KEY FINDINGS NEWSLETTER
May/June 2004 Issue

Retirement Expectations Changing
The traditional retirement age of 65 is deemed a moving target by the various segments of our current workforce. Most (68%) US workers age 50-70 plan to work past 65, with almost one-half of them expect to work well into their 70s. Boomers (age 38-57) say they will retire at 58.8 year, but 61% expect to work during retirement. Gen-Xers (age 24-37) intend to retire at 61.9, but 55% say they will work in retirement.

E-Mail Program Success
It is important that companies get their e-mail programs right in order to maintain customer interest. Factors like personalization, transaction confirmations, and account status updates got the highest positive scores in a recent Quirs survey. Companies must also be careful to avoid actions that will drive customers away from their email program as described in the following chart.

Seeking Health Information Online
Eight in ten adult Internet users have sought out health information online, according to a study conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates for the Pew Internet and American Life Project. More than one-half do so on behalf of someone instead of for themselves. Three-quarters (73%) say going online for health purposes has improved the overall quality of the health information and services they receive. Those who seek out online health information do so every few months or less. On a typical day, only 6% are conducting this kind of research.

Applicant Names Affect Employment Process
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a job applicant whose name sounds like it might belong to an African American - such as Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones - can find it harder to get a job than someone with a "White-sounding" name like Emily Walsh or Greg Baker. For example, a White person applying for a job in sales, administrative support, clerical or customer service needs to send an average of 10 resumes to get one callback. An African American applying for this same type job must send 15 resumes for one callback. 

Research shows that discrimination is uniform across all industries and employer categories including federal contractors, large employers and companies that explicitly state they are an "Equal Opportunity Employer" in their job ads.

Direct Mail's Popularity
According to a study by Vertis, US adults prefer to receive information via direct mail about a company's products or services. The chart below also shows how other methods fared.

Megachurches Use Business Savvy
The entrepreneurial approach has contributed to the huge growth of megachurches (non-Catholic churches with at least 2,000 members) in the U.S. In 1970, there were only ten of these churches. By 1990, there were 250 and today's count is at 740. The most common trait that these churches share is their size; average number of worshippers is 3,646, an increase of 4% from last year. They also have business savvy with several holding conferences (47%), using radio (44%) and television (38%), according to a 1999 survey by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. This same survey shows the average net income of megachurches at $4.8 million.

Obesity in America
American adults say that the parent or guardian (86%) is responsible for a child's obesity. Two-thirds (62%) say the child is responsible, 60% blame fast food restaurants and 49% say it is the fault of advertising on television, radio, and other media. Other influences are school vending machines (42%), school cafeteria (26%), convenience stores (23%), other adults (19%), manufacturers of grocery food products (18%) and other children (18%). 

When marketers were asked who is to blame for obesity in America, 54% said it is consumers' fault, 34% accept equal responsibility and 6% blame themselves.

Top Five B2B Websites
The B2B Magazine evaluated about 800 websites in 14 industry categories to determine their NetMarketing 100 list of the best b-to-b websites. The following chart gives the top five which do the best in providing users with product information, brand interaction, resources and a place to close the deal.

Honest Journalists
A Purdue University study ranks 66 nations on the likelihood that journalists at daily newspapers would seek or accept cash from government officials, businesses or other sources for news coverage. Finland's journalists are considered the most honest, followed by Denmark's, New Zealand's and Switzerland's (tied for second place). Journalists in Germany, Iceland and the UK are tied for third place, and Norway comes in fourth. The US is in fifth place with Canada and four other countries. The study shows that bribery of the media is most prevalent in China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Business to Business Advertising
In 2002, the top 100 business-to-business advertisers spent $5.4 billion, up 8.4% from 2001. The companies leading this increase were telecommunications providers, financial services companies and computer hardware companies. 

Verizon Communications was the top spender for the third year in a row, increasing its ad spending by 13.2% over 2001. Sprint jumped from No. 5 in 2001 up to No. 2 in 2002, by boosting its ad spending by 38.7%. SBC Communications moved from No. 6 in 2001 to No. 3 in 2002, increasing its ad spending by 29.5%. Hewlett-Packard, which moved down from No. 3 to No. 4, was up 11.0%. The No. 5 advertiser, AT&T Wireless, boosted ad spending by 5.8%.

Bullets

• Three in 10 Americans (30.4%) live in places with laws that ban smoking in workplaces, restaurants and/or bars.

• Almost all (94%) of dog owners ask about their dog when they call home while traveling; 26% talk to their dog on the phone and 65% bring a doggie gift back home.

• Phishing is a new fast-growing online scam where e-mails – that appear to be from a legitimate company – are sent out to people asking to verify personal information. The imposter company then stores and uses the information for its own purposes. Phishing campaigns were first detected in early 2003, grew to 184 campaigns by January of this year, and jumped another 50% to 282 in February.

• Seven in ten consumers think that companies have too much information about them. Whites (70.2%) are more concerned about privacy than Blacks (66.3%), Hispanics (68.7%) or Asians (69.1%).

• A flexible work schedule is the most important driver of job satisfaction for 33% of American workers, followed by autonomy in making decisions (17%), variety in work projects (17%), and collaboration with others (17%).

• Fatal space shuttle crashes are regarded as an acceptable price to pay for space travel by 75% of Americans. One fatal crash in 100 is acceptable to 43%, one in 50 to 19%, one in 20 to 7%, and one in 10 to 6%. No crashes are acceptable to 17%.

• Overall, CEO pay rose 279% from 1990 to 2002, while worker pay grew 46%, outpacing inflation by only 8% over the period. The CEO-worker pay gap was 281-to-one in 2002, almost seven times greater than the 1982 ratio of 42-to-one.

• More than one-half (53%) of recipients read the fundraising mail they receive. Recipients are most likely to open personalized solicitations (62%), while free gifts or tokens (32%), special offers (31%) or a notice of dated material (30%) are not as effective.

• As of the end of 2001, one in 37 Americans has served time in prison. This included 1.3 million prisoners in state and federal custody and 4.3 million living former prisoners.

• A recent poll shows that 80% of adults say health insurance is a major factor in their decision to accept or keep a job. In a separate study, 45% would opt for more comprehensive health coverage over a pay increase.

• Almost all employers (92%) saw a rise in healthcare costs in 2003, resulting in an average cost increase of 18% for employers and 13% for employees.

• Eighty-four percent of Internet users with household incomes over $100,000 visited retail websites in August 2003. The most popular websites were NeimanMarcus.com (37%), Costco.com (31%), IBM.com (31%), BedBathandBeyond.com (30%) and Nike.com (30%).

• Americans pump gasoline into their vehicles 11-12 billion times a year.

• One-third (32%) of Americans say gay couples should have the same legal rights as married couples, while 35% say they shouldn’t and 32% believe it doesn’t matter. Support is highest among 18-29-year-olds (45%) and declines to 24% among people age 65+.

• August is the most popular month to eat out; Saturday is the most popular day.

• Minority enrollment at US colleges and universities grew 122% over the past 20 years to 4.3 million in 2000-2001. However, the gap among college participation rates for White, Black and Hispanic high school students has widened. In 1978-1980 the rate for all groups was about 30%. By 1998-2000, it was 46% for Whites, 40% for Blacks and 34% for Hispanics.

• About 4.12 million blogs (frequent publication of personal thoughts and web links, also known as web logs) have been created. However, 2.72 million of these have not been updated in more than two months, with 1.09 million never posted to once they were created. Active blogs are updated once every two weeks, on average.

• One in every four dogs and cats in the Western Hemisphere is now obese.

• Since 2001, the demise of four unlicensed health insurance plans have left almost 100,000 Americans with approximately $85 million in unpaid medical debt and without health insurance.

• Wholesale sales of home exercise equipment jumped from $990 million in 1990 to $3.07 billion in 2002.

• In the US, 9.3% of American Indian/Alaska Native women are entrepreneurs, compared to 8.5% of Asian/Pacific Islander women, 6% of Caucasian women, 4.2% of Hispanic women and 2.8% of African American women.

• News coverage is more important than advertising for 68% of consumers when determining whether or not to trust a company. Some 23% find them of equal value and 9% trust advertising more.

• More than one-third of Americans think that news reporting has gotten worse in the past two years, while 14% think it has improved and 45% say it hasn’t changed.

• The percentage of plastic containers recycled has dropped to 19.9% in 2002, down from 22.1% in 2001 and 39.7% in 1995.

• Only 10% of workers report their supervisors praise them each day for a job well done, while 34% of supervisors claim to praise their “direct reports” daily. Female supervisors (40%) are more likely than their male counterparts (31%) to provide this praise.

• According to B2B Magazine, the top 100 business-to-business advertisers increased their Spanish-language TV ad spending by 69.7% between 2001 and 2002. Overall, business-to-business ad spending on Spanish-language TV was up 9.9%.

• At year end 2003, there were 405 drive-in theaters in 47 states, down from a high of 4,063 theaters in 1958.

• Almost one-half (46%) of Americans age 5+ lived in a different home in 2000 than they did in 1995. Some 25% moved within the county, 10% between counties within a state, 8% to a different state and 3% moved to the US from abroad.

• Almost one-third (29%) of Americans have purchased an item from an infomercial.

• Three out of four (73%) Americans think political candidates’ positions on the environment are “very important” or “somewhat important.”

• Americans owned just over 30% of the 732 million vehicles worldwide in 2002, but they spent 51% of all global expenditures ($154 billion) on automotive aftermarket products.

• Approximately 18% of women age 40-44 in 2002 had never had a child, compared with 10% in 1976. Those with children had an average of 1.9 in 2002, compared to 3.1 in 1976.

• When Americans were asked to choose an age they would like to be forever (assuming good health), the average age was 41. The 18-24-year olds chose 27; the 25-29-year-olds said 31; the 30-39-year-olds selected 37; 40-49-year-olds decided on 40; 50-64-year-olds chose 44; and those age 65+ wanted to be 59.

• Sales of organic fiber products grew 22% annually from 1996 to 2000.

• The number of medical school applicants declined 21.8% to 33,625 in 2002-2003 from 43,016 in 1997-1998. However, the number of enrolled students remained constant at about 67,000.

• The proportion of doctors who recommend over-the-counter drugs to their patients increased from 47% in 1997 to 54% in 2002.

• Research by National Eating Trends indicates that 59% of all meals in the US are rushed, 44% of women carry lunch to work or school, and 34% of lunches are eaten on the run.

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