Green advocacy, green adoption vary in definition and demographics
When it comes to green living, the youngest and oldest consumers are advocacy-oriented, while Generation X and Generation Y moms are more likely to take action and adopt green habits within their households, according to a study from J.D. Power Tribe Intelligence, a division of J.D. Power and Associates, a Westlake Village, Calif., research company.
J.D. Power Tribe Intelligence examined unsolicited consumer mentions to provide perspective on the online discussions of consumers in five demographic groups: teens, early careerists, Generation Y moms, Generation X moms and Boomers. Teens, early careerists and Boomers primarily take an advocacy approach to living green lifestyles through educating themselves about environmental issues and legislation and supporting causes ranging from climate change to air quality and conservation. They display fervor in advocating for green legislation and policy but often stop short of adopting green habits.
While these groups have this advocacy approach in common, their motivations for taking the stance differ. Teens and early careerists embrace the green cause as a method of establishing their identities and independence. Among Boomers, for whom rallying behind causes that support the greater good is already part of their collective identity, supporting green causes provides an opportunity to share their point of view and their experiences for creating change.
In contrast, Generation X and Generation Y moms take a functional approach to green living by applying green behaviors within their households. For Generation X moms, being green is motivated by a desire to be less wasteful and more frugal in their spending. In applying green behaviors such as gardening, composting and recycling, they have found that living a green lifestyle brings the benefit of saving money. While buying products that are perceived as green is not a primary goal for Generation X moms, they are willing to do so as long the products fit within their budgets.
Generation Y moms take a do-it-yourself approach to applying green behaviors by developing their own cleaning products and baby food in an effort to provide pure, quality products for themselves and their families. They actively avoid potentially-toxic cleaning products and support brands that provide greener alternatives. For many Generation Y moms, being thrifty can be an added bonus to going green.
Green topics that are discussed online most frequently by these five demographic segments follow similar divisions. For Boomers, early careerists and teens, climate change is most commonly discussed. For Generation X moms and Generation Y moms, recycling is the most frequently discussed green topic of conversation. For more information visit www.jdpower.com.
Small businesses believe they will lead the U.S. out of recession
Small business owners are eager to lead the charge out of the country’s protracted recession - with almost three-quarters saying they will be the driving force behind the U.S. economic recovery in 2010, according to Signs of the Times, a report from FedEx Office, a Dallas division of FedEx Corp., Memphis, Tenn. In fact, 51 percent of the small business owners polled say their businesses have already or will fully recover by the end of this year.
This optimism is a marked improvement over the survey’s findings last year, when 54 percent of respondents indicated they were very concerned about the economy’s impact on their business. Further evidence of this brighter outlook is that 18 percent of small businesses are considering an increased budget for staffing and human resources activities in 2010, up from just 9 percent last year.
Small businesses also are planning to put their trust in the power of marketing to help them restore business to pre-recession levels. About 42 percent of those polled are considering increasing spending on marketing and advertising initiatives in 2010, and 30 percent say they may increase spending on sales initiatives - both actions specifically aimed at boosting customer traffic and revenues.
The results further underscore small business owners’ firm belief in the value of traditional and online marketing and advertising. In 2008, before the recession was fully felt throughout the marketplace, 41 percent of those polled were considering increasing spending on marketing and advertising initiatives. In 2009, with the recession in full-swing, even more small business owners (44 percent) reported considering a budget increase in that same area. This year’s survey results show 34 percent made cuts to their marketing and advertising spend last year and 31 percent say that decision had a negative/extremely negative impact on their business results. For more information visit www.fedex.com/office.
Consumers long to show companies their co-creativity
While marketing research traditionally serves to uncover insights for products in the making, co-creation is acknowledged as a more proactive process, integrating consumers into the development process as early as the pre-planning stage, and consumers are anxious to take on this role of developing new products and enhancing existing ones, according to online research community data from Gongos Research, Auburn Hills, Mich.
In an inquiry of 1,000 men and women across the U.S. as to whether they were willing to engage in a company’s development process to assist in the creation of products, packaging and the marketing of those products, only 8 percent of consumers were opposed to or not interested in the idea of co-creation. Among six consumer product categories included in the survey, respondents indicated the highest level of interest when it comes to snacks and beverages, with consumer electronics coming in second, followed by health and wellness.
While consumers do not necessarily expect recognition or direct compensation from the company for their ideas, 73 percent of consumers do expect a sample of the product or a cash incentive (71 percent) in exchange for their ideas and/or their time investment. Additionally, 76 percent of consumers are willing to forego acknowledgement or creative license for their ideas, protecting the company from claims based on intellectual property rights or royalty expectations.
“While this is our initial study focused on co-creation, it indicates that there is no real downside to integrating consumers into the full product creation mix, unless of course product designers and marketers see it as a threat to their livelihood, which they should not,” says Michael Alioto, vice president, analytics, for Gongos. For more information visit www.gongos.com.
Online not killing the TV ads - yet
While more dollars are moving to digital advertising, corporations continue to spend the majority of their ad budgets on television, as it remained the top advertising choice in first-quarter 2010, with 41.8 percent of ad agencies saying their corporate clients are more focused on TV than any other medium, according to a survey conducted by Chicago business software company Strata. Although while TV remained on top, the number declined 27 percent from first-quarter 2009. Internet/digital advertising continues to increase, with 68 percent reporting that their customers are more focused on digital than they were a year ago.
“To advertisers, TV still matters,” says John Shelton, president and CEO of Strata. “But just as radio gave way to television, we can see that TV is slowly giving way to digital. Our survey taps into the perception that digital has its limitations in reach and effectiveness and must still be used with traditional media like TV.”
Nearly 40 percent of ad agencies believe it will be at least five years before they anticipate spending more on digital media than traditional media, including broadcast and print. However, just as TV ad share continues to decline, traditional print advertising appears to be declining even further. Nearly two-thirds of respondents say their clients are less focused on print than they were a year ago. Not one agency polled feels it will increase print ad buys.
Other key findings include: 87.5 percent of advertising firms say they are most likely to use Facebook in client campaigns, followed by Twitter (57.1 percent) and YouTube (39.3 percent); 62.5 percent handle SEO/search placements in-house; 32.1 percent of the agencies say that their clients’ focus on spot radio will be less than it was a year ago; and 67.9 percent say their digital spend goes toward online display, followed closely by social media and SEO. For more information visit www.gotostrata.com.
A higher class of consumers have adopted couponing
U.S. adults wearing designer duds and diamond studs are on the vanguard of savvy spending, using coupons to fatten their wallets and save big, according to a study conducted by Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive on behalf of Coupons.com, Mountain View, Calif. Wealthier, more-educated and metropolitan Americans are some of the most likely to be coupon users.
“All sorts of people - including what we call the ‘sophisticated couponer’ - are proudly aboard the couponing bandwagon,” says Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com. “We all want the biggest bang for our buck, so the fact that well-heeled, educated and urban shoppers are taking advantage of coupons and searching for them online further illustrates the proliferation of the culture of couponing.”
More affluent. Six out of 10 adults with a household income of $100,000+ have redeemed a coupon in the past six months. Additionally, about four in 10 adults in this income bracket have redeemed coupons printed from an online source in the past six months, making them nearly twice as likely to do so as adults with a household income less than $35,000 (21 percent).
More educated. Adults with college degrees are almost twice as likely to have used coupons in the past six months as those who didn’t graduate from high school, further dispelling the perceived lowbrow stigma of couponing. In fact, the survey shows that this group of grads is also more likely to make a purchase specifically to redeem a coupon, visit a product’s Web site to get a coupon and search for coupons online.
More metropolitan. More than three-fourths of adults who have used coupons in the past six months live in metro areas.
The survey also revealed that just like their female counterparts, men are embracing coupons. Specifically, 51 percent of adult males have used a coupon in the past six months. Not only are they using coupons, but over one-third of men responded that they even have a designated place to keep their coupons, and they’re just as likely as women to clip and tell: 18 percent of men have blabbed to a friend about a coupon they found online.
Even if economic conditions improve, eight out of 10 adults plan to continue to engage in couponing activities, according to the survey findings. For more information visit www.coupons.com.
Retailers’ trimmed assortment defies consumer demand for variety
More than half of U.S. consumers indicate they are likely to shop elsewhere if they notice a reduced product selection, while nearly half of retailers indicate continued plans to decrease assortment, according to a study from New York researcher The Nielsen Company. But how costly is the choice to downsize? Seven percent of personal care product shoppers say that when faced with a shelf that does not contain the item they want, they’ll leave the store without buying anything in the category. Often, this translates into the consumer taking their entire shopping basket purchase elsewhere. While 7 percent may seem like a small number, consider that a one-half of one percent decrease in shopper closure across the grocery channel could cost as much as $1.5 billion in sales.
So far, most consumers haven’t observed assortment changes, with only 7 percent reporting a noticeable reduction in product variety, and although 42 percent of retailers decreased assortment in 2009 amid considerable industry hype, assortments overall shrunk by only 1 percent. Looking ahead to 2011 however, 40 percent of retailers indicate they’ll continue to downsize, with stated targets to cut up to 10 percent of SKUs on the shelf.
Driven in part by the recession, consumer packaged goods retailers are making assortment changes for several reasons. Seventy-five percent of retailers are downsizing their product assortment to improve merchandising opportunities, while 71 percent cite a desire for greater control over inventory. Sixty percent state the moves are made to alleviate shopper confusion, and 52 percent are reducing selection to cut costs and improve profitability. Nearly half of retailers are making more room for store brand products. For more information visit www.nielsen.com.
Restaurant-goers rejoice in menu makeover mandate
Menus around the U.S. are in the process of getting a makeover thanks to the passing of the new health care bill, which will require all restaurants with 20+ locations to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards and drive-thrus beginning in 2011. This is all gravy for restaurant-goers, as more than 60 percent think restaurants should post nutritional information on menus and two in five think federal or local governments should facilitate such actions, according to data from Chicago research company Mintel.
“Menu transparency will allow consumers to have control over their food decisions with a complete understanding of what they’re eating,” says Eric Giandelone, director, food service research, Mintel.
When going out for dinner, nearly 60 percent of survey respondents say they want something that tastes great and 23 percent claim to want to eat a healthy meal. Only 14 percent of diners say they are never interested in ordering a healthy restaurant meal. Nearly half of survey respondents report eating healthier in restaurants in the past year, although diners have different methods for doing so. Reducing fat (67 percent) leads the way in strategies for adopting healthier eating habits at restaurants, followed by eating more fruits and vegetables (52 percent). Meanwhile, 49 percent of patrons are cutting calories by simply ordering less food.
So while consumers are thrilled to have the information on the menu to help them make healthier decisions, what will this mean for restaurants where a large order of fries or a piece of carrot cake will set you back a hefty 1,500 calories? “From a restaurant’s perspective, there is a concern that healthy menu items may not sell, but there is also a danger to having a calorie-laden menu when the calorie count law starts taking effect,” says Giandelone. “There may be some initial consumer shock at the calorie counts and chains may have to start listing lower-calorie options or smaller portion sizes to help diffuse this unpleasant surprise.” For more information visit www.mintel.com.
Residents turn to Web-based tools for neighborhood news
Americans use a range of approaches to keep informed about what is happening in their neighborhoods, and online activities have been added to the mix. Face-to-face encounters and phone calls remain the most-used methods of interaction with neighbors, but Internet tools are gaining ground in community-oriented communications, according to a poll from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Washington, D.C.
When asked about online connections to communities and neighbors, 22 percent of all adults signed up to receive alerts about local issues (i.e., traffic, school events, weather warnings, crime alerts, etc.) via e-mail or text messaging, and 20 percent of all adults used digital tools to talk to their neighbors and keep informed about community issues. Additionally, 11 percent reported reading a blog that addresses community issues; 9 percent exchanged e-mails with neighbors about community issues; 5 percent said they belong to a community e-mail listserv; 4 percent communicated with neighbors by text messaging; 4 percent joined a social network site group connected to community issues; and 2 percent followed neighbors using Twitter.
Still, crossing paths on the sidewalk and the neighborhood telephone directory are still major players in keeping neighbors connected: 46 percent of Americans talked face-to-face with neighbors about community issues, and 21 percent discussed community issues over the telephone. For more information visit www.pewinternet.org.