••• entertainment research
Speaker sales making some noise
Music throughout the house
Streaming speakers are leading a broad resurgence in the audio market. Along with stereo headphones (up 28 percent in dollar sales since 2011) and soundbars (sales have nearly doubled in two years), sales of wireless speakers surpassed $1.3 billion in the 12 months ending in October 2014 (from just $150 million in 2011), according to the NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service.
But, as reported by NPD’s Ben Arnold, while the speaker market has grown over the past three years, it’s also become increasingly diverse – the number of brands making speakers has doubled since 2012 and trends in consumer usage of the devices have helped carve out new segments in the market like expandable and ruggedized speakers.
According to the NPD Group’s Wireless Speaker Study, wireless speaker owners are using their devices in multiple listening environments during a diverse range of activities. Owners of portable wireless speakers, which tend to be battery-powered and Bluetooth-enabled, say 22 percent of their listening is done outside the home while 78 percent of usage occurs inside the home. Most consumers (62 percent) say they listen while lounging around the house. However, use during other activities like cooking/cleaning (49 percent), exercise (36 percent) and video game playing (17 percent) also ranked highly – an indication of the versatility of the devices.
As a result, manufacturers are rolling out new features to complement the speakers’ diverse use case. Sales of expandable speakers (multiple-speaker devices that can be paired together to play the same music), for instance, doubled in 2013 while a number of companies, including Skullcandy and Fugoo, introduced ruggedized speakers for active outdoor use this year.
Inside the home, fixed-location speakers are beginning to redefine the traditional home stereo system. Unlike portable Bluetooth speakers that typically tether a single-source device, like a smartphone or tablet to a speaker, Wi-Fi-connected fixed-location speakers can pull content from a variety of connected devices in the home. According to the study, 36 percent of fixed-location speaker owners stream content to the device from their smartphone, however a similar number (33 percent) listen to music saved to a notebook or desktop PCs – where many consumers still store their digital music collections.
As gigabytes of MP3 files continue to replace shelves of CDs in many listeners’ music libraries, fixed-location speakers like Sonos and Bose’s Soundtouch provide an easy, wireless way to pull content from a user’s entire digital music collection (provided it is connected), not just what’s streamable from a mobile device or music service. The rise of this new crop of wireless home speaker devices comes at a time when traditional home audio products like shelf systems (6 percent dollar decline in the 12 months ending in October 2014), “home theater in a box” systems (39 percent decline) and docking speakers (53 percent) are falling. Many wireless speaker owners are also showing signs they are retiring their existing audio products. More than half (53 percent) say their speaker device has replaced an existing product in the home (a wired speaker, docking speaker or shelf system).
Will the growth of the wireless speaker market lead a wireless revolution elsewhere in audio? There are already signs that it will. Sales of Bluetooth-enabled headphones and soundbars each doubled in 2014 and connected audio/video receivers now account for 39 percent of all unit sales. Additionally, many wireless speaker owners show interest in adding to their system – 43 percent of current owners expect to buy another wireless speaker in the next 12 months. Given the rate of growth in wireless as a feature in speakers, soundbars and headphones, the signs point to wireless being not just a fad but the next really big thing in audio.
www.npd.com
••• health care research
Gallup looks back at health care 2014
How were we feeling?
Gallup’s Alyssa Brown compiled the top 10 most important findings from the near-90 articles Gallup issued in 2014 about Americans’ health and well-being drawn from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which surveys Americans daily to uncover insights on their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial security, connection to community and physical health. Following are Gallup editors’ picks for the top 10 most important findings in 2014:
Uninsured rate drops nearly four percentage points since late 2013. Gallup was among the first to report the decline in the U.S. uninsured rate, which coincided with the new requirement that Americans carry health insurance. The percentage of U.S. adults without health insurance was 13.4 percent in both the second and third quarters of 2014, down from 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. This is the lowest quarterly uninsured rate measured since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in 2008.
Uninsured rate drops more in states embracing ACA. The uninsured rate among adults in the states that have chosen to expand Medicaid and set up their own exchanges in the health insurance marketplace declined significantly more in 2014 than among those in the remaining states that have taken one or neither of these actions. This finding suggests that adopting these components is critical to lowering the uninsured rate within states.
Using mobile technology for work linked to more stress. Nearly half of workers who “frequently” use e-mail for work outside of normal working hours (48 percent) report experiencing stress “a lot of the day yesterday,” compared with 36 percent among those who “never” check work e-mail outside of working hours. However, workers who e-mail outside of normal working hours also rate their lives better than their counterparts who do not. The same patterns hold true for working remotely outside of working hours.
Depression rates higher for long-term unemployed. About one in five Americans who have been unemployed for a year or more say they currently have or are being treated for depression – almost double the rate among those who have been unemployed for five weeks or less. The long-term unemployed also spend less time with family and friends than other Americans. Gallup also found that Americans who have been out of work for a year or more are much more likely to be obese than those unemployed for a shorter time.
U.S. veterans report less stress, worry than civilians. Although many veterans face very serious and unique mental health challenges, Gallup finds that among employed Americans, active-duty and veteran populations are more emotionally resilient than their civilian counterparts.
In U.S., 14 percent of those aged 24 to 34 report living with parents. Young adults who live at home are significantly less likely to be married, to be employed full time and to have a college education than those who are the same age but don’t live at home. Those aged 24 to 34 who live at home are also less likely to be “thriving” and have lower overall well-being than their peers who don’t live with their parents.
Obesity linked to lower social well-being. In terms of social well-being, obese Americans are the least likely of all weight groups to be thriving, while underweight individuals are the most likely to be suffering. This pattern underscores the risk of being at either extreme of the weight spectrum when it comes to social relationships.
Older Americans feel best about their physical appearance. Two-thirds (66 percent) of Americans aged 65 and older agree that they always feel good about their physical appearance, compared with 61 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds. Middle-aged Americans (54 percent) are the least likely to report feeling good about their appearance. Blacks and Hispanics are much more likely than whites and, to a lesser extent, Asians to say they always feel good about their appearance.
LGBT Americans report lower well-being. Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) trail their non-LGBT counterparts in all five elements of well-being: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. The disadvantage in overall well-being is starker for LGBT women than for LGBT men.
Baby Boomers are not maximizing their strengths at work. Although U.S. Baby Boomers have been in the workforce for many years, they are no more likely than younger generations to say that they are able to use their strengths to do what they do best throughout the day. About one in two Baby Boomers plan to delay their retirement, meaning they will remain an influential part of the workforce. Therefore, employers have an opportunity to help Baby Boomers identify and use their strengths to achieve higher performance outcomes.
www.gallup.com
••• food research
Are food makers engaging in ‘leanwashing’?
Diet vs. exercise
Medical research has shown diet to be a significantly bigger factor in obesity than lack of exercise. Yet about half the population doesn’t believe that to be the case and it’s likely that messaging from food and beverage companies helps shape those mistaken beliefs, according to new research.
Michigan Ross Professor Aneel Karnani and co-authors Brent McFerran of Simon Fraser University and Anirban Mukhopadhyay of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology analyzed the public statements, philanthropy, lobbying and sponsorships by the food and beverage industry and found evidence of what they call “leanwashing” – perpetuating the notion that lack of exercise is at least as important as diet in causing obesity. Their paper on the topic, “Leanwashing: a hidden factor in the obesity crisis,” was published in the summer 2014 edition of the California Management Review.
Previous research showed that people who believe exercise is a bigger factor in obesity weigh more than those who believe that diet plays a bigger role. Karnani and his co-authors argue that food and beverage companies are at least partially responsible for this misperception by deflecting the role of diet. “It’s not that they’re deliberately trying to mislead but the industry says things and creates messages that are conveniently favorable to their business,” says Karnani, a professor of strategy. “That perpetuates the mistaken lay theory that lack of exercise is the main culprit for obesity when, in fact, it’s diet. This really matters, because people who are misinformed about the causes of obesity are heavier than people who are well-informed.”
Karnani says it’s a delicate argument to make. Exercise, of course, is good for everyone and in general people need more of it. There are multiple benefits to exercise beyond weight loss. “But in terms of dealing with the crisis of obesity in this country and other countries, it’s a red herring,” he says.
Obesity has become a serious public health problem. Until 1980, less than 10 percent of the population in industrialized countries was obese. Today those rates have doubled or tripled and in some countries two out of three people are projected to be obese within 10 years. Obesity is linked to many chronic health problems and significant costs.
People obtain lay theories about what causes obesity from various sources. About half the population believes that lack of exercise is a key contributor to obesity, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
Karnani, McFerran and Mukhopadhyay focused on the public statements, sports marketing, lobbying and philanthropy of the 10 largest food companies in the world. What they found was consistent messaging that put much of the blame for obesity on lack of exercise or statements that made the causes of obesity sound complicated. “Balance,” for example, was a common word.
Given the scope of the food industry’s marketing, messaging, lobbying and sponsorships, it’s not a stretch to suggest it helps reinforce the mistaken lay theories, Karnani says. “We found four channels of corporate messaging food companies have used to deflect the public discourse from bad diet to exercise and other factors, likely leading to misinformed lay theories of obesity, which in turn is associated with increased actual obesity,” he says. “It’s not the only reason people are misinformed but you can’t say it has no impact. These companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these campaigns. If it has no impact, then you’d have to believe they’re wasting all that money.”
So what’s the solution? Some countries have imposed a sugar tax, similar to a sin tax on tobacco and alcohol, or banned food advertising from children’s programming. But those steps, especially a tax, seem unlikely in the U.S. Instead, an organized public education effort should be launched to spread the word about the effect of diet on obesity. “Overall, our recommendation is for systematic public health communications to promote the diet theory,” Karnani, McFerran, and Mukhopadhyay write. “This would educate the public that bad diet is the primary cause of obesity and thus help fight the obesity crisis, even while supporting individual choice and responsibility.”
••• shopper insights
How e-commerce firms can woo in-store shoppers
Faster shipping, enhanced privacy
When asked what would make them most likely to make a purchase in-store versus online, of 1,235 American shoppers polled using Google Consumer Surveys by Princeton, N.J., marketing agency Ripen eCommerce, 30.8 percent said they prefer to see or feel the item in person; 29.9 percent want to buy item(s) right now; 16.9 percent believe it protects their privacy; 14.4 percent shop in-store to save on shipping costs; 6.5 percent want to ensure easier/cheaper returns; and 1.5 percent said “other.”
According to Ripen’s Marketing Director David Rekuc, online retailers can capitalize on factors holding consumers back from shopping online by implementing several easy and low-cost changes to their Web sites, marketing strategies and shipping and return policies.
“Our survey found the largest portion of users ‘want to see or feel item in person’ or ‘want an item right away.’ These are obviously two big obstacles for e-commerce companies,” Rekuc says. “But they aren’t insurmountable. Online retailers can offer free samples to get their products in consumers’ hands and, while most small e-retailers can’t offer same-day delivery nationally, there’s no reason they can’t consider it for their local shoppers.”
It should come as no surprise that the chief reason consumers don’t like virtual shopping is because you just can’t feel pixels. Gauging the quality, fit, ergonomics or weight of a product is simply easier in person – and this obviously isn’t something that can be simulated, at least not yet.
Strategy: Don’t get any crazy ideas about 3D printing or virtual reality but do get ideas about getting products in customers’ hands. Send free samples: Take deliberation out of the equation by sending prospects something they can try out. Birchbox took this approach and now has a 50 percent conversion rate! Use the puppy dog approach: Let users “take home” a product with the expectation they can return it absolutely free, no hassles. Throw in a guarantee, free return shipping or anything else that makes it easy to fall in love with what you’re selling. But please don’t mail any actual puppies.
If instant gratification isn’t a hallmark of consumerism, we don’t know what is. When customers want a product, they want it fast – and being able to pounce on the purchasing window while it’s open is a big deal. Jimmy John’s gets sandwiches to sub-lovers faster than they could pick them up, which is so fast nobody even thinks about whether the food is any good.
Strategy: Same-day delivery may not be realistic for every company but even light offerings can make a big difference for a business. Solve it on a small scale: Even the companies offering same-day delivery focus on manageable areas of operation (case in point: the Seattle-only launch of Amazon Fresh). If you could ship same-day within 25 miles of your fulfillment center, it would mean the world to your nearest buyers. Get the word out: Once you’ve established an area of same-day operation, up your local PPC advertising to let customers know.
You don’t love it when companies constantly mail, text, retarget or generally creep on you, so why would your prospective audience? People want to feel secure while browsing and buying, so anything you can do to bolster a sense of privacy helps.
Strategy: The option to opt-out: Encourage users to let you know when things get too clingy, whether it’s an e-mail list or various add-on services. Provide guest checkout: Consumers don’t want to give out personal data unless it’s strictly necessary – plus this win-win option has been proven to boost conversion. Less fine print: Prominently display your privacy and security policies throughout your site. And if you don’t have any, you should probably get around to writing them. Actually bolster security: Talk is one thing but upping your on-site protection is better. Review your checkout process, data storage techniques and security practices to ensure your store’s locked down.
Buying online is significantly more cost-efficient than traditional shopping – except when it comes to getting something out the door. And while 14.4 percent may not sound high, ignoring up to a sixth of your audience isn’t a great plan, either.
Strategy: Free shipping: Offering free shipping is an obvious, albeit potentially expensive, solution. Even if you have to build the cost into product pricing, the magic of seeing “free shipping” is enough to convince many shoppers. Don’t double-dip on delivery: Yes, you can make a lot of money by placing a markup on shipping. But in the long run, it’s only going to turn off potential customers while giving competitors an easy way to undercut you. Do an experiment: Send 10 percent of your customers a notice that they’ve been upgraded to a premium status that receives free shipping. Then monitor their long-term purchase value versus your controlled base. You may be surprised just how much more you make by eliminating the shipping cost barrier.
Returns are an unfortunate but inescapable fact of the retail world, so it may seem like the best bet is making exchanges and refunds harder. You may have had some one-off experiences that really hurt your bottom line, as well. But in today’s world, you’re fighting an uphill battle – shoppers expect a pain-free return experience.
Strategy: Don’t get caught up in anecdotes of irate customers. Focus on strategies that will keep most of the people happy most of the time. Create and publicize a great return policy: Whether or not individual customers take advantage of your offer, everyone’s more likely to buy when they know about and trust in a store’s return policy. Do another experiment: Include prepaid return labels in a small percentage of your shipments and see if customers end up returning more products. If so, how much? And do they come back to buy again?
www.ripenecommerce.com
••• education research
College grads more physically active on weekends
Weekdays, not so much
People’s educational attainment influences their level of physical activity both during the week and on week-ends, according to a study, which found that, on average, those with a college degree are more active on Saturdays and Sundays than on a typical weekday – whereas for people without a high school degree, the opposite is true.
“Educational attainment predicts physical activity differently on weekends and weekdays,” says Jarron M. Saint Onge, a Kansas University assistant professor of sociology and the study’s lead author. “Importantly, we focus not simply on total time people are engaged in recommended levels of physical activity but the quality of the activity by focusing on the average levels of activity intensity per minute by day. An understanding of the factors that reduce time spent in low-intensity or sedentary behaviors can inform activity intervention measures and could potentially reduce socioeconomic status differences in preventable morbidity and mortality.”
While work is a frequently-cited barrier to exercise, the study found evidence of a more complex relationship. For example, those who take more steps (as measured by an accelerometer) during the week – presumably at work – are less likely to be active on weekends.
Saint Onge co-authored the study with Kyle Chapman, a Kansas University doctoral candidate in sociology, and Patrick M. Krueger, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado-Denver. The researchers examined accelerometer data from the 2005-06 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which measures how many steps U.S. adults take per day and the intensity of those steps. By focusing on intensity, researchers can determine the amount of time an individual spends in various activity categories such as sedentary, moderate or vigorous activity.
Chapman says even when he and his co-authors controlled for several factors, such as income disparities and whether individuals mostly sit or stand at work, they still found that educational attainment was associated with people’s patterns of physical activity throughout the week. “Education affects people both at the individual level and at their social level,” Chapman says. “Physical activity is encouraged or discouraged in different groups.”
On weekdays, the study found that people with a college degree spend an average of 8.72 hours a day in sedentary activity, compared to 7.48 hours for a person without a high school degree.
According to Chapman, these patterns were unsurprising considering past research has found that less-educated groups of people typically spend more time engaged in occupational physical activity at their jobs during the week. That occupational activity, however, may take place at low energy thresholds, include repetitive motions and may have potentially negative health consequences.
On weekends, a person with a college degree spends an average of 8.12 hours a day in sedentary activity – less than during the week. On the other hand, a person without a high school degree actually spends more time in sedentary activity – 7.86 hours per day – than they do during the week.
Chapman says the study’s findings could be useful in developing targeted public health initiatives related to physical activity based on a person’s educational attainment. “You have to be flexible. We have to give people different ideas,” Chapman says. “We have to have discussions on what works for some and what works for others.”
The paper, “Objective physical activity patterns of U.S. adults by educational status,” was presented at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting in August 2014. A grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health supported this research.
••• financial services
Americans still see a home as a good investment
Safe as houses
Despite periods of volatility in the real estate market over the past few years, over seven in 10 Americans (72 percent) see owning a home as a safe investment. Majorities agree on this point across generations, albeit with considerable shifts from one generation to the next: nine in 10 Matures (89 percent) see home ownership as a safe investment, compared to just over three-fourths of Baby Boomers (77 percent) and seven in 10 Gen Xers (70 percent). Even among Millennials – for whom the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2008 and the ensuing financial crisis it helped kick off is likely a more formative experience – the majority still see home ownership as a safe investment (63 percent), albeit with a slimmer majority vote than any of their elder counterparts.
Majorities of Americans also see gold (65 percent) and jewelry (59 percent) as safe investments, according to the Harris Poll of 2,306 adults surveyed online between July 16 and 21, 2014.
Turning to the other end of the scale, eight in 10 Americans see owning one’s own business as a risky investment (80 percent), while two-thirds say the same of stocks/bonds (68 percent) and luxury or classic cars (67 percent).
Perceived investment risk varies, as one might expect, according to what one has on hand to invest. As such, it should come as little surprise that those with higher investable assets are less likely to see owning a business and investing in stocks/bonds as risky investments than those with less available to invest.
Owning your own business – 67 percent among those with $500,000 or more in investable assets vs. 81 percent of those with $10,000-$49,999 and 85 percent for those with under $10,000 to invest.
Stocks/bonds – 52 percent of those with $500,000 or more in investable assets see this as a risky investment, vs. 70 percent of those with $10,000-$99,999 available to invest and 73 percent for those with under $10,000 on hand for investments.
Slimmer majorities see wine (60 percent), investment property ownership (56 percent) and art (55 percent) as risky investments, though it’s worth noting that strong minorities do rate each of these as safe (45 percent art, 44 percent investment property, 40 percent wine).
The perception of wine as a safe investment varies considerably by generation, with half of Millennials (49 percent) and four in 10 Gen Xers (41 percent) rating it safe, compared to fewer than a third of Baby Boomers (32 percent) and Matures (31 percent).
When asked which of these types of possible investments have strong earning potential, stocks/bonds (45 percent), owning an investment property (43 percent) and gold (42 percent) are the top selections, with over four in 10 seeing each as potentially to be strong money-makers. Roughly a third each see owning a home (36 percent) and owning a business (32 percent) as having strong earning potential.
Fewer see investments in art (16 percent), jewelry (14 percent), luxury/classic cars (11 percent) or wine (7 percent) as having strong earning potential.
Generational divides show up again on this measure, with Millennials more likely than any other generation to see strong earning potential for owning one’s own business (39 percent, vs. 28 percent Gen Xers, 29 percent Baby Boomers and 29 percent Matures) and investing in wine (11 percent vs. 6 percent, 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively).
What one can afford to invest also repeats as a factor in responses. Those with higher investable asset levels are more likely to see strong earning potential in stocks/bonds (71 percent $500k+ vs. 54 percent $100k-$499.9k, 44 percent $50k-$99.9k, 36 percent $10k-$49.9k, 39 percent <$10k) and owning an investment property (54 percent and 52 percent vs. 37 percent, 37 percent and 42 percent, respectively).
Meanwhile, those with less to invest are more likely to see strong earning potential in gold (46 percent <$10k, 47 percent $10k-$49.9k, 45 percent $50k-$99.9k vs. 30 percent $500k+) and jewelry (19 percent <$10k, 18 percent $10k-$49.9k vs. 10 percent $100k-$499.9k, 9 percent $500k+) investments.
www.harrisinteractive.com