Americans wary of telecom bill
Recent poll results show that many Americans fear the telecommunications bill will result in higher costs for cable TV and telephone services with no improvement in quality.
The new legislation allows cable TV companies as well as long distance and local telephone service providers to compete with each other in offering a full range of communications services to consumers. Under the new law, cable TV companies can provide local or long distance telephone services and telephone companies can provide cable TV services. The hope is that the resulting increased competition will drive consumer costs down and elevate the quality of services consumers now receive.
However, according to a recent poll, the public remains skeptical of the benefits from enhanced competition. Nearly half of the people surveyed feel that the cost of cable TV will go up (49 percent), while about one in four say it will either stay the same (26 percent) or it will go down (25 percent). About one-third anticipate increases in costs of local telephone service (31 percent), nearly twice the number who think that the cost of local telephone service will go down (17 percent). More consumers also feel long distance telephone costs will go up (32 percent) than go down (23 percent) with 42 percent saying they think long distance costs will remain the same.
The public is not convinced that increased competition afforded by the new legislation will bring about improved service. Only about one in three consumers think the quality of cable will get better (35 percent) and only one in four predict improvement in their long distance (27 percent), or local telephone service (27 percent). About one in 10 think that quality will actually decline in each of these services.
"Based on the results of our survey, Americans do not believe that they will benefit from the new legislation as much as the politicians would have them believe," says Bruce Simmon, Chilton’s communications consultant.
"Perhaps owing to fears of mergers and monopolies, some ’Americans worry that they will pay more for services that may not be better or, in fact, may be worse. It remains to be seen how companies in the marketplace will respond to this new opportunity."
The source of the data is a study conducted February 7-11 .among a nationwide sample of 1,008 adults as part of Chilton’s weekly EXPRESS Omnibus Survey. The results have a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
Twentysomethings will pay more for quality
In today’s economy, who’s willing to pay more for brand names? Twenty something women will. According to the latest MLLEMeter Report from Mademoiselle magazine and Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc., twentysomething women will pay more for the brands they believe to be high in quality. Twentysomethings will open their wallets wider than baby boomer women for brand name shampoo, liquor, cold cereal, skin care lotion and soft drinks. Boomer women, who say certain brands of these products are better than others, don’t think they’re worth higher prices. What will baby boomer women shell out bigger bucks for? According to MLLEMeter, the majority will pay more for better brands of ground coffee, toothpaste and ice cream.
Source: Roper Starch Worldwide Inc., 1995-6, nationally representative sample of women age 18+; all interviews conducted face-to-face in respondents’ homes.
Buyers driven by emotion, not logic
According to "Emotional Retailing: Retailing Above the Rim," a study of consumer buying behavior conducted or Metromail Corporation, 34 percent of shoppers are driven more by emotional factors, such as fun and excitement, than by "logical" retail factors, such as price, quality and convenience. Shoppers polled for the study gave retailers relatively poor marks in gauging and appealing to consumers on emotions. Still, retailers who focused on customer emotional satisfaction saw an average 38 percent increase in sales over those retailers who focus solely on price, location or convenience as determining factors.
"Given that huge increase in sales, a true competitive edge will be experienced by those retailers who tap into the emotional buying process," says Bill Reddy, Metromail Retail Marketing Manager. "Since this study quantifies and defines the emotional buyer by certain demographic criteria retailers will be able to determine who an emotional buyer is as easily as one who purchases based on the more traditional criteria, such as price and quality."
The study, conducted by Service Industry Research Systems, Inc. (SIRS), divided emotional buyers into three categories: individuals prompted by fun and excitement; shoppers influenced by relaxation and stress removal; and consumers concerned with family welfare, trust and safety issues. Of the 34 percent of shoppers influenced by emotions in the buying process, 36 percent were motivated by fun and excitement, 31 percent by relaxation and stress removal, and 21 percent by family welfare, trust and safety. Twelve percent of emotional shoppers were influenced by a mix of categories.
The study included retail-related questions regarding primary versus secondary store preferences, crossshopping, store preferences for specific product lines, shopping frequency, coupon usage, mail responsiveness and other traditional shopper behavioral issues. In addition, the survey included demographic questions and a question set regarding emotional criteria for shopping. It also featured questions probing lifestyles, product usage, media and other behaviors which matched data variables associated with household types, or segments, in a geodemographic database.
The resultant answers were used to develop a set of demographic and psychographic variables that defined the emotional shopper, known as E-Types. "Until today, the emotional dimension of retailing was considered intangible," Reddy says. "But by using the study information, we were able to run the survey variables against our proprietary DNA segmentation system to create E-types and lists of individuals across the nation who are emotional shoppers," Reddy says. DNA, Distinct Neighbor Analysis, is a segmentation tool developed by Metromail that identifies demographic clusters by the more finite household level, as opposed to census block.
Brand names don’t rule the produce section
A new consumer study indicates that just more than half of consumers say they look for and buy brand-name produce when it’s available. Yet, given the range of brands available, it may be surprising that consumers can name from memory only four they prefer: Dole, Chiquita, Sunkist and Del Monte. Similarly, consumers only associate four commodities with brand names: bananas, oranges, pineapples and lettuce
The study, "Fresh Trends 1996," has just been released by The Packet’, a business newspaper serving the fresh produce industry, and Vance Research Services, each a part of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill. Coca Cola, Campbell’s and Kellogg’s are used to battling private labels in the grocery department. But are national produce brands ready to take on store brands in the department? Eighty-five percent of shoppers say store brands of produce are comparable to national brands, while 10 percent say the store brand is better. And when comparing store brands to non-branded produce items, 75 percent say the two are about the same and 22 percent say the store brand is better.
But just how important is the availability of brand names in evaluating a grocery store’s produce department? Only 5 percent of shoppers say brand availability is "extremely important" to them when selecting a supermarket while 18 percent say it’s "very important." And a little more than a third of shoppers have gone to a grocery store looking for a specific brand of fresh produce and found it was unavailable. What did they do? Most didn’t buy anything or went to another store. Consumers generally are satisfied with the quality of fresh produce available to them at their local supermarket or other fresh produce store. While only 10 percent are "extremely satisfied," 47 percent are "very satisfied."
The three most important characteristics they look for when selecting produce are freshness/ripeness, appearance and price. However, consumers are likely to alter their shopping lists if the product doesn’t meet their needs. In fact, 84 percent of consumers say there are produce items they like, but at times choose not to buy. Price is the No. 1 reason they’re turned off.
What in-store information is most critical in helping shoppers choose produce? Freshness/expiration dates is most important, they say. That’s followed by nutrition information and storage/handling information.
Twenty-eight percent of consumers say they’ve purchased a fresh produce item as a result of trying it at a restaurant. The most popular item is kiwifruit, followed by mangoes, carambola, papayas and broccoli. Roasted eggplant or zucchini, sautéed radicchio and lo bok are only a few of the many other produce items that restaurants have introduced to consumers. In the 12 months before the Fresh Trends survey, 21 percent of consumers said they tried a produce item for the first time while dining out. The trial of new fruits, such as kiwifruit and mangoes, was noted by 14 percent of consumers, while 10 percent noted vegetables.
Produce makes a regular appearance on the plates of consumers who dine out - 71 percent "regularly" order one or more of the following courses: appetizers, salads, main entrees, side dishes or desserts. Seventy-eight percent "occasionally" order such dishes. But which course is ordered the most? As might be expected, salads.
Do consumers remember seeing or hearing produce advertising? Forty-six percent of shoppers recalled some produce advertising in the 12 months before the Fresh Trends survey, while 50 percent did not. Four percent were unsure. Most shoppers recalled advertising for fresh fruits, despite the influx of advertising for packaged salads. The top fruits recognized were oranges, bananas, apples, pineapples and grapefruit. The top vegetables were potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes. Shoppers were asked to exclude advertising by supermarkets or other local fresh produce stores.
And television is the primary vehicle through which consumers recall produce advertising. That’s followed by newspapers, magazines, radio, direct mail and billboard advertising.
Other select findings from Fresh Trends 1996:
- Five a Day? What’s that? Five a Day is a national generic promotion program that aims to increase the consumption of produce to at least five servings a day. Twenty-nine percent of consumers know what it is, up from 19 percent in the Fresh Trends 1995 report. However, the increase may, in part, be due to questions consumers also were asked about nutrition guidelines.
- Twenty-nine percent of consumers who have purchased packaged salads "always" buy additional salad items, while another 24 "often" make such purchases.
- Tomatoes are consumers’ favorite item to add to salad mixes, while bagged Iceberg remains a consumer favorite.
- Of those consumers who purchased bagged salads six months before the survey, only a quarter say they actually seek out a brand-name salad mix.
- Tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and apples are the top organic items purchased.
- The No. 1 reason some shoppers buy organic produce is because of appearance.
- The No. 1 reason some shoppers don’t buy organic produce is lack of availability.
Since 1983, The Packer has sponsored 12 consumer studies to track trends in the purchasing and consumption of fresh produce. This year, 1,000 consumers were surveyed by telephone. The questionnaires were designed by The Packer and Vance Research Services, the research division of Vance Publishing Corp., publisher of The Packer. The surveys were conducted and tabulated by Market Facts Inc., Chicago, which maintains a consumer panel of about 360,000 consumers nationwide.
The survey was completed by the household member who makes most of the produce purchasing decisions. The sample and results were weighted to be nationa!ly representative of the U.S. population for household size, population density, age, income and geographic region. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.
Highlights from Fresh Trends 1996 are available in a 96-page magazine for $10. A full report, including demographic data, is available.
Trust an elected official?
According to a recent Roper Poll conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., self-interest rather than public interest guides the actions of many high profile officals including congressmen and senators. The public believes that most people in these groups act more in their own self-interest than in the public interest. Out of seven high profile groups, only federal court judges are seen as acting primarily in the public interest: 54 percent of the public say federal court judges act more in the public interest, while 32 percent say they act more in their own self-interest. Cabinet officers and labor leaders are seen as less likely to be self-serving than government officials, congressmen, senators, or executives of large corporations. These perceptions vary only slightly across U.S. demographic groups (age, sex, political party) with one exception: Republicans (60 percent) are far more likely than Democrats (46 percent) to believe that labor leaders act in their own self-interest.
Trend data show that since 1976, only federal court judges have been consistently viewed as acting more in the public interest, even though their "public interest" ratings have dropped from a 1986 high of 66 percent. The public’s perception of large corporate executives remains steady over two decades with approximately seven in 10 saying they act more in self-interest and two in 10 saying they act more in the public interest. However, compared to 1986, the belief that government officials, senators and congressmen act more in their own self-interest has increased considerably - 8 percentage points for government officials, 11 points for senators and 13 points for congressmen.
A nationwide cross-section of 1,986 people, 18 years of age and over was interviewed face-to-face in their homes. The interviewing dates on this Roper Poll were November 11-18, 1995 and the margin of error due to sampling is +/- 3 percentage points. Trend data from 1976, 1986 and 1992 was collected using the same methodology with a sample size of approximately 2,000 for each wave of the Roper Poll.