Two-thirds of active U.S. Web population using broadband
The number of active broadband users from home increased 28 percent year-over-year, from 74.3 million in February 2005 to 95.5 million in February 2006, according to research from Nielsen//NetRatings, New York. Broadband composition among the U.S. active online population has seen vigorous growth during the past three years, increasing at least 10 percentage points annually and hitting an all-time high of 68 percent for active Internet users in February 2006.
From February 2003 to February 2004, broadband composition grew 12 percentage points, from 33 percent to 45 percent. In February 2005, it increased another 10 percentage points to 55 percent. This year, February saw broadband composition reach an all-time high of 68 percent, increasing an impressive 13 percentage points over the previous February.
Overall Internet penetration in the U.S. has stabilized over the past few years, reaching 74 percent at home in February 2006.
As broadband penetration increases, so does the average PC time spent per person. With fast connections to Web sites for online photos, audio and video files, online visitors are devoting more time to their computers. Since February 2003, the average PC time per person among active Web users has increased approximately five hours from 25.5 hours a month to 30.5 hours a month.
“The correlated growth in average PC time per person is the result of broadband users’ greater satisfaction with their online experience,” says Jon Gibs, senior director of media, Nielsen//NetRatings. “The ‘always on’ nature of a broadband connection allows the Internet to become more entrenched in consumers’ lives. In broadband consumers’ minds, activities such as checking account balances, downloading music, watching streaming video and checking e-mail become just another application of the PC rather than a separate activity that happens when they log on to the Internet.”
With increased broadband penetration, a growing trend is the accessing of streaming media online at video sharing sites. MSN Video garnered 9.3 million unique visitors in February 2006, growing 44 percent over the previous year. YouTube and Google Video grew from relative obscurity in February 2005 to substantial players in February 2006, drawing 9.0 million and 6.2 million unique visitors, respectively. IFilm and Yahoo’s video search saw triple digit year-over-year growth in their visitation, drawing 4.3 million and 3.8 million unique visitors, respectively.
“Video sites have successfully tapped into the use of viral campaigns, capitalizing on consumers’ impulse to share funny clips with their friends,” says Gibs. “Among these sites, it is not uncommon to see dramatic spikes in weekly Web traffic due to a popular online video that has been sent from person to person. Television networks should be looking to embrace, rather than pull away from, these sites, in order to generate buzz for their broadcast programming.” For more information visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.
Broadcast news still a valued source
While there seem to be more outlets than ever for U.S. adults to get news, a Harris Poll shows that majorities choose to get their news most frequently from broadcast mediums. Specifically, three-quarters (77 percent) of adults say they watch local broadcast news, and 71 percent say they watch network broadcast or cable news several times a week or daily. On the other hand, one in five (19 percent) U.S. adults say they listen to satellite news programming or read a national newspaper (18 percent) several times a week or daily. These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,985 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 12 and 17, 2006 by Harris Interactive, Rochester, N.Y.
While broadcast television news appears to be the most popular medium sought, many adults also get their news several times a week or daily by going online to get news (64 percent), reading a local daily newspaper (63 percent), listening to radio news broadcasts (54 percent), listening to talk-radio stations (37 percent), listening to satellite news programming (19 percent) and reading a national newspaper (18 percent).
A key indicator of media usage is age. Specifically:
- Matures (those 59 years of age and older) are most likely to rely on more traditional media outlets for information, with at least eight in 10 matures saying they watch local broadcast news (88 percent), watch network broadcast or cable news (88 percent) or read a local daily newspaper (80 percent) several times a week or daily.
- Baby Boomers (those 40 to 58 years of age) use the most varied types of media, with at least one in five Boomers using each medium examined several times a week or daily. Along with matures, Baby Boomers are most likely to watch both local and broadcast or cable television newscasts (83 percent and 74 percent, respectively), read local daily newspapers (66 percent) and listen to radio newscasts (64 percent) and talk radio (40 percent). Boomers and Gen Xers (those 28 to 39 years of age) are most likely to go online for news (68 percent and 70 percent, respectively).
- Generation Xers are most likely to get their news several times a week or daily from local broadcast stations (69 percent) or online sources (68 percent).
- Echo Boomers (those 18 to 27 years of age) are the least-frequent users of media, with only about half or less getting information several times a week or daily from each of the media types measured.
For more information visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
Poor customer service devalues brand
Customers who experience a less-than-friendly employee are likely to have a bad impression of not only that employee but also the store manager and the entire company as a whole, according to a study from BIGresearch, Columbus, Ohio, of over 7,000 consumers. More than half (53.4 percent) of consumers felt that a bad experience with an employee not only reflected poorly on him/her as an individual but reflected poorly on the manager and the entire company as a whole. “When you receive bad customer service or are treated rudely by a store employee, who do you feel it reflects the most poorly upon?”: the store employee - 14.1 percent; the store manager - 8 percent; the store (the whole company) - 24.6 percent; all of the above - 53.4 percent.
The majority of customers that have a bad experience with an employee think it’s a poor reflection on the entire company, from the top on down. “It’s a mistake I see time and time again: employers dismissing poor customer interaction on a singular level with their employees - ‘They’re just having a bad day’ - as if there is ever a good time to have a bad experience with a customer,” says Mike Thomson of It’s All About Character, a Dublin, Ohio, organization.
Additionally the survey reports over 85 percent of consumers feel that customer service is staying the same or getting worse, not better - and 42 percent of customers feel it’s the one thing that businesses need to improve upon the most. “Overall, do you think customer service is getting better or worse?”: a lot better - 2.2 percent; a little better - 12.4 percent; same - 35 percent; a little worse - 30.6 percent; much worse - 19.8 percent.
“I think there’s a real sense of growing impatience among consumers when it comes to customer service,” says Gary Drenik, president of BIGresearch. “With all the headlines regarding corruption in business and politics, the consumer is reacting far more strongly to poor customer service as just one more symptom in a greater problem.” For more information visit www.bigresearch.com.
$32 billion plus-size clothing market flourishes
American women have gotten larger, and plus-size clothing manufacturers have stepped up marketing efforts in the last five years. According to a report from Chicago research firm Mintel, the plus-size clothing market reached close to $32 billion last year. In five years, the segment has posted close to 50 percent revenue growth. A study of the years 1999-2002 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that over 62 percent of women were likely to be overweight or obese, and this trend is being reflected in the sharp sales increase in this clothing category.
Mintel’s consumer research reveals that more than half of female respondents over 18 years old purchase plus-size clothing. With clothing chains like Torrid (sister company of Hot Topic) and Charming Shoppes (owners of Lane Bryant, Catherine’s and Fashion Bug) continuing to expand their plus-size-focused empires, department stores have also decided to raise the bar on their clothing offerings for this category. Kohl’s has extended two of its private-label lines, apt. 9 and Daisy Fuentes, to include extended sizes.
“The increased availability of fashion options has really impacted the plus-size category,” says Kat Fay, analyst for Mintel. “For years, plus-size women had to shop from limited selections. They were also forced to shop from catalogs or online because many plus-sizes were not stocked in the stores. Easier access to purchasing clothing, coupled with more flattering styles and wider distribution, specifically through mass-merchandisers, plays a strong part in driving increased sales.”
Celebrities have also helped to champion the growth of the plus-sized clothing movement. Rapper/actress Queen Latifah, supermodel Emme and television personality Oprah have all presented more positive images of full-figured fashion in the media. Comedian Mo’Nique even launched the first-ever nationally-televised plus-size beauty pageant last year.
“The population has gotten larger and manufacturers are now realizing the value of catering to this previously overlooked segment of women,” Fay says. “More stores are launching plus-size lines, and there is still additional room for growth and development within the market. Clearly these women have the money and the desire to look as fashionable as regular-size women.”
Mintel estimates that the plus-size market will grow more than 10 percent in the next five years. In addition, more stores will look at offering more extended-size options for consumers. There continues to be a great growth opportunity in the plus-size catalog and Internet sectors, and companies have a chance to increase their revenue in these areas. For more information visit www.mintel.com.
Online search impacts offline buying
A research study from comScore Networks, Reston, Va., confirms the importance of online search in influencing offline buying. The results show that 25 percent of searchers purchased an item directly related to their query, and of those buyers, 37 percent completed their purchase online. An even greater 63 percent completed a purchase offline following their search activity.
The study, sponsored by Google, entitled “The Role of Search in Consumer Buying,” examined the impact of Web search (excluding comparison shopping sites) on consumers’ holiday-related purchases completed online and offline during November and December 2005, across 11 product categories. The study reflects the searching behavior of 83 million Americans who conducted more than 552 million searches in the categories analyzed using one or more of the 24 leading search engines.
“The study confirms the important role of search in influencing consumers’ purchase behavior both online and offline,” says James Lamberti, vice president of comScore Search Marketing Solutions. “Importantly, it’s clear from this study that the influence of search on offline buying can often be responsible for the major portion of the overall financial return from investments in search marketing.”
“We find that many multichannel retailers already understand that search has tremendous impact on both online and offline purchases,” says John McAteer, head of retail, Google. “This research helps quantify exactly how influential search really is for the overall buying process.”
The magnitude of offline buyer conversion varied by category, with the highest levels occurring in categories such as consumer electronics, toys and hobbies, video games and consoles, and music/movies/videos, where more than 80 percent of conversions occurred offline.
In order to understand the latent impact of search on holiday buying, comScore analyzed the time lag between consumers’ initial searches and subsequent purchases made in the same categories during November and December of 2005. Consistent with previous comScore research, this study found that more than half (56 percent) of consumers’ online holiday buying actually happened in subsequent Internet sessions, clearly demonstrating the strong latent impact of search.
Among the 83 million consumers who searched in one or more of the 11 product categories analyzed during the holiday season, the 8.6 million who subsequently bought online were much more intense users of search across all product categories, performing nearly 10 times the number of searches compared to non-buyers. Additionally, the study indicates that 60 percent of all searchers started their search process before November 15, 2005. This is likely due to the aggressive pricing and marketing programs that were implemented in 2005 by many retailers prior to Thanksgiving, which apparently caused consumers to begin their shopping process earlier than normal. For search advertisers, these statistics imply that holiday-season advertising budgets should be sufficiently large and applied early enough to cover for the aggressive search behavior of buyers.
Holiday searchers lauded the merits of search in helping them make their gift purchase decisions. More than 80 percent viewed search as helpful for purchasing gifts, seven in 10 claimed search was influential in helping to find gifts and more than three out of five indicated they would be likely to use search the next time they intended to purchase a gift. Search ranked closely with online retail stores as well as friends and family on each of these attributes, and only physical stores exceeded search on each of these attributes.
Some methodology details: population - U.S. Internet users searching in one or more of 11 holiday-related product categories; time period - searches and related purchases occurring between November 1 and December 31, 2005; definition of Web search - search activity on 24 major search engines including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask Jeeves; product categories analyzed - consumer electronics, computers/peripherals/PDAs, computer software, books and magazines, music/movies/ videos, toys and hobbies, video games and consoles, jewelry and watches, apparel and accessories, flowers and greetings and home and garden. For more information visit www.comscore.com.