••• auto research
Heart over head
New-vehicle buyers rely on 'conventional wisdom' more than fact
More than 40 percent of new-vehicle buyers who avoided a particular model due to quality or reliability concerns based their opinions on conventional wisdom or common knowledge rather than personal experience, reviews, ratings or recommendations, according to Westlake Village, Calif., research company J.D. Power and Associates’ 2012 Avoider Study. The study examines the reasons consumers fail to consider – or avoid – particular models when shopping for a new vehicle.
Perceptions of vehicle reliability have consistently been a prominent reason for avoiding a particular brand or model. Among buyers who avoided a particular model due to concerns about quality and reliability, 43 percent say their avoidance was due to the brand’s vehicles, in general, being known to have poor quality/reliability. A smaller percentage (38 percent) based their avoidance decision on ratings and reviews, while an even smaller proportion (14 percent) based their decision on prior ownership of the model.
Additionally, the percentage of buyers who avoided import models because of their origin increased to 14 percent in 2012, the highest level since the inception of the study in 2003. Conversely, the percentage of buyers who avoided domestic models due to their origin declined to 6 percent, a historically low level.
Gas mileage was the most influential reason for purchasing a particular vehicle model in 2012, surpassing the influence of other key reasons such as reliability, the deal and exterior styling, which were the most influential purchase reasons in 2010.
With the emphasis of the importance of gas mileage affecting both the automotive market and consumer purchase decisions, certain alternative fuel vehicles – the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius – captured much attention from new-vehicle buyers. While both gas mileage and environmental impact were among the two most-often-cited purchase reasons for these models, there were marked differences between the models for the next-most-cited reason. For the Volt, the image the model portrays was a prominent reason for purchase, while buyers cited low maintenance costs for the Leaf and reliability for the Prius. Among buyers who avoided the Volt, purchase price was the most-often-cited reason, while the most prominent avoidance reason for the Leaf and Prius was exterior styling. For the Volt and Leaf, a notable proportion of buyers cited the models’ small size as an avoidance reason. For the Prius, performance was a prominent reason for avoidance.
www.jdpower.com
••• gambling research
Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?
Over one-third of Americans bet on a chance to win big
Despite nationwide economic uncertainty, certain pockets of consumers in the U.S. hold on to dreams of winning big. According data from Scarborough Research, New York, 39 percent of all American adults ages 18+ (91 million) have purchased a lottery ticket in the past 30 days. Baby Boomers (ages 45-64) accounted for the largest proportion of lottery ticket purchasers, with 37 percent of all those saying they had purchased a ticket in the past 30 days falling in this age group. Gen X (ages 30-44) was the next-largest group at 29 percent, followed by Gen Y (ages 18-29) at 18 percent and the Silent Generation (ages 65+) at 16 percent.
Though lottery ticket purchasers were 16 percent less likely than all Americans to hold at least a college degree, 62 percent were employed either full- or part-time and more held white-collar jobs (37 percent) than blue-collar (25 percent). Accordingly, one-third of lottery ticket purchasers had an annual household income of $75,000+.
Of this population courting Lady Luck, 34 percent purchased only scratch-off tickets; 31 percent purchased only non-scratch-off tickets; and 35 percent purchased both kinds of tickets. The top local market for scratch-off ticket purchasers is Buffalo, N.Y., with 49 percent of the population purchasing a ticket. The top local markets for non-scratch-off ticket purchasers are Orlando, Fla.; Providence, R.I.; and Tampa, Fla. (38 percent). The local markets least likely to purchase lottery tickets are Las Vegas (13 percent), Salt Lake City (8 percent) and Honolulu (5 percent).
Nearly three-quarters of lottery ticket purchasers have accessed the Internet in the past 30 days, which is approximately the national average. Of this Internet-friendly group, more than one-third spent 10 hours or more per week on the Internet.
When it comes to media usage, 58 percent of lottery ticket purchasers read one or more newspapers in the past seven days, with 42 percent saying they generally read the sports section Monday through Friday. One-quarter had visited a newspaper Web site in the past 30 days and 18 percent had visited the same in the past seven days. Nearly three-quarters listened to five or more hours of radio in the past five days and 83 percent watched 10 or more hours of TV in the past seven days.
www.scarborough.com
••• consumer research
Small newspapers, big audience
For community news, readers stay local
Readers in areas served by community newspapers continue to prefer the community newspaper as their source of local news and advertising, according to an annual survey conducted by the National Newspaper Association, Columbia, Mo., and the research arm of the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Following consistent trends, 74 percent of people in communities served by a newspaper with circulations under 15,000 read a local newspaper each week. They prefer the printed copy to the online version, with 48 percent saying they never read the local news online. They prefer to receive advertising through the newspaper (51 percent) instead of on the Internet (11 percent) and only about one-quarter of respondents said they had found local news through a mobile device in the past 30 days. Slightly more (38 percent) said they had received local shopping information via mobile device.
They also have a strong preference for government accountability through newspaper public notice, with 80 percent saying the government should be required to publish notices in the newspaper.
Additional findings include: 74 percent of those surveyed read a local newspaper each week and those readers, on average, share their paper with 2.33 persons. They spend about 38.95 minutes reading their local newspaper and 73 percent read most or all of it. Over 40 percent keep their community newspaper six or more days. Sixty-one percent of readers read local news very often in their community newspaper, while 48 percent say they never read local news online. Only 11 percent say they read local news very often online.
Of those going online for local news, 52 percent found it on the local newspaper’s Web site, compared to 20 percent for sites such as Yahoo, MSN or Google, and 25 percent for the Web site of a local TV station.
Thirty-three percent of those surveyed read local education (school) news very often in their newspaper, while 68 percent never read local education news online. Twenty-seven percent read local sports news very often in their newspaper, while 70 percent never read local sports online. Forty percent read editorials or letters to the editor very often in their newspaper, while 64 percent never read editorials or letters to the editor online.
The local community newspaper is the primary source of information about the local community for 51.8 percent of respondents, compared to seeking information from friends and relatives (16 percent) and TV (13.2 percent). Readers are seven times more likely to get their news from their community newspaper than from the Internet and less than 6 percent said their primary local news source is radio.
www.nnaweb.org
••• consumer research
Move over, laptops
Tablets gaining ground in American life
Electronic tablets could become the device of choice for the American technology crowd, as 46 percent of Americans said that tablets will eventually take the place of laptop computers, according to a national telephone survey of 1,155 registered voters conducted by Atlanta research company Poll Position. Thirty-five percent said tablets will not take the place of laptop computers and 19 percent did not have an opinion.
A majority of Americans ages 30-to-64 chose electronic tablets over laptop computers and in the 30-to-44 age group, 53 percent picked electronic tablets to replace computers. Thirty-seven percent said tablets will not replace personal computers.
Among those 45-to-64, 52 percent said electronic tablets will eventually take the place of personal computers versus 30 percent who said personal computers will not be replaced by tablets.
Oddly, younger Americans ages 18-to-29 do not think tablets will replace personal computers. Forty-nine percent said tablets will not replace the personal computer; 37 percent said the tablets will take the place of laptops; and 15 percent did not offer an opinion.
www.pollposition.com
••• children research
Cyberbullying concerns abound
The Web: a not-so-safe place for kids worldwide?
Twelve percent of parents online around the world said their child has been cyberbullied and 24 percent said they know of a child who has experienced the same in their community, according to data from Paris research company Ipsos on behalf Reuters News. Of those, a majority (60 percent) said the children experienced the harassing behavior on social networking sites like Facebook.
Cyberbullying is defined as when a child or group of children (under the age of 18) intentionally intimidate, offend, threaten or embarrass another child or group of children specifically through the use of information technology, such as a Web site or chat room on the Internet, a mobile phone or another mobile device.
Awareness of cyberbullying is high (66 percent) among the 24 countries surveyed. Those citizens most aware of cyberbullying are from Indonesia (91 percent), Australia (87 percent), Poland (83 percent), Sweden (82 percent), the U.S. (82 percent) and Germany (81 percent). However, not all countries have such high levels of awareness. Only 29 percent of those in Saudi Arabia said they have heard of cyberbullying, followed by Russia (35 percent), China (49 percent), Turkey (50 percent), France (53 percent) and India (53 percent).
A strong majority (77 percent) of global citizens said cyberbullying is a fundamentally different type of bullying that needs special attention from parents and schools, in addition to existing efforts to address bullying in general. On the other hand, 23 percent said cyberbullying is the same behavior seen in other forms of bullying, just through different technologies, and should be addressed through existing anti-bullying measures.
Parents were asked to consider, to the best of their knowledge, if a child in their household or in their community has ever experienced cyberbullying. Of the 12 percent of parents who reported a child in their household has experienced this form of bullying, 6 percent said it happened once or twice and 3 percent say it happens sometimes or on a regular basis.
One-quarter of parents surveyed reported a child in their community has experienced cyberbullying once or twice (11 percent); sometimes (10 percent); or on a regular basis (5 percent). Regarding children in their community, half said they don’t know and one-quarter said never.
Parents were asked to think about the kids they know who have experienced cyberbullying, to the best of their knowledge, and report how they experience the harassing behavior. Sixty percent said it is through social networking sites like Facebook, while 42 percent said mobile phones or other mobile devices (42 percent) and online chat rooms (40 percent). Three in 10 said it happens through e-mail or online instant messaging. Twenty percent said other Web sites and 9 percent said other forms of technology.
www.ipsos.com