Bullets

• Seven in 10 adults say they are more likely to fall in love with someone who makes them laugh, rather than someone who makes them think (30%).

• About four in 10 Internet users (39%) have searched for themselves online, 36% have looked for friends they’ve lost touch with, 29% have looked for family members, and 17% for ex-girlfriends or ex-boyfriends.

• Some 41% of African American women, 38% of Hispanic women, and 35% of Caucasian women say their looks are “above-average.”

• Seven in 10 marketers (69%) say that blogging is more than just a fad. About 45% believe the word “blog” is descriptive; 33% say it’s silly and 22% describe it as ugly.

• About 57% of Hispanic moms speak primarily Spanish at home, while 25% only speak English and 17% speak Spanish and English equally.

• Currently, there are 33 million Black, Hispanic and Asian women in the US, and they hold $722.8 billion in buying power. By 2008, they will be 37 million strong and have $1 trillion in buying power.

• Some 440 consumer magazines were founded in 2003. About 10% of the 6,200 consumer magazines published today in the U.S. are general-interest titles (vs highly targeted to a specific market), down from 30% two decades ago.

• Three-quarters (76%) of male Hispanic Internet users and 71% of their female counterparts have made online purchases.

• In a survey of 254 global senior business executives, 66% of respondents say some of their staff works remotely, up from 54% in 2003. In the US about 19% of employees worked from home at least once a month as part of their primary job. Survey respondents say that the three business functions best suited for remote working are sales (64%), customer-service (49%), and marketing-related functions (40%).

• According to Nielsen/NetRatings, three-quarters (74.9%) of Americans age two or older had home access to the Internet, this is up from 66% in 2003 to reach 204.3 million people.

• Most (87.6%) of regular readers of Black newspapers do not read general-market daily papers on a regular basis.

• One-half of American workers (52%) live paycheck-to-paycheck. This includes most workers who earn less than $30,000 a year (87, as well as 34% of those who earn $75,000 or more.

• More than one-half (54%) of senior executives expect to work for seven or more companies during their careers, up from 9% in 1994.

• The growth in Internet users increased only 1.7% for the year ending April 2004, compared to 11.3% during the same period in 1999-2000.

• The number of moviegoers age 50-59 rose 20% between July 2002 and July 2003.

• Some 68% of married women with children have a full-time job outside the home.

• The average household spent $2,063 on restaurants and carry-outs in 2001, up 1.7% from the prior year. The amount spent on restaurants and carry-outs were both 41%, while the remainder was spent at employer and school cafeterias, vending machines and mobile vendors.

• According to Packaged Facts, retail sales of weight-loss products increased 88.7% from 1999 to 2003 to reach $4.5 billion. The strongest gains were in frozen dinners and entrees, food bars, meal replacement liquids and powders, and diet candies.

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