It’s the character issue, stupid
More than two-thirds (69.3 percent) of Americans participating in a national survey by the Research Division of St. Louis-based Aragon Consulting Group say they will be much more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who appears to be of good moral character and honest, making this the number one criterion considered when votes are cast.
"Our study showed that this issue is of particular concern to Republicans," says Gary Miller, president of Aragon Consulting Group. More than 80 percent of Republicans say the character issue is a major factor, compared to 63.2 percent of Democrats.
"Nearly as many people (63.2 percent) also are inclined to vote for a candidate who favors welfare reform," says Miller. "Again, this factor is of greater importance among Republicans, with 75.2 percent of them saying they would be much more likely to vote for a candidate who supports welfare reform."
More than half (52 percent) of those surveyed say they are much more likely to vote for a candidate who favors cutting taxes, and 63.5 percent report that they pay too many taxes. "Still, 55 percent of Americans say they do not think a candidate is believable when he advocates tax cuts, while 21.2 percent say such promises are believable," says Miller.
The Aragon study found that Democrats are significantly less likely than the rest of the population to say that they pay too many taxes. "Even so, more than half of all Democrats (52.2 percent) say taxes are too high, while 70.1 percent of Republicans, 71.4 percent of Reform Party members and 75.6 percent of the rest of Americans responded likewise," says Miller.
If taxes were to be cut, most Americans suggest reducing federal spending. Among the more popular suggestions are: cutting foreign aid (86.4 percent); reducing welfare programs (73.9 percent); establishing fees for national parks, museums, etc. (68.1 percent); privatizing the administration of certain government services (50.5 percent); cutting agriculture subsidies (48.6 percent); cutting the defense budget (45.4 percent) and cutting the Department of Education ( 18.6 percent). However, 14.9 percent call for maintaining spending at current levels, thereby allowing the deficit to increase.
"While the news media reported that abortion was a divisive issue at the Republican National Convention, we found that, on a scale of one to five, about a quarter of all Americans (26.4 percent) would be much more likely to vote for a candidate who opposes abortion rights," says Miller. That group included 39.3 percent of all Republicans.
"However, it is important to note that respondents generally fell into three categories," says Miller, who reported that 39.2 percent of Americans are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights, while 33.1 percent are more likely to vote for a candidate who opposes abortion rights, and 20.7 percent are not swayed by this issue.
Of those participating in the Aragon study, 35.6 percent identify themselves as Republicans, 41.3 percent are Democrats; and 4.3 percent are Reform Party members. The rest of those surveyed identify with other political groups or declined to state their political preference. More than 85 percent of the respondents are registered voters. The Aragon study, conducted in August prior to the Republican and Democratic national conventions, has a margin of error of +/-5.4 percent.
When do Hispanics listen to the radio?
Hispanics have already proven to be good (radio) listeners. Spanish-language stations have been dominating the ratings in the nation’s largest radio market (Los Angeles) for the last three years. Hispanics spend over 20 hours per week listening to radio. A recent poll by Market Development, Inc., San Diego, as reported in MDI’s Hispanic Perspective newsletter, asked Hispanics in the five major markets when they tune in to the radio. Data reveals that more Hispanics listen to radio while in the car and at home than in the office or at social gatherings.
While the Hispanic car listener is more likely to be a male, the home listener tends to be a female. This might be due to the fact that more Hispanic men than women tend to drive a car and use it to travel to work.
Data also reveals that car listening is higher among U.S.-born, English dominant and higher income Hispanics. On the other hand, home listeners are more likely to be foreign born and Spanish dominant, with an average household income of around $20k.
Car listening is consistently high throughout all age groups. However, at-home listening peaks slightly with younger (18-34) and older (50+) Hispanics. Younger Hispanics are also more likely to listen to radio with friends and at parties and social gatherings.
Nearly all U.S. adults save coupons
Coupons are clipped and saved by nearly 90 percent of American adults, according to Decision Analyst, Inc., an Arlington, Tex., research firm. In its recent national survey of over 9,600 U.S. households, Decision Analyst found that 88 percent of all adults in the United States clip and save cents-off coupons.
The survey revealed that Sunday newspapers are the consumer’ s favorite source of cents-off coupons. When asked, "Where do you typically find the best cents-off coupons?" approximately 87 percent of coupon-clippers named the Sunday newspaper as offering the "best cents-off coupons."
The lowest value coupon that consumers will "bother to save and redeem" is 26 cents, on average, across all product categories. "This suggests that coupons of 25 cents or greater value will have the most impact in the marketplace," says Jerry W. Thomas, president/CEO of Decision Analyst, Inc.
"Very low value coupons [those less than 15 cents] will tend to be ineffecfive, especially in attracting new users to a brand," Thomas says. The incidence of coupon usage appears to be roughly equal across all age groups. That is, the percentage of consumers who clip and save coupons varies very little by age group. However, younger consumers (those 18 to 44) end to redeem more coupons each week than older consumers (45 or older). The 18 to 44 age group redeems over eight coupons per week, while the 45 or older group redeems about seven per week.
The incidence of coupon usage tends to be affected by education. Among consumers with a high school education or less, 91 percent use coupons. In comparison, only 82 percent of consumers who attended graduate school use cents-off coupons. Similarly, consumers with household incomes below $40,000 per year are more likely to use coupons than consumers with household incomes above $40,000.
Decision Analyst, Inc.’s national survey of coupon usage, conducted earlier this year. has a margin error of +/-1 percent.
Olympic advertising: playing the Games to win
The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta set the world’s standard for athletic excellence. The Olympics have also become one of the premier an objective assessment of showcases for marketing accomplishment. With businesses paying $40 million for the rights to a Wordwide sponsorship, the opportunity for a company to become associated with the Olympics is a uniquely rich marketing game with its own set of victors and also-rans.
Gallup & Robinson, an advertising and marketing research company based in Princeton, N.J., tracks public response to Olympics advertising efforts by peri- odically surveying consumers about their awareness of the sponsors and their attitudes towards Olympics sponsorship. The study method is based on telephone interviews conducted as a part of Gallup & Robinson's standardized advertising research programs. At the conclusion of selected general audience magazine advertising studies, readers are asked about their attitudes toward advertising in general, Olympics advertising in particular, and their unaided awareness of which companies are Olympics sponsors. The data offers an objective assessment of how successful companies have been been in their own high-stakes competition. The following results are based on interviews with 250 respondents conducted in May.
Two months prior to the actual Games, 79 percent of people could name at least one of the official sponsors. The average person knew two sponsors correctly. Overall awareness levels were up from 62 percent and 1.6 sponsors in January.
Men and women were similar in their awareness. Eighty-one percent of men and 77 percent of women were able name at least one sponsor when asked. On average, both men and women were able to name 2.1 correct sponsors.
Coca-Cola has been the most effective company at registering its sponsorship of the Olympics with consumers. Forty-seven percent of people knew that Coca-Cola was associated with the Atlanta Games. The second best-known sponsor was McDonald’s, which was known by 34 percent of people.
Two out of three people (66 percent) ageed that Olympics sponsors were doing a good thing for the country. Additionally, six out of 10 believed that Olympics sponsors were the real leaders in their industries. However, only one in three respondents felt that they liked to watch Olympics advertising better than regular television advertising or that this year’s Olympics advertising was the best they’d seen.
Importantly, companies that have been most successful at establishing their sponsorship with the public, like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, have accomplished the additional goal of minimizing the credit that is sometimes shared with competitors when uncertainty or confusion exists in the public mind about who the official sponsors are. People were nearly five times as likely to correctly think of Coca-Cola as the sponsor over Pepsi (47 percent versus 10 percent). They were three times as likely to think of McDonald’s as the sponsor over Burger King (37 percent versus 12 percent).
The sponsorships of some companies were known by less than 10 percent of respondents. And for several sponsors, the public was as likely to credit a direct competitor rather than the company itself with being the Official Sponsor. This may be due to a lack of a solid communications progam by the sponsor or efforts to defuse the sponsor’s position by a competitor. For example, people were as likely to name United Airlines or American Airlines as they are Delta Airlines, the actual sponsor. And people were as likely to name Federal Express or the U. S. Postal Service as they were UPS, the actual sponsor.
According to Scott Purvis, president, Gallup & Robinson, Inc., "With most media opportunities, there is very little evidence that people give advertisers some kind of ’extra credit’ just because they’ve run their messages in a particular context. With the Olympics, though, people view sponsorship as a good thing for the country and a role for the real leaders in their industries. Thus, a company’ s success in becoming known as a sponsor brings with it the benefits of having its messages heard by a large audience that is more favorably disposed to the marketer’s participation than is normal."
New products flood market
Choice is good; it’s a universal truth we’ve all been brought up to believe. But is there such a thing as too much choice? It’s a question that consumers may begin to ponder as they come to terms with what can only be described as an explosion of choice in the supermarket. According to Naples, N.Y.-based Marketing Intelligence Service’s Product Alert publication, 1996 is shaping up as the biggest year in history for new product introductions.
Through the first three months of 1996, Product Alert has reported more than 6,500 new food, beverage, health & beauty aid, household and pet products. Annualized, that’s equivalent to more than 26,000 new products - a doubling of new products since 1986.
The numbers are staggering because the average supermarket contains only 30,000 products, according to the Food Marketing Institute. The point is rapidly being reached where an empty supermarket could be stocked with nothing more than one year’s worth of new product introductions!
Although product entries are up, supermarkets aren’t doubting in size to accommodate all of the new entries. Something has to give and that something is the new product failure rate, which is likely to creep higher. Today’s new products must produce immediate results, or else. Slow sellers are routinely culled in a matter of weeks, not months, as in the past.
The quantity of new products is up, but is the quality? While new brands like SnackWell’s and Mentadent are big hits, roughly eight of every 10 new products represents an extension of an existing brand or line. Products that are truly new and different are a shrinking minority. According to Marketing Intelligence Service’s Innovation Ratings, just 6.6 percent of 1996’s new entries feature innovations in formulation, positioning, packaging, technology or creating new markets. That’s down from a peak of 18.6 percent in 1986. "Product innovation has really taken a back seat to ’bandwagon’ marketing," says Tom Vierhile, general manager of Marketing Intelligence Service. "If something gets hot, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Alpha hydroxy acid took off in 1993 and now virtually every skin care maker has a product featuring the ingredient. Product Alert reported 175 new alpha hydroxy acid skin care products in 1995 alone. Salsas are the same. Product Alert reported 81 salsa entries in 1990 and we nearly topped that in the first quarter of 1996 with 76 new salsa products."
The explosion of choice marks the decline of "one size fits all" marketing and rise of "just my size" marketing. For facial tissues, that translates to 22 different package choices for Kimberly-Clark’ s Kleenex Expressions line. Consumers can "express themselves" with varieties like Thai-riffic, Sunflower, Quilt, and Peacock. Or for coffee, it means choosing among the 600 different flavor, package and size choices offered by San Diego-based Stella Bella Coffee. Rest assured, there’s something for everyone - literally!
So many choices, so little time. The average wage earner today spends the equivalent of an extra month on the job each year compared with their counterparts of just two decades ago. Working mothers routinely juggle up to seven tasks at once. Combine these increased time demands with the explosion of choice and you begin to see why the average American is in a state of physical and mental overload. It’s causing some consumers to say enough is enough. In the past five years, the American Institute of Stress reports that 28 percent of Americans have voluntarily made changes that led to less income, but a more balanced life. This may signal a trend toward lifestyle simplification that could eventually slow new product proliferation.
Meats make the grade with consumers
In a recent survey conducted by Creamer Dickson Basford’s research subsidiary, CDB Research & Consulting Inc., chicken, beef and pork were recognized by consumers as being healthier and more nutritious than 10 years ago. Consumers agreed that all three meats also were safer and more convenient to prepare than in the past.
A telephone survey was conducted among 100 people who are consumers of chicken, beef and pork at least once a month. While consumers acknowledged safety, health and handling improvements for all three meats, chicken stood out for its highly recognized convenience. Seven out of 10 consumers, and men in particular, said chicken was more convenient to serve today than it was 10 years ago.
The majority of people (80 percent) felt comfortable about their knowledge of chicken handling and preparation. Conventional sources of informarion such as newspapers, magazines, cookbooks and television remained the primary vehicles of information on recipes. The use of the Internet was marginal but on the increase.
However, more than half of consumers (53 percent) admitted wanting more exciting ways to prepare chicken. Consumers said they would increase their consumption of chicken to more than once or twice a week provided they had interesting chicken recipes. "This survey is indicative of the latest change of attitudes toward meat," says Larry Chiagouris, managing director of CDB Research & Consulting. "Consumers are regaining confidence and interest in chicken with simplified and accessible preparation methods."
How to get the rest to the Internet
In a survey of people who were aware of but did not use the Internet, the most popular reason to start using the Internet, cited by 66 percent of respondents, was to provide access to educational material for their children. The USA Today/IntelliQuest Technology Monitor survey, reported in lntelligram, a publication of IntelliQuest Inc., an Austin, Texas, research firm, also found that videoconferencing (60 percent), access to information about hobbies or interests (57 percent) and access to work-related information (54 percent) would get them interested in using the Net.
All of these activities, excluding videoconferencing, are already widely accessible via the Internet. Other oft-mentioned activities, such as E-mail (49 percent) and getting job information (47 percent), are also common on the Internet. This may indicate that lack of awareness of what the Interact can provide may be a large stumbling block towards mainstream adoption.
Ironically, activities that many claim will bring the masses to the Internet are the same activities that non Internet users claim to be of the least interest. Banking from home (32 percent) and shopping from home (31 percent) were shown to be of interest to about, one-third of respondents. The findings were based on telephone interviews with randomly selected individuals conducted by IntelliQuest in December 1995.
Environmental movement alive and well
Is America’s concern over the environment waning, as some people think? Hardly, according to a new nationwide survey conducted by American Opinion Research, Princeton, N.J., for the Council on Packaging in the Environment (COPE). In fact, the results show the environment may be one of our most consistent national concerns.
The staying power of environmental concern is one of the key findings of the COPE study. While never the top issue in consumers’ minds, environmental concern has remained steady over the past several years while concern over other issues, such as the economy, health care and education have fluctuated dramatically, often in direct correlation to media coverage.
Twenty percent of all adults currently rate the environment as a "very serious issue," about the same as rate the economy as "very serious." However, while concern about the economy has fluctuated wildly over the past four years, public concern about the environment has remained constant despite a dramatic fall-off in media coverage.
Other findings of the survey of 1,000 adults selected at random from all 50 states:
- 79 percent have taken some action during the past three months to help the environment. And, when pressed, they could support their claim by stating exactly what they did. Women and people in the mid-Atlantic states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) rated the highest for doing something to help the environment, including recycling, patronizing companies with good environmental records and conservation activities.
- 63 percent say they are "personally doing more now" to help the environment than they were doing three years ago; only 2 percent say they are doing less. Adults with children are most likely to say they are "doing more," to help the environment. This confirms previous research that children, learning about the issue at school, are pressuring their parents into environmental actions.
Recycling tops the list of steps consumers are taking. However, adults are also listing an increasing variety of actions, including: - Looking to buy from companies with good environmental records
- Reducing energy and water consumption
- Buying refills and concentrates
- Reusing plastic bags
"This study clearly confirms a trend that the environment is becoming more personally oriented and less issue-oriented," says Chris Murphy, executive director of COPE. "People are taking more personal actions, more directly related to how they live their lives. This gets less media attention than an oil company boycott, so some observers believe, incorrectly, that environmental concern is losing steam."
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Trade Commission worked with COPE to develop some of the questions asked on the survey which also covered a variety of issues, including: labeling, understanding environmental terms, packaging issues and others.
COPE is a national coalition of consumer product companies, packaging producers, materials suppliers, retailers, trade associations and recyclers committed to promoting programs that integrate the concepts of the environment and economic sustainability in the design, use and disposition of packaging.
The COPE study, based on interviews with 1,000 adults selected at random from across the United States, has a margin of error of +/-3 percent.