••• automotive
A love affair on wheels
MAACO survey elicited fond car memories
A new consumer survey released by Charlotte, N.C., auto body repair chain MAACO reveals a sentiment contrary to the perception of our throwaway culture: Americans don’t have to, but want to, keep their cars longer.
America has always been “car country,” and the newest, latest and greatest autos forever seem to generate buzz and move units. But is this perception only skin deep? Digging a bit further, MAACO found that 65 percent of Americans had a favorite car and while close to 50 percent didn’t have it anymore, 75 percent wished they could have it back. (The survey was conducted by Los Angeles-based Impulse Research for MAACO during the week of April 1, 2013.)
According to the survey, memories of good times in those beloved vehicles have not faded. From one respondent who fondly remembered his BMW as an “awesome Chick-gitter [sic]. Got my wife with it!” to the owner of the sports car remembered as the “fastest darn thing on the road” that was “great for hiway [sic] driving” and “clocked at a legit 150 mph by Montana State Police,” people relished the chance to tell about the romance they once had with their favorite ride.
The survey also revealed several additional takeaways:
I’ve Got the Blues and Couldn’t Feel Better!: Maybe it’s time to rethink the connection between malaise and the color blue. Of the respondents describing themselves as having “happy” dispositions, 23 percent wish they had a blue car. Only 13 percent actually own a blue car, with most shiny happy people pushing shiny happy gray/silver whips.
You’re So Vain: More men (74 percent) than women (59 percent) say their car reflects their sense of style or their personality.
Coast-to-Coast: The West Coast may be perceived as the more shallow and materialistic coast but more people in the Northeast (37 percent) think their car reflects their sense of style than those in the West (28 percent).
Red State, Blue State: Oddly enough, when asked what color car they wished they had, the highest percentage of conservatives (26 percent) preferred a blue car, while 19 percent of liberals preferred a red car. (The researchers assume conservatives are comfortable driving blue cars in red states and that liberals are comfortable driving red cars in blue states. They didn’t ask.)
Keep on Running: The average age of the American car is 11 years but according to the survey, almost 50 percent of respondents planned to drive their current cars into the ground and will likely keep their car “as long as it keeps running.” In addition, 56 percent said that they planned on keeping their current car longer than they kept their last car.
It’s Not the Economy, Stupid: Oddly enough, people were evenly split when asked if the current economy was forcing them to hold onto their vehicle longer, with 44 percent responding yes and 45 responding no.
You’re Needed in Makeup: Even more telling, 75 percent of respondents said they would likely keep their car longer if they could give it a “makeover” (body work and paint). This seems to gain support from the findings of a recently-released AAA survey which implied that the improvement in car quality lets people keep cars longer.
The Thrill Is Gone (But Not for Good): Of those who said they didn’t like or “hated” their car, 58 percent said it was because it needed body work or paint or because they hated the color.
Pretty in Pink (If You Can Find It!): Almost no respondents wish they had a pink car, except for a few outliers (3 percent) on the West Coast. Surprising? Maybe, but just know the market exists – small though it may be! No respondents owned pink cars, it is worth noting.
Motor Memories: Asked about the most memorable experience they ever had in their car, some said it was bringing their child home from the hospital (10 percent), taking their car to college (7 percent) or having their first date or driving it on their honeymoon (7 percent). There were a few rather more “interesting” responses and certainly a theme emerged: “Don’t care to kiss and tell” and “I could, but I don’t think that the statute of limitations has expired yet,” are the ones fit to print. But there were some other great moments as well including: “It was the car I rode home in after my tour in Iraq was over.” “All of my major road trips with my future wife were in this car” and “Driving a stick for the first time was memorable. It made me feel like a race car driver.”
www.maaco.com
••• b2b research
Taking it elsewhere
CEO poll calls out best, worst states for business
For the ninth year in a row, CEOs rate Texas as the No. 1 state in which to do business, according to Chief Executive magazine’s annual Best & Worst States Survey. Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana also made the top five. The states rated worst for business are California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
The Best & Worst States Survey measures the sentiments of CEOs on a range of issues, including regulations, tax policies, workforce quality, educational resources, quality of living and infrastructure. For the 2013 survey, 736 CEOs from across the country evaluated the states between January 16 and February 14, 2013.
Ohio was the biggest gainer in this year’s survey, rising 13 spots from #35 to #22. The other biggest gainers were: Minnesota (up six spots), Alabama (five), Arizona (four) and Kansas (four).
The biggest loser was Delaware, which dropped 13 spots to #27. The other biggest losers were: Mississippi (down eight spots), Missouri (seven), Kentucky (four) and Wyoming (four).
CEOs say California’s poor ranking is the result of a perceived hostility to business, high state taxes and onerous regulations, all of which drive investment, companies and jobs to other states. According to the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, California accounts for 12.6 percent of total U.S. GDP but only has a 2.2 percent share of investments in new and expanding manufacturing sites.
“When you investigate acquiring businesses in some of the states rated poorly for business conditions, the anecdotes all wind up being true,” says Kevin Hawkesworth, president and CEO of Florida-based Shaw Development. “The horror stories about these states are real.”
“California, Illinois and New York are simply awful states to operate facilities or employ people,” according to another CEO. “We will do almost anything possible to minimize our exposure to these anti-business environments.”
“Thank you, California!” responded one Texas-based CEO facetiously. “Keep applying pressure on your job creators and we will keep welcoming their moves to Texas.”
A common theme among CEOs is the burden of constantly-changing regulations. “Business is too hard without dealing with piles of regulations that are constantly changing,” says Rick Waechter, CEO of Boston Magazine. “I believe there have to be controls but keep them simple and straightforward – and most importantly, don’t make it a moving target.”
“The playbook for successful states boils down to three simple moves: engage in real dialogue with business leaders, adapt policies to create an attractive environment and effectively communicate your story to real job creators,” says Marshall Cooper, CEO of Chief Executive magazine and chiefexecutive.net. “This year’s rankings prove that smart policies result in increased investments, jobs and greater overall economic activity.”
www.chiefexecutive.net
••• loyalty research
You’ve earned it
Maritz Loyalty Marketing Survey reveals top-rated loyalty programs
Chase Ultimate Rewards earned an 84 percent overall satisfaction rate in the financial services category, according to results from a study of U.S. consumer loyalty programs conducted by Maritz Loyalty Marketing, Toronto.
In addition to financial services, the study looked at the motivators of brand loyalty across five other industries. Here are the top-rated firms/programs: entertainment – Carmike Cinemas Rewards (79 percent); retail programs – Kohl’s Rewards (73 percent); hospitality/hotel – IHG Priority Club Rewards (67 percent); grocery – Kroger Rewards (83 percent); airlines – Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards (58 percent).
The Maritz Loyalty Report results suggest that 71 percent of members would join more loyalty programs, even though the average member is already enrolled in 7.4 programs. The report also found that members are only actively participating in 63 percent of the programs in which they are enrolled.
“Our study revealed that 47 percent of members have stopped participating in one or more programs in the past year. This number is disconcerting for program operators yet of even greater concern is that only 7 percent of these defecting customers actively defect – meaning, they actually formally request to leave a loyalty program,” says Scott Robinson, senior director of loyalty consulting for Maritz Loyalty Marketing. “Given the high percentage of passive defection, it is paramount that loyalty marketers proactively identify the early warning signs of disengaged members.”
Overall, 65 percent of members are satisfied with the loyalty programs in which they participate. The Maritz Loyalty Report also includes customer ratings on more than 35 program attributes. Some of those attributes, also considered key drivers of satisfaction, include:
Program values – pride of membership, program uniqueness, meeting customer needs, etc.
Program mechanics – ability to earn and redeem points, quality of rewards, etc.
Ability to interact with programs – Web site, mobile, customer support, etc.
Program innovation – program freshness, access to exclusive events, personalized experiences, etc.
Communications from programs – means, relevance and frequency of communications, etc.
Top programs rate similarly on many of these attributes and the top program tends to discern itself from next-best programs by a higher rating on only one key attribute. In some program categories, such as retail loyalty and airline loyalty, top-rated programs and next-highest rated programs score similarly on all attributes. In these competitive categories, the attribute on which the highest-rated program discerns itself from next-highest rated programs is a secondary and differentiating driver.
“The implication for program operators,” says Robinson, “is that in order to be competitive, especially in categories with many largely undifferentiated programs, it is essential for programs to deliver effectively on both the key drivers of satisfaction and also the secondary drivers of satisfaction.”
Surveying more than 6,000 loyalty program members, the Maritz Loyalty Report: U.S. Edition examines customer trends and sentiments related to all facets of loyalty programs, including behaviors, communications, privacy, personal values and satisfaction.
www.maritzloyaltymarketing.com/loyalty-report
••• travel
Trip on this
Studies quantify the impact of travel expenditures on U.S. economy
A report from Roger Dow, president of the U.S. Travel Association, on how tourism benefits the U.S. economy shows that direct travel spending in the United States totaled $855 billion in 2012, generating $2 trillion in economic output and more than $129 billion in tax revenue. Travel directly employed 7.7 million Americans and was among the top 10 employers in 48 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
The most lucrative segment of this sector is “long-haul” or overseas travel, says the report. The overseas traveler stays longer and spends more, for an average of 18 nights and nearly $4,500 per visitor per trip. Millions of global citizens are now traveling abroad and for every 33 overseas travelers who decide to visit the U.S. an additional American job is created.
Since 2010 the travel industry has helped lead the economic recovery by restoring 85 percent of the jobs lost during the downturn compared to just 69 percent of the rest of the economy. Today, travel is the nation’s No. 1 service export. In 2012, travel exports totaled $168.1 billion (including traveler spending and international passenger fare payments to U.S. carriers), yielding a record $50 billion travel trade surplus.
While “travel” frequently connotes tourism, acknowledges the report, business travel accounts for nearly a third of all travel spending. In 2012, domestic business travel generated an estimated $225 billion in direct spending, 5 percent higher than the previous year and above the all-time high reached in 2007. Business travel directly created nearly two million American jobs. Totaling the deals done, products sold and opportunities created at industry conferences and trade shows that also employed scores of hospitality workers, the total number of jobs supported was 3.7 million.
The report says that U.S. business travel is responsible for $246 billion in spending and 2.3 million American jobs; $100 billion of this spending and nearly one million American jobs are linked directly to meetings and events.
An Oxford Economics study, recently released, shows that every dollar invested in business travel generates an average $9.50 in increased revenue and $2.90 in new profits. In addition, the study found that companies that invested the most in business travel during the recession have grown faster than those that cut back on travel. Data from 2007-2011 for 61 industries shows sectors that spent the most on business travel throughout the recession posted higher profit growth.
Other findings include:
- Curbing business travel has a negative impact on corporate profits. The average U.S. business would forfeit 15 percent of its profits in the first year of eliminating business travel. It would take over three years for profits to recover. (Business travel includes sales trips, meetings, conventions and incentive trips.)
- Executives cited customer meetings as having the greatest returns, in the range of $15-$19.99 per dollar invested. Executives identified the average return on conference and trade show participation to be in the range of $4-$5.99 per dollar invested.
- Sixty percent found that virtual meetings are less effective for meetings with prospects than in-person meetings; 42 percent of executives stated that they would lose their customers without face-to-face meetings.
- Business travelers reported that they are twice as likely to convert prospects into customers with an in-person meeting than without one.
- Both executives and business travelers estimate that 28 percent of current business would be lost without in-person meetings. Seventy-four percent reported that in-person meetings with clients deliver a high impact on customer retention.
- Both executives and business travelers estimate that roughly 40 percent of their prospective customers are converted to new customers with an in-person meeting compared to 16 percent without such a meeting.
- More than half of business travelers stated that 5 to 20 percent of their company’s new customers were the result of trade-show participation.
- 85 percent of corporate executives perceive Web meetings and teleconferences to be less effective than in-person meetings with prospective customers and 63 percent believe virtual meetings are less effective than in-person meetings with current customers.
••• financial services
An discreditable performance
Consumers come up short on credit-score savvy
As a group, consumers are woefully ignorant when it comes to credit-score knowledge, according to a study from Stamford, Conn., credit-scoring firm VantageScore Solutions and the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), a nonprofit association of nearly 300 consumer groups. Now in its third year, this iteration of the annual study of consumer knowledge of credit scoring is based on an 18-question survey administered by Opinion Research Corp., Princeton, N.J., to more than 1,000 representative American consumers.
The results show large percentages of consumers incorrectly answered wide-ranging questions about credit scores and their impact. For example, many survey respondents do not know that credit card issuers (38 percent) and mortgage lenders (40 percent) use credit scores in decisions about credit availability and pricing. Two-fifths incorrectly believe that personal characteristics such as age (43 percent) and marital status (40 percent) are used in calculating credit scores.
This year’s survey also included a question related to co-signing for a student loan. The survey found between one-third and two-fifths do not know that the credit scores of student loan co-signers are affected by that loan – improving if payments are made on time (38 percent) and declining with one late payment (31 percent).
“The student loan market has grown enormously over the past few years. Student loans are now the second largest asset class in the credit industry, trailing only the mortgage industry,” says Barrett Burns, president and CEO of VantageScore Solutions. “Unfortunately, student loan defaults are also increasing. We need targeted education to ensure both graduating students and co-signers of their loans fully understand their obligations and the repercussions of missed payments.”
As part of their educational initiative, VantageScore Solutions and CFA launched www.creditscorequiz.org, a consumer-focused site that mimics the survey. It lets consumers test their credit scoring knowledge and provides correct answers for each question as they progress through the quiz. The site is completely free and neither displays any advertising nor collects any personal data. Useful resources and real-time nationwide results are provided. Both the online quiz and a companion brochure are also available in Spanish at www.creditscorequiz.org/espanol.
www.consumerfed.org