% who plan to spend more time, according to a study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
• Three-quarters of companies collect customers’ first (75%) and last (73%) names when asking for their email addresses, but only 30% personalize the opt-in emails they send. (experian.com)
• User reviews are a key influence on consumer electronic purchases. Six in 10 shoppers (60%) consult user reviews, and 52% consult professional reviews when shopping for consumer electronics, even though 88% say they are somewhat or very knowledgeable about these products. (Weber Shandwick)

Energy

• Wind farms currently produce enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 600,000 families in the U.S. and require an average wind speed of 14 miles per hour to convert wind energy into electricity. One wind turbine can produce enough electricity to power up to 300 homes. (alliantenergykids.com)
• Nearly two in three Americans (63%) believe global warming is happening. Relatively few (16%) believe it is not. However, since fall 2012, the percentage of Americans who believe global warming is real has dropped 7 points to 63%, likely influenced by the relatively cold winter of 2012-13 compared to the prior year. (yale.edu)
• Analyses of home-energy use reveal that we use more energy to heat our homes (an average of 41.7 million BTUs per household annually, at an average annual cost of $631 per household) than to cool them (7.8 million BTUs, at $276). (slate.com)
• Globally, buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 33% of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions. In the wealthier cities of the industrialized world, most of that energy is used by residential and commercial buildings for lighting and temperature control. (usgbc.org, rrojasdatabank.info)
• When asked about alternative energy policy, 79% of U.S. adults want requirements for better fuel efficiency, and 74% want more funding for alternative energy. (marketingcharts.com)

Healthcare

• Eight in ten caregivers (79%) have access to the internet. Of those, 88% look online for health information, outpacing other internet users on every health topic included in a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey, from looking up certain treatments to hospital ratings to end-of-life decisions. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
• Thirty percent of U.S. adults help a loved one with personal needs or household chores, managing finances, arranging for outside services, or visiting regularly to see how they are doing. Most are caring for an adult, such as a parent or spouse, but a small group cares for a child living with a disability or long-term health issue. The population breaks down as follows: 24% of U.S. adults care for an adult. 3% of U.S. adults care for a child with significant health issues, 3% of U.S. adults care for both an adult and a child and 70% of U.S. adults do not currently provide care to a loved one.
  (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
• Flu vaccines are typically produced by growing influenza virus in chicken eggs, which means people with egg allergies may develop a serious reaction, A newly FDA-approved vaccine, Flubok, avoids this risk by replicating the virus in cells derived from the fall army worm moth. The method has not been used for other vaccines but not the flu until now. What’s more, it allows for much quicker vaccine production, which will make more doses available sooner if there is ever a flu pandemic. (Cidrap)
• Scientists are hoping to develop new drugs from the skin of the Russian brown frog after discovering that it secretes antimicrobial gas. Since many frogs live in dark, wet places teeming with germs, their skin must serve as armor against these microscopic threats, scientists theorized. When Moscow State University researchers extracted the gas from living frogs, they found 76 new chemicals with antibacterial and antifungal properties – some as powerful as prescription antibiotics. Researchers plan to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to synthetically produce these substances. (Albert T. Lebedev, PhD, Dept. of Organic Chemistry, Moscow State University)