Airlines struggle pleasing all finicky fliers
Put 300+ people in a really small space for a number of hours; expect many of them to sleep upright; feed them en masse (or not at all); subject them to each other’s snores, coughs, laughter, slurps and worse - and you’re going to have a hard time keeping everyone happy. Sounds quite tough when you put it like that. Indeed, airlines face a considerable customer service challenge. Sometimes the difference can be a smile, sometimes it takes a lot more than that to create loyalty. Airlines with strong brands are invariably forgiven more, but do passengers even care about branding when all they want to do is get from point A to point B?
Chicago research company Synovate spoke with more than 10,000 respondents in 13 markets across the world to find out whether air travel was a pleasure or a pain, the impact of fuel costs and surcharges, the frustrations of sitting near other people’s children and chatty fellow passengers. What became fairly clear, fairly quickly, was that for most people travel is all about getting where you need to go, and the pleasure-to-pain ratio is determined by your seat.
Much of what the survey highlighted was that the seat of all power for airlines is, well, the seat. Two-thirds of all respondents who had traveled by air disagreed with the statement “I have no preference when it comes to seating” - the least fussy were the Filipinos (64 percent agreed) and the most particular were the Thais (89 percent disagreed). Forty-one percent say they are “really fussy about my seat and a bad one can ruin my flight experience.” Three-quarters say “I would like to have an option which allowed me to change seats if I was unhappy.” A massive 89 percent of Taiwanese, 87 percent of Americans, 84 percent of Thais and 83 percent of U.K. travelers agreed they would appreciate a seat swap if they were less-than-thrilled with where they were asked to park their posteriors.
Very much related to the seat issue is who you sit next to. The study asked people to agree or disagree with a series of statements, one of which was “I prefer sitting next to someone of my own sex.” Overall, a little over one-third of respondents agreed with this (34 percent). The highest “agrees” were from Hong Kong (65 percent), Malaysia (57 percent) and Thailand (53 percent). Women are far more likely to answer in the affirmative than men. Forty-four percent of all women travelers say they want to sit next to someone of their own gender, while only 24 percent of men do. In Hong Kong, 78 percent of women want to sit next to another woman. The study also asked whether respondents agreed with the statement “I enjoy making conversation with the people sitting next to me,” and, overall, 57 percent agree. People from Malaysia and the Philippines most like to chat (77 percent and 74 percent, respectively) and those from Thailand (60 percent disagreed), Taiwan (58 percent) and Hong Kong (57 percent) do not.
Two-thirds disagreed with the statement “I get frustrated when sitting next to or near children.” Britons were found to be most intolerant of children on planes, with 55 percent agreeing they find sitting near the smallest travelers to be frustrating. They were closely followed by Hong Kongers (52 percent agreed). Least likely to get frustrated were German travelers, with only 15 percent agreeing. Looking at the results by gender, women are far more tolerant of airborne kids. However, in the United Arab Emirates, 48 percent of women agreed they find sitting near children frustrating, and only 24 percent of men did.
Synovate also quizzed people about the one thing they best liked about being on a plane. Fifty-six percent chose “It’s fast and it gets me where I need to be quickly” as the thing they most like about air travel.
But will people even get on planes in the current economic environment? Across the markets surveyed, Synovate asked air travelers to choose one answer that best summed up the effect of fuel surcharges and increased costs of air travel for their situation. The study was conducted in July 2008 and, in cautiously good news for airlines, the highest overall answer was 39 percent who said “I would consider looking for airlines offering cheaper flights.” This was the highest in Brazil at 62 percent, followed by Canada and the U.K. at 48 percent. Eighteen percent of Thais, 17 percent of Germans and 16 percent of Britons and Americans said they would now consider alternative modes of transport for their travel. For more information visit www.synovate.com.
Stress-reducing services find success in economic slump
As stress rates increase, more people are turning to massage therapy for relaxation, according to the 12th annual consumer survey conducted by the American Massage Therapy Association, Evanston, Ill. The survey found that 59 percent of Americans are more stressed this year than last year, and stress and relaxation are the top reasons Americans received their last massage.
Thirty-six percent of Americans received massage for stress reduction and relaxation in the last five years, compared with just 22 percent last year. Additionally, 38 percent of Americans say they have considered regular massage to manage stress.
The state of the economy has been a major stress trigger for Americans this past year. Forty-five percent of Americans say they are greatly stressed by the current economic situation or other factors. Younger Americans and women have felt particularly affected by the economy. Fifty-five percent of those age 25-34 say they are greatly stressed by the economic situation, and 51 percent of females agree.
Young Americans and those in lower income groups are the most likely to consider massage for stress. Fifty percent of 18-24-year-olds and 46 percent of those making less than $25,000 a year say they would consider massage to manage stress.
While lower-income and young Americans are mo
re likely to seek massage for stress, people with higher incomes are more likely to discuss massage therapy with their doctors. This year, 16 percent of those making $50,000 a year or more discussed massage with their physicians, which is nearly twice as many as those making $25,000-$35,000. And more than half (57 percent) of those who talked to their doctor about massage reported that their doctor strongly recommended or encouraged them to get a massage. For more information visit www.amtamassage.org.
“Power moms” look to Web for sharing tips
Women online age 25-54 with at least one child are nearly twice as likely as the average Web user to provide frequent advice about parenting/family, non-food household products and beauty/cosmetics. Other topics these women frequently provide advice about include clothes/fashion, food and beverages, home decorating/interior design and health/dieting/exercising, according to Nielsen Online, a service of New York researcher The Nielsen Company.
“We’re seeing women using online avenues like e-mail, online forums and social networking Web sites to extend a role they’ve long held as information seekers and relationship builders. Moms, in particular, look to the Web to connect with other parents for tips and support, and they aren’t afraid of new technologies - this group is nearly 25 percent more likely than average to author a blog,” says Chuck Schilling, research director, agency and media analytics, Nielsen Online.
Scholastic.com and BirthdayExpress.com tied for the No. 1 Web site among this target group, with a composition index of 366, more than 3.5 times the average index. General Mills and The Gap ranked No. 2 and 3, respectively. FamilyFun.com rounded out the top five sites. For more information visit www.nielsen-online.com.
Makeup marketers go natural
Today’s latest beauty products are less concerned with masking the truth than those of yesteryear. Over one in seven (16 percent) global beauty product launches this year have either been organic, ethical or all-natural. In 2007, just one in nine (11 percent) new products fit these criteria, according to research from Mintel Beauty Innovation, a service from Chicago research company Mintel that monitors beauty and personal-care launches globally.
In the U.S., manufacturers are moving even faster. Nearly 30 percent of U.S. beauty products launched this year were organic, ethical or all-natural, up from 23 percent in 2007.
“Beauty companies increasingly take a more honest approach to personal care,” says Nica Lewis, head consultant, Beauty Innovation. “As people tire of insincere celebrity culture, we see more manufacturers using pure, natural elements in their products.”
In recent months, Lewis has seen the honest trend go even further. “Some of the latest beauty products incorporate ingredients from Indian Ayurveda or traditional Chinese medicine,” she says. “These ancient remedies have antioxidant or whitening properties that are being used to enhance contemporary natural and organic formulas.” For more information visit www.mintel.com.
Cleanliness is next to customer retention
Eighteen percent of shoppers would discontinue shopping at a particular store if they believe the store is not clean, and 46 percent of consumers consider shopping in a clean environment to be extremely important, according to a study conducted by M/A/R/C Research, Dallas. Grocery stores could see the largest impact on sales, where 18 percent of shoppers will stop shopping at a particular store if they feel it is unclean. Drug stores and department stores could also see an impact, where customers provided a 17 percent and 11 percent response, respectively, about no longer shopping in unclean stores.
M/A/R/C surveyed over 30,000 shoppers nationwide via an online survey to learn about the impact a store’s appearance had on their most recent shopping outings. The study included shoppers at stores in eight categories: club, consumer electronics, department, drug, grocery, home improvement, mass merchandisers and office supply stores. For more information visit www.marcresearch.com.
The charm of simple toys not lost on tech-flooded youth
Girls age 2-14 are spending more time this year on entertainment-related activities than they did in 2007, with more than half saying they spend more time using electronic devices and playing computer games and video games, according to Girl Power: Understanding This Important Consumer Segment, a report from Port Washington, N.Y., research company The NPD Group.
Pre-schoolers age 2-5 are highly engaged with toys including plush/stuffed toys, dolls, fashion role-play, puzzles and educational toys. First readers (age 6-8) are more inclined to play with board games, arts and crafts and virtual-world games.
For pre-teen girls age 9-12, playing with traditional toys is still the activity of choice. Despite the natural progression away from traditional toys to games and electronics, many older girls report they are spending more time this year playing with traditional toys compared to last year.
Tweens (age 9-12) are migrating to computer and video games, especially virtual-world online games. Socialization is gearing up among the pre-teens, and the advent of interactive gaming really hits home with these girls, who are looking for friends from the confines of their homes. Young teens (age 13-14) are also gamers, but many girls this age are also now listening to music on portable digital music players and talking/texting on their mobile phones.
“Girls, in general, are famously social creatures,” says Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “The growth in use of social networking and virtual-world Web sites by girls is a natural extension of this core value which needs to be recognized by manufacturers who count girls as primary market for their goods and services.”
But not all activities are as age-specific
as consumer electronics and video games. When looking at spending penetration, fashion apparel/accessories and books, music and videos are the top two categories that maintain a high level of popularity across all age groups, and appear to be insulated from the age-factor. In terms of favorite gifts, gift cards are the top choice for most girls, with gift cards being purchased 50 percent of the time, though toys are often given to younger girls and apparel to older girls.
Harris Interactive, a Rochester, N.Y., research company, also studied the continued popularity of non-tech toys in children, including boys. Over three-fifths of tweens agree that toys are necessary to have fun (62 percent). When naming their favorite toys, an actual brand/toy name is mentioned nearly two-thirds of the time (67 percent), with tweens more likely than teens to mention a brand/toy name (74 percent tweens versus 65 percent teens). When specific brands are looked at, the top two favorite brand mentions are toys with no batteries or electronic technology.
Probably not surprising, imagination, challenge and ease-of-use outweigh the desire for social and learning aspects of toys. For tween girls it is important that toys are fun (88 percent), easy to use (78 percent) and make them use their imagination (69 percent). For tween boys it is extremely/very important that toys are fun (93 percent), make them use their imagination (66 percent) and are challenging (61 percent).
Boys and girls differ in what they value in play experiences. Tween boys like the challenge of playing with their favorite toy (tween boys 21 percent versus tween girls 11 percent). Tween girls like the ability to play with their favorite toy in different ways (tween girls 22 percent versus tween boys 16 percent). When asked what they enjoyed most about playing with their favorite toy, the top five responses reported were fun (22 percent), variety of ways to play (22 percent), pretend role-play (20 percent), creativity and building (16 percent) and imagination (13 percent). For more information visit www.thenpdgroup.com or www.harrisinteractive.com.
Blogs, online communities exert powerful influence on shoppers
Nearly one in five adults (19 percent) are in the habit of visiting blogs, communities or social networks on a daily basis. The results differ significantly, however, based on generation and gender. For example, 33 percent of Generation Y respondents (people mostly in their 20s) visit these sites every day, according to a study from MarketTools, a San Francisco research company. In contrast, 17 percent of Generation X (mostly in their 30s and early 40s), 11 percent of Baby Boomers (in their mid-40s to early 60s) and only 8 percent of seniors visit daily. In addition, more women (22 percent) than men (16 percent) visit blogs, communities or social networks on a daily basis.
There is a clear connection between online activity and purchasing decisions. Many Americans visit blogs, communities and social networks with the specific intent of researching products. In fact, 33 percent of visitors say they visit these sites to engage in product research before making a purchasing decision. In particular, affluent visitors (with annual incomes of $75,000+) are most likely to research products online before buying (43 percent). MarketTools’ research also found that the Baby Boomer visitors are significantly more likely than other groups to read or post comments about products and services on these sites (37 percent). In addition, Baby Boomers, along with Generation X, are significantly more likely than other groups to visit the corporate Web sites of product or service providers (63 percent and 59 percent, respectively).
Blogs, communities and social networks have a direct impact on people’s purchasing decisions. For example, nearly half of all respondents (47 percent) say that these sites have influenced their decision to purchase particular brands or services to at least some extent - from a little to a lot of influence. The powerful impact of what they read on these sites is demonstrated by the fact that 26 percent of all respondents actually changed their minds about buying a product or service because of what they read on a blog, community or social network.
Women are significantly more likely (29 percent) than men (22 percent) to change their minds about a purchase because of these sites. In addition, those in middle-income households ($35,000 to $75,000), at 30 percent, and those from Generation Y and Generation X, at 35 percent and 30 percent respectively, are the most likely to change their minds because of the information they read on these sites.
Other key findings include: 51 percent of visitors say “to have fun” is a reason for their visits to social networking sites, communities and blogs; other popular reasons for visiting these sites include reading/posting about current events (42 percent), social networking to meet/date (40 percent) and to educate themselves (38 percent); and the most popular types of “regular” Web sites visited include company Web sites (56 percent), news (56 percent), search (50 percent), weather (50 percent), entertainment (45 percent) and health/medical (41 percent). For more information visit www.markettools.com.