Dream homes in the country prove popular with execs
People who can live wherever they want - well-to-do executives across the nation - would eschew glitzy apartments and mammoth mansions in favor of dream homes in the country if given the chance. So says Country Home magazine, which recently conducted a survey in an attempt to understand what the American residential fantasy is these days. Asked where they would most like to live and given the choice of a Beverly Hills mansion, a four-bedroom Tudor in the suburbs, a designer loft in Manhattan or a country farmhouse on several acres with a pond, 54% of the executives chose the country house. Only 8% wanted the mansion in Beverly Hills, 9% wanted the loft, and 29% wanted the suburban Tudor.
Similar preferences were expressed when the same group logged in on dream romantic weekend vacation spots. The choices included a weekend of theater and shopping in Manhattan (21%), a weekend of gambling and shows in Las Vegas (8%), and a weekend at a health spa in Arizona (16%). The most popular pick was a weekend at a log cabin on a mountain lake in Montana, which drew 56% of the respondents. The survey's findings seem to indicate that the high and mighty like to get back to the country when it comes to down time.
New York-based Beta Research and Executive Omnibus conducted the data collection, tabulations and statistical analysis for the survey. The sample consisted of a nationwide, geographically representative group of 350 men and women aged 25 and older. The majority were men between the ages of 40 and 59 who earn between $100,000 and $300,000 per year.
Country Home is published by Meredith Corp., Des Moines, Iowa.
HMOs still attracting scores of new clients
Membership in health maintenance organizations continues to grow. The results of a recent Chilton poll - conducted by the Healthcare Group of Chilton Research Services, Radnor, Pa. - indicate that 20% of Americans are members of an HMO. People are pleased with their choice, too - more than four out of five HMO (81%) members said they are satisfied with the service provided by their HMO. Members of smaller households (one or two people) tend to be more satisfied with their HMOs than those in families of three or more.
The poll also shows that people with health care coverage frequently switch health insurance plans - HMOs or otherwise. One out of every six of those surveyed had changed their health insurance plan in the preceding 12 months. Higher income meant more change: Of those with a household income of $50,000 or more, 23% had changed their health insurance in the past year; of those with at least some college education, 21% had switched. The survey further reveals that a majority of Americans (57%) are covered by a health insurance program offered by their employer or their spouse's employer. Still, 6% of full-time workers and 14% of part-timers do not have any health insurance.
One in 10 households are burdened with the responsibility for managing the health care of a family member at home, according to the poll. The responsibility forproviding home health care falls similarly on all families, regardless of age, income or employment status. Not terribly surprisingly, people living in larger households are more likely to have to care for a family member at home. The Chilton poll was conducted in March and April 1994 by telephone among a random sample of 961 adults 18 and older.
Brits lead European electronic game craze...
Kids' preoccupation with the latest video games has become an international phenomenon. Available in a wide variety of formats, electronic games such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II now enjoy massive popularity in Europe as well as the United States, though Europeans' predilection for FIFA Football (a soccer game) may not translate into U.S. sales until after the World Cup sweeps through the country.
According to statistics compiled by Datamonitor, a strategic management consultancy in London, the European toys and games market totaled $9.1 billion in 1992. That figure represented an average annual growth rate of 13.9% for the years 1987 through 1992. The United Kingdom and Germany each accounted for a fifth of the market, while the U.K. and Italy showed the sharpest average annual growth rates for the period (38.1% and 112% respectively). Across Europe, electronic games showed growth over the five-year span of 88.9%; no other segment in the product grew more than 8%. Electronic games accounted for just under 5% ($263 million) of total toys and games sales ($5.43 billion) in 1987. In 1992, with sales of $3.3 billion, the electronic segment represented 36.6% of the total market. At $777 million in '92, the United Kingdom is by far the largest market for electronic games. Germany is second at $653 million. Datamonitor estimates that the total European toys and games market will grow to $ 12 billion by 1997. The company predicts significant growth across the continent.
... but they're not going into debt to do it
Research by Datamonitor, London, indicates that British credit card holders are whittling down their debt. While average annual outstanding credit per card grew from 1989 to 1991, it has fallen each of the last two years. In addition, the debit card is gaining popularity. The total number of debit cards in use in the United Kingdom has risen from just under 15 million in 1989 to around 25 million in 1993. More significantly for the future perhaps, public awareness of debit cards has increased dramatically over the same period.
Credit and charge card companies aren't going to give up without a fight, though. They have massively increased their spending on advertising in the last couple years. Ad expenditures by credit card companies last year totaled roughly $35.4 million - the most spent since 1988. Visa, for example, increased its total ad outlay from $6.75 million in 1992 to $10.5 million in 1993.
Sales of sports clothes level, but name shoes keep jumping
Even though it seems that nobody wears anything but sports apparel these days, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, North Palm Beach, Fla., reports that growth in the sector has flattened. According to SGMA's most recent study, retail dollar sales showed an increase of 0.9% and unit purchases increased 2.2% in the first eight months of 1993, compared to the same period of 1992. For the period from January to August 1993, the organization reports sales of sports apparel totaled $21.2 billion, versus $21 billion during the same period of 1992.
The men's market grew 4.8% in dollars, while both the women's and children's markets failed to grow at all. In terms of units, the men's market grew 5.7%, while the women's (2.8%) and the children's (1.6%) grew just slightly. Despite little overall growth in women's and children's sports clothes, the study found the biggest gains among both brand and unbranded/private-label apparel in women's sweat/jogging suits (up 24%), socks (up 18%) and sweat pants (up 15%), and children's sweat/jogging suits (up 16%). Men's and women's shorts (each down 14%) were the biggest losers. The slow-down in growth hurt department stores - such as Dillard's and Macy's - and chain stores - such as Sears, Penney's and Ward's - each of which lost a full percentage point of market share in 1993. Meanwhile, discount stores - such as Target and Caldor - increased their share of the market to 27%, and variety stores and warehouse clubs boosted their collective share to 14% of the total sports apparel market.
The downward trend does a bit of an about-face when it comes to branded athletic footwear. SGMA's latest report indicates that from September 1992 to August 1993, branded shoes garnered a 68.1% share of all athletic footwear unit purchases, up from 64.8% during the previous 12-month period. The downside of the trend is that while total retail sales of nonathletic footwear grew by 1.8% during the 12-month period ending August 1993, the athletic sector showed no overall dollar sales gain. Total athletic footwear unit volume declined by 0.4% to 377.9 million pairs, with a dollar value of $11.8 billion. Men's units increased by 4.3%, but dollars increased by only 2%. Both the women's and the children's markets declined slightly in terms of both units and dollars. Athletic shoes stores, such as Athlete's Foot and Foot Locker, increased their share of unit sales to 12.2%, but discount stores and department stores each lost nearly one percentage point of market share.
Exercise equipment pumped through the roof
Sloth would appear to remain unfashionable. That's assuming all the people who are buying fitness and conditioning equipment are using it. Retail sales of exercise machines are expected to reach $3.02 billion in 1997, according to a study by the New York-based research firm Find/SVP. The company expects cross-country ski exercisers, stair climbers, treadmills and multipurpose home gyms to show strong sustained growth through 1997.
Over the next few years, interest is likely to grow in strength training, since the American College of Sports Medicine and others have begun to emphasize the importance of a balance between strength and cardiovascular exercise.
Find/SVP estimates that manufacturers 'sales of physical fitness equipment to the institutional sector reached $356 million in 1993. The company estimates that there are 53,000 fitness facilities in the country. And although commercial clubs make up only about 23% of the total number of fitness centers in the country, they remain responsible for some 50% of total equipment expenditures.
Americans display strong travelin' jones
In the past year, 91.1 million Americans - half the adult population - made trips that took them at least 100 miles away from home. A study by New York-based Simmons Market Research Bureau Inc. indicates that while one in five travelers were on business trips, the vast majority (60%) traveled for vacation or personal business (37%). The study also found that sojourners are as likely to stay with friends or relatives (25%) as they are to rent a hotel or motel room (27%). The family car is the most popular means of locomotion (30%), followed airplanes, coach class (14%). Those who are most likely to take domestic vacation trips are college graduates, people between 35 and 54, working women and those in households with a total income of $50,000 or more. Less than a fifth of American adults (17%) have ventured beyond U.S. borders in the past three years. The majority of those traveling beyond the confines of the lower 48 (63%) were on vacation. World travelers tend to be well-educated, affluent, married suburbanites. The top five destinations were Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Customers speak up
The Consumer Network Inc., Philadelphia, has deployed its troops: An army of 5,000 mystery shoppers, intensely focused and practiced customers who are members of the firm's smart shopper panel. Based on the panelists' feedback, the Consumer Network has compiled a list of answers to questions crucial to food retailers:
- What do employees tell shoppers who can't find a price? Sending customers to a special check-out aisle when they can't find a price is infuriating, one shopper said.
- What happens in stores when an ad item is mispriced? A customer who was given a mispriced item for free was impressed, but she became committed to returning to the store when the cashier apologized for the error on the store's behalf.
- What is the store communicating about recycling? A store that puts its opinions on the shelf - stocking and promoting environmentally friendly items - is likely to win the respect and patronage of customers.
- What kinds of signs indicate to shoppers that the store they're about to enter may not be trustworthy? Customers are turned off when a store has a sign in its window with huge price listings and small type in the corner that reads, "with coupon." Some sense of a desire to deceive is bound to result.
- How do younger shoppers react to a store's signage? A 28-year-old mother of three said that a supermarket in her town as so full of signs, coupons and endless shelves that she "couldn't breathe, let alone think." She said she would not shop at the store again.
Popularity of air shows climbs
Last year, 440 air shows in North America drew a total of 25.9 million fans, a 6% increase over 1992 attendance of 24.4 million. Perhaps most pleased by the development was the International Council of Air Shows, which determined the recordfigure.The ICAS , a Jackson, Miss.-based membership association serving the air show industry, has tracked air show attendance since 1987. If the last year's growth rate keeps up, some 27.5 million people will catch air shows in 1994 - and the record will be broken again. The 1C AS' numbers match up well against some serious competition. The 6% increase in air show attendance bested a 4% increase in automobile race attendance and a 1% increase in the number of fans - hawgs, dawgs or otherwise - attending National Football League games. (According to figures published by Goodyear, 13.7 million people attended auto races, while the NFL reported a 1992 attendance figure of 13.8 million.) Only baseball added more significantly to its fan pool in 1993, with a 20% jump to 70.2 million people.
Not counting "mega" events that include free shows, such as those held along the Chicago lakefront and the St. Louis riverfront, and military shows drawing more than a million spectators, the average paid attendance at civilian air shows last year was 32,067.
Americans keep thinking thin to win
Dissatisfaction runs rampant, few seem to be happy at their current weight and dieting remains a nationwide obsession. Recent research completed by New York-based Simmons Market Research Bureau lnc. indicates that 49.8 million Americans - 26.8% of the total adult population - are dieting. The Simmons study further reveals that both sexes and all ages diet, though more women (30.5%) than men (22.7%) tightly control their nutritional intake. Middle-aged Americans - those 45 to 54 - are most likely to diet.
College graduates and those in households with incomes of more than $74,999 are 22% more likely to diet than the national average. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of dieters (84.9%) are trying to lose weight. Others diet to control fat intake (31.5%) or cholesterol levels (25.6%). People also diet because of hypertension, or to watch their salt in-take, or to maintain an appropriate blood-sugar level. An exclusive group, 1.3 million adults (3.5% of all dieters) are trying to gain weight.
Consumers fall for ad circulars
Of all forms of retail advertising, ad circulars are rated No. 1 when it comes to getting consumers' attention, according to the second annual Gallup "Print Advertising and Its Impact on Consumer Shopping Behavior" study, which was commissioned and released by the International Mass Retail Association, Washington. The Gallup Organization surveyed 1,010 people by phone for this year's study, which was completed in April. The study found that a growing number of consumers shop at home using ad circulars before going to the store. Four out of five respondents in the study recalled mass retail stores' and category-dominant retail stores' advertising circulars that they had seen in the preceding 30 days. Compared to all other forms of advertising, ad circulars were remembered by the greatest number of survey respondents (83 %), though other ad forms were also frequently recalled: television ads 76%; run-of-press newspaper ads, 56%; radio ads, 49%; magazine ads, 39%; and billboards, 29%. The study found that direct mail ads, a source not measured in the 1993 survey, were recalled by 58% of the respondents. Those most likely to recall ad circular advertising were the more affluent respondents (91%), females (86%), people who spend an average of more than $100 a month at discount stores (86%) and residents of the North Central United States (85%). Frequently cited important attributes of circulars included price (83%), information on a money-back guarantee (74%), product description (68%), store address (68%) and a photograph of the item for sale (63%).
Poverty hits elderly in rural areas hardest
The poverty rate among Americans 65 and older declined from 35% in 1959 to 11% in 1989, but the poverty rate for elderly rural residents is higher than it is for those in inner-city areas, according research conducted in Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences. The only detected distinguishing demographic characteristic, however, is a slightly lower level of education. Researchers Diane McLaughlin and Leif Jensen, both assistant professors of rural sociology, tracked people into and through their later years using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. First conducted in 1968 with a sample of about 5,000 U.S. families, the study has annually surveyed the same families about work and income. The accumulated data describe the movement of people into and out of poverty over many years.
The researchers discovered that between the ages of 65 and 75, 34% of rural elders were in poverty at some time, compared to 14% of metropolitan elders. What's more, while 15% of rural elders were poor for five or more of those 10 years, only 5% of metropolitan elders experienced as many years of poverty. Between the ages of 65 and 74, 43% of nonmetro residents endured two or more poverty spells, while 27% of metro residents suffered the same fate. Compared to metropolitan-area employment, jobs in rural areas tend to offer lower wages and require fewer skills. Rural jobs are more likely to be seasonal or interrupted by changes in product demand, and are less likely to be unionized or have pension coverage. As a result, rural elderly are not well prepared for retirement. McLaughlin and Jensen's findings take on greater importance considering projections for the future that indicate the percentage of elderly in the United States is expected to increase from 13% today to 22% by 2050.
Sex sells - except when it offends
Eight out of 10 American women (81%) think today' s advertisements are too sexy, according a recent issue of "EDK Forecast," publishedby EDK Associates, New York. Half (49%) say that sexy or intimate commercials on TV have made them feel embarrassed in front of their family or the man in their life. And almost half (47%) have opted not to purchase a product because they found the advertisement for it offensive. Most women (73%) believe that companies should be responsible for when and how they advertise their products, but only one in five (21%) think the government should step in with more regulations of commercials.
Packaged food purchases split between restaurants and institutional feeders
The Foodservice Research Institute, Oak Park, Ill., has completed research into the brand purchasing habits and preferences of restaurant operators and institutional feeders. The organization's "BEST Report" examines, among other things, the ratio of commercial (restaurant) to non-commercial (institutional) purchases in specific product categories. As a general rule, 60% to 70% of total aggregate volume of all products is purchased by the commercial sector, while institutions such as schools, hospitals and employee feeders make up the balance. Several categories, such as aerosol whipped topping (95% commercial, 5% non-commercial), decaffeinated coffee (89%, 11%) and pre-cooked bacon (86%, 14%), are heavily skewed to the commercial sector. Other products, such as cup yogurt (71% non-commercial, 29% commercial), frozen burritos (58%, 42%), portion controlled pancake syrup (54%, 46%) and juices/drinks in sealed plastic cups (67%, 33%), find greater preference in the institutional marketplace.
Hispanic population notes: on language, AIDS, home repair projects
Hispanics prefer to speak Spanish in almost every situation, but aren' t hearing much about AIDS. And Hispanic men are firmly inclined toward taking home repair matters into their own hands. Recent findings released by Strategy Research Corp., Miami, and Market Development Inc., San Diego, reveal some specific characteristics of the U.S. Hispanic population.
SRC used data from the 1990 Census to discover that Hispanics speak Spanish in the home because they prefer to, not because they are limited by an inability to speak and understand English. Spanish is spoken in the home by 92% of adults 18 and older, and 79% of children 5 to 17. Of the adults who prefer to speak Spanish, 46% said they speak English "very well." Overall, 89% of U.S. Hispanics prefer to speak Spanish at home. Not surprisingly, given this information, they also prefer their media in the Spanish language.
A lack of Spanish-language media at-tention is perhaps to blame for the fact that almost a tenth of U. S. Hispanics have not heard of AIDS. The findings of an SRC public opinion survey indicate that 9% of Hispanics - some 2,250,000 people - know nothing of the fatal disease. Only 2% of the general population falls into the same category.
In the most recent MDI Hispanic Poll, which is conducted quarterly by Market Development Inc., 83% of the 500 self-identified Hispanic males who took part said that they had done some kind of maintenance work in their home in the pastyear. Those surveyed were 18- to 64-year-old residents of Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York or San Antonio. Homeowners (87%) were only slightly more likely than renters (79%) to have done repairs or maintenance work on their abodes. Painting (47%) was the task most frequently mentioned, followed by plumbing (44%), installation of window coverings (41%), repair/replacement of door locks (34%), repair/replacement of flooring (23%), and repair/replacement of cabinets (16%). The type of chore required affected whether the respondent did the work himself or had the work done by someone else. And not surprisingly, homeowners (84%) were more likely to handle longer-lasting repairs such as cabinet replacement/repair than renters (44%), while renters were just as likely as owners to install window cover-ings (about 53% each) - when such tasks were necessary. Even in situations where they did not actually do the repair or maintenance work themselves, those surveyed indicated that they were actively involved in the process, calling in either an outside contractor or a friend/ relative to do the work.