Home decor is a chore
Two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans say that they are unhappy with their home decor - a majority of them grade their home furnishing efforts with just a C+, according to a survey of 1,000 consumers by Furniture.com, a Framingham, Mass., on-line home furnishings retailer.
Compared to their older counterparts, younger and middle-aged consumers (40s and younger) are even less satisfied with their home decor. While less than half (46 percent) of respondents over 50 feel good about taking people on a tour of their homes, they’re still more satisfied than younger age groups, where just a third (30-34 percent) would feel good about offering a tour.
The survey found consumers wanting to shop for furniture more often, but respondents say they just don’t have the time or find it too difficult to find quality furniture at the right price.
Most people would rather buy new furniture or redecorate their homes more often - every three years - but the greatest barrier is finding the time, say a majority (56 percent) of consumers. On the average, it takes people about seven weeks to shop for a major furniture item such as a couch or table, with consumers in their 30s averaging nearly eight weeks; those in their 40s average even longer - nearly 10 weeks.
Furniture shopping consists of both an emotional purchase (based on aesthetics)
as well as a rational decision (based on utility considerations and the financial investment). However, consumers report that it’s often fraught with hassles. Of those surveyed, 47 percent of consumers reported difficulty finding furniture at the right price; 35 percent had trouble finding the quality furniture that they wanted; 28 percent had difficulty identifying stores with their favorite styles; 24 percent had problems getting the information they needed to make their choices; and 24 percent wanted more help and suggestions for redecorating.
Shopping for furniture on the Internet presents a solution to current furniture shopping hassles for many consumers. One quarter of consumers say they will shop on-line for furniture (23 percent) and other home furnishings (25 percent). That’s a 35 percent increase in the number of consumers interested in moving on-line to shop for furniture over the first half of 1999.
The study was conducted on behalf of Furniture.com by Socratic Technologies Inc., Newton, Mass. The survey was conducted via the Internet with completed interviews from 1,000 people representing a cross-section of the adult U.S. on-line population who shop for furniture. Respondents were screened to ensure they were at least 18 years of age, have shopped for furniture for their homes during the past five years, or plan to purchase furniture for their homes over the next 12 months. The sample for this study was drawn from the Socratic Forum, a community of over 12,000 Internet users who participate in Web surveys from time to time.
What drives telecommuting?
A survey of over 200 networking professionals conducted by Sage Research, Inc., Natick, Mass., has uncovered the drivers of telecommuting. Telecommuting advocates often cite Savings in real estate costs as a key telecommuting benefit. However only 30 percent of respondents agree that telecommuting allows their organization to reduce Zeal estate costs. Based on this study of U.S. organizations, the most widespread driver of telecommuting is that it can be used as an incentive to hire and/or retain skilled workers. In fact, 75 percent of respondents agree that telecommuting allows their organization to retain skilled, workers.
With today’s, low unemployment rates, hiring and retaining skilled workers is difficult. One of our hypotheses was that organizations use telecommuting as an incentive to attract employees, says Dawd Borden, Sage Research market research analyst: "We were surprised that it was the most commonly cited benefit of telecommuting programs. In addition, employee retention received higher ratings than improved productivity, 63 percent of organizations agee that telecommuting improves worker productivity.
Based on these results, organizations recognize that while some costs (i.e, human resources) are reduced, other costs may stay the same or perhaps even increase. In particular, remote access technology and internal IS support costs increase. Less than 20 percent of organizations agree that telecommuting allows their organization to spend less on LAN infrastructure and reduce
internal IS support. In fact, the majority (72 percent) agee that less expensive remote access technologies would promote telecommuting at their organization. These results are available, along with other telecommuting and remote access technology related data, in Sage's last Reality Check report, "Opportunities in Telecommuting."
On-line apparel shopping hits snags
While more and more consumers are shopping on-line for items such as books and electronics, many retailers are wondering where apparel fits into the picture. According to data from E-BuyersGuide.com, a Burlington, Mass., research service, there are still some serious barriers to overcome before apparel shopping over the Internet is fully accepted.
Data collected from 941 consumers who completed surveys at E-BuyersGuide.com’s Web site between January 10 and January 19 indicated that 28 percent of shoppers did not buy apparel on-line because they were unsure about accurate sizing. A further 18 percent were concerned that returning an item could be a problem. Other top reasons cited for not shopping for apparel on-line include quality concerns and delivery costs.
For those who did buy apparel on-line in 1999, low prices (52 percent), free delivery (46 percent), large merchandise selection (42 percent), and ease of return (40 percent) topped the list of most important features when selecting an on-line apparel merchant. Familiarity with the brand/store (28 percent) having shopped at the retailer before (13 percent), and the e-retailer also having a traditional store (10 percent) were less important to e-apparel shoppers.
The data also confirms previous studies by E-BuyersGuide.com: e-mail promotions (34 percent), catalogs (30 percent) and click-through advertising banners (16 percent) were more successful than traditional advertising (TV – 7 percent, newspaper – 3 percent, radio – 2 percent) in encouraging people to make an on-line apparel purchase. The majority of survey respondents were between the ages of 35 and 54 (51.4 percent), female (83 percent) and tend to shop on-line at last once month (80 percent).
Survey reveals what hotel guests steal, leave behind
We’re all guilty of it. We check into a hotel, and upon departure grab those little soaps, shampoos, maybe a hanger or two. "At these prices, I deserve it," we tell ourselves. But what else do some of us think we deserve? And what do we junk to make room in our suitcases for these newly stolen treasures? WHERE magazine, the visitor publication found in the rooms and concierge desks of the better hotels around the globe, conducted a survey in 11 of its cities in the U.S. and Europe to find out, calling hotel housekeeping departments and asking what typically was taken from and left in rooms. Hotels were also asked for a list of the most unusual items taken and left behind.
The top five items taken from hotel rooms were: 1) towels; 2) soap; 3) shampoo; 4) bathrobes; 5) hangers and ashtrays.
There were some regional differences: Towels are the theft of choice in Los Angeles, where it was cited by 80 percent of respondents, while in New York it’s bathrobes that should be chained down. Fifty percent of those surveyed in Paris mentioned ashtrays, and 30 percent of the housekeepers in Las Vegas said that bed linens were the item most often taken by guests.
According to the housekeeping survey, the top five "unusual items" were: 1) TVs; 2) irons and ironing boards; 3) pillows; 4) radios and/or stereos; 5) pictures and wall hangings.
A porter at the Hotel Intercontinental in Paris actually carried a television set in a duffel bag out to a hotel guest’s car.
But what were the most unusual? Someone stole a reclining chair from the Drury Inn Westport in St. Louis, while in New York, one guest walked out with a sink at the Crown Plaza and the safe deposit box from the closet of the Essex House. And what would a visit to London’s Marriott County Hall be without lifting a kettle and teapot? But the award for bulkiest theft must go to the Las Vegas guest who left the Sahara Hotel unchallenged with a 6- l/2-foot-high tree.
What do guests leave in exchange for these stolen items? The top five list is made up of: 1) clothes; 2) shoes; 3) underwear; 4) cell phones; and 5) toiletries.
According to Steven Flans, WHERE’s research director, the items on the unusual left list had some interesting consistencies and geographic skews. Sexual paraphernalia ranked first overall. "This category," says Flans, "was most popular in the Midwest, with 70 percent of St. Louis hotels reporting this in their lost-andfound, followed by 50 percent of Chicago respondents. However, as you move toward both coasts, these items drop down the list. Interestingly, in Las Vegas, sex toys are tied with dentures as most unusual." The results from London showed that they have much in common with their Midwestern brethren: Seventy percent of those surveyed also discovered sexual devices in rooms. In fact one guest at the One Aldwych Hotel was bold enough to leave a whip behind - and later ask that it be returned to him.
Los Angeles heads the list as the city with the most unusual items guests left behind, including an iguana (Disneyland Hotel), bags of marijuana (Hyatt Regency), and empty vials of Viagra (New Otani).
What was the story behind the wedding gown left at the Adolphus in Dallas, or the weapons left at the Scottsdale Camelback Resort and the Meridien Montparnasse in Paris? Or the blow-up doll left at London’s Sheraton ParkTower? And the six-foot stuffed Odie in the Bellagio in Las Vegas or the live goldfish at Harrah’s? And better not to ask why human eyes were left behind at the Essex House in New York. Some things just shouldn’t be explained.
Americans swoon over romance fiction
At a time when tales of illicit sex are standard fare in the daily media, many Americans are escaping the scandal by reading about passion with a happy ending - a romance novel. A Maritz Poll conducted by Maritz Marketing Research in St. Louis in conjunction with the Houston-based Romance Writers of America studied the popularity of romance novels and found that 33 percent of Americans currently read romance fiction. Although 45 percent of readers are women, 16 percent of men also indulge.
Overall, readership is higher in the West (36 percent) and lower in the Northeast (26 percent). Fans peak at the high school graduate education level (42 percent). For college graduates and for those with less than a high school education, readership decreases to roughly 25 percent. Neither age nor income appear to be factors in the popularity of romance books.
Romance fans cite the following top five qualities that most appeal to them about romance fiction: fun/enjoyable, 19 percent; happy endings, 18 percent; escapist/entertaining literature, 17 percent; romance, 14 percent; fast read, 10
percent.
Those who abstain from reading romances cite the following reasons: prefer other forms of fiction, 36 percent; the books are a waste of time, 29 percent; prefer non-fiction, 10 percent; the books are poorly written, 5 percent; the books are aimed at women, 4 percent.
The study also revealed some general literary habits of Americans: 62 percent of people read at least one book a month, with the average reader finishing 3.4 books per month. People who said "none" to the number of books read per month were then asked about their annual reading habits: 14 percent read one to three books per year; 3 percent read four to six books each year; and 20 percent don’t crack a single book all year. Women are bigger readers than men, averaging 3.6 books monthly vs. 3.1 for men (of those who read at least one book each month).
More than half of Americans (54 percent) usually obtain their books from a book store, followed by the library (33 percent), borrowed from friends and family (22 percent), department and discount stores (9 percent), and book clubs (6 percent). Men are significantly more likely to shop at book stores (60 percent vs. 49 percent of women); women tend to borrow from friends and family (25 percent compared to 17 percent of men). About 3 percent of men order books from the Internet compared to 1 percent of women.
Book sellers, publishers, and marketers always want to know what gets a reader to buy a book. Maritz Poll participants cite the following top five reasons that appeal to them most when buying a book: author, 29 percent; topic/subject, 25 percent; back cover plot summary, 19 percent; word of mouth (media, friends), 13 percent; packaging/front cover, 5 percent.
Men are significantly more concerned with the topic or subject of the book (31 percent vs. 20 percent of women), while women rely more on the back cover plot summary to make the sale (22 percent vs. 15 percent of men).
Internet cheaper than TV, print at driving drug requests
To influence the market of 34 million adults who request specific prescription
medications from their doctors, pharmaceutical companies spent an estimated $915 million on direct-toconsumer (DTC) advertising in the first half of 1999. In contrast to the $530 million spent on television ads and the $370 million spent in print, Internet advertising spending totaled an estimated $10 million - accounting for just over one percent of total DTC outlays.
A new analysis from New York-based Cyber Dialogue of the return on investment (ROI) from sector expenditures reveals a dramatic difference in on-line versus off-line effectiveness. According to Cyber Dialogue’s model, the amounts spent to drive a single specific drug request by a consumer differs greatly across the three media studied. The model found that the cost to pharmaceutical companies amount to: $220 per specific drug request for print ads; $197 per specific drug request for television ads; $14 per specific drug request for the Internet.
These findings confirm that there is a significant opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to target health care consumers on-line and build long-term relationships that are not possible through traditional media such as print or television advertising. Although the per-prescription costs cited above do not reflect the total cost of generating a prescription request (which includes medical journal advertising, sales force detailing, public relations, etc.), they are an important indicator of the power of the Internet to target and reach the growing number of health consumers on-line.
Of those consumers requesting a specific drug from their physician, the Internet spurred 2 percent of consumers to request a specific prescription drug from their doctor as compared to 5 percent who were influenced by print ads and 8 percent from TV. Cyber Dialogue projects more than 33.5 million adults wi!l seek health info on-line in 2000.
Among the 89.5 million U.S. adults that indicate they take prescription drugs, 31 percent are currently on-line (9.5 million adults currently taking prescriptions have already ordered products on-line). Findings are based on in-depth interviews with more than 2,700 U.S. adults. The study was fielded in July 1999 and is accurate within +/- 29.4 percent at the 95 percent confidence
interval.