KEY FINDINGS NEWSLETTER
Summer 2003 Advertising Issue

What Americans Are Worried About
The cost of healthcare tops Americans' list of concerns according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. See the chart below for a list of other major concerns.

Cool Behavior in High School
According to the Brookings Institution, most high school students say that good studying habits and enthusiasm for school are considered cool behavior. Their opinions on other behaviors are detailed in the chart below.

Defining Success
In the past decade, people have begun to downscale and look more to experiences than possessions for their sense of success. About 86% say they prefer spending money on enriching experiences than possessions, up from 65% in 1991. Two-thirds think that although Americans may be as well off in the future as they were in the past, such a downscaling may be better for their moral character and could make them happier in the long run. Seventy-three percent feel integrity is more important than success, up from 58% in 1999.

Researching Purchases Online
American shoppers continue to research many purchases online. A survey conducted during February 2003 shows that most people (64.4%) find applicable web sites via direct navigation, up from 48.2% in February 2001. The use of search engines and web links fell in popularity from 51.9% to 35.6% during that same time.

The chart below shows how shoppers found the web sites used in their research during the month of December 2002.

Organic Food Sales Growing
While the organic food market was $1 billion in 1990, it is currently $11 billion strong and expected to reach $20 billion by 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association. While considered a fad for years, this rapid growth and the fact that Middle America now embraces it, means organic is here to stay. For example, about 40% of organic food is now sold in conventional grocery stores such as Safeway and Kroger. Even Wal-Mart has begun carrying it. At least one in every five households purchases organic food occasionally or more often. And, compared to conventional foods, organic sales are growing five times faster.

Online Content Sales
The amount Americans spent for online content increased 95% between 2001 and 2002 to reach $1.3 billion. The top three categories showing the most growth are personals/dating, business content/investment, and entertainment/lifestyles. The chart below shows the demand change for these and several other online content categories.

Medical Errors
About 42% of the American public and 35% of medical doctors report that they or their family members have personally experienced medical errors in the course of receiving care. These errors resulted in one or more serious health consequences for 24% of the public and 18% of doctors. Those consequences include death (10% of public and 7% of doctors), long-term disability (11% and 6%, respectively) and severe pain (16% and 11% respectively). Only 33% say they were apologized to for the error. The chart below shows the perceived causes of medical errors.

Consumer Response to Drug Ads
Consumer recall for prescription drug advertisements increased from 47% to 60% between February 2002 and February 2003. The current top ranking categories are allergy, behavioral disorders, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and female health. The top ranking brands are Viagra, Nexium, Imitrex, Lipitor and Ortho Tri-cyclen.

Even though recall is up, consumer response hasn't changed significantly. For example, about 15% of consumers (compared to 12% in 2002) were reminded by the ads to refill a current prescription. There was no increase in the proportion prompted to talk with their doctor about a drug they saw advertised; this remained at 20%.

Bullets

• Baby Boomers' (age 37-55) favorite television shows while they were growing up were Star Trek (37%), The Twilight Zone (30%) and Laugh-In (21%).

• Most Americans (88%) believe that at least one-half or more adults drink alcohol regularly. However, only 30% have an alcoholic beverage at least once a week.

• The most-often produced operas between 1993 and 2003 are La Boheme (192 productions), Madama Butterfly (176), La Traviata (165) and Carmen (159).

• Two-thirds (67%) of adults believe in other forms of intelligent life in the universe. Almost half (48%) believe that UFOs have visited Earth and 53% say they are interested in having personal encounters with extraterrestrial life forms.

• Almost one in eight (12%) Americans met their spouse or partner in the workplace.

• Three in five (60%) Baby Boomers trust the media less now than they did five years ago.

• According to Redbook magazine, about one-half of stay-at-home moms and 44% of women who work part-time say they are very happy, compared to 38% of those with full-time jobs.

• Annual automobile insurance for a mid-size car costs from a high of $3,888 in Detroit, Michigan down to $670 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

• Of women-owned companies, the fastest growth from 1997 to 2002 was in construction (36%); agricultural services (27%); and transportation, communications and public utilities (24% each).

• Eight in 10 (80%) Americans claim that no entertainment personality can affect their feelings about a given political issue. However, 20% say they are either more or less willing to see, hear or read a celebrity's work due to the celebrity's political involvement.

• Almost one-third of residential and commercial waste generated in municipal collections was recycled in 2000. This is up from 16% in 1990.

• Women currently fill an estimated 12-15% of school district superintendent positions, even though they dominate the teaching profession and fill one-third of assistant superintendent jobs.

• Some 90% of new car buyers (or those who leased) in the last three years said that safety is an important factor in their purchase decision; 59% said it was a very important factor. This is up from 78% and 46%, respectively, in 1999.

• Middle and junior high school kids say that cool clothes (64%), being attractive (61%), being funny (60%), being good at sports (55%) and being outgoing (51%) are traits of those in the most popular crowd.

• Around 50% of cats and dogs are overweight, up from 25% in the 1980s.

• If Americans also unplugged their televisions when they turned them off, they would save 8.45 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year (approximately twice the amount produced by the Hoover Dam).

• The U.S. is the only major importer of goods and services and is responsible for 20% of global demand. All other countries in the world are net exporters.

• About 65 million trees are cut down to make the 500 pieces of junk mail sent each year to every American.

• Of the 6,200 baseball players in the minor leagues, about 46% were born outside the U.S.

• American children see 40,000 television ads each year, up from 20,000 in the 1970s.

• Since the 1970s, the number of weather-related disasters has increased fivefold in the U.S. and quadrupled worldwide.

• The number of spas in the U.S. grew to 9,632 in 2002, up from 5,689 in 2000.

• Spam e-mail attacks grew from 3 million in January 2002 to 6 million in January 2003. These e-mails most often offer products (33%), financial "opportunities" (24%), and adult material (18%).

• Online Americans say they prefer to communicate with their friends and family via the telephone (56%), e-mail (30%), regular mail (9%), depends/don't know (4%). For business communications at work, users prefer to use e-mail (43%), telephone (33%), regular mail (17%), depends/don't know (7%).

• One in 2.8 e-mails is spam and one in 270.7 contains a computer virus.

• Almost one-half (44.2%) of Europeans age 35-64 have high blood pressure, compared to 27.8% of Americans in this same age group.

• The average length of a hospital stay dropped to 4.9 days in 2001 from 7.8 days in 1970.

• Forty-one percent of households bought prescription drugs in 2002; 12% of these purchased at least one prescription online.

• Two-thirds of children and teens (age 8-15) spend at least five hours online each week.

• American consumers' most trusted advertising formats are word-of-mouth (61%), print ads (47%), television ads (42%), e-mail subscriptions (39%), radio (35%), direct mail (21%) and outdoor ads (20%). The most annoying ones are pop-up ads (83%), door-to-door solicitation (78%), spam e-mail (77%), web site banner ads (53%), infomercials (39%), direct mail (31%), and paid search engine listings (29%).

• Even though 93% of Americans live in areas served by two or more local telephone companies from which they can choose, only 36% are aware that they have a choice.

• In only four years, DVD players are now in 35% of American households, compared to the eight years it took CD players to break into 25% of homes and the 12 years it took VCRs.

• More than one-third (36.2%) of U.S. internet users says that web site design is "very important" when deciding whether to shop with a company online. Another 28.7% say that the design is "extremely important," while 13.5% say it is "somewhat important" and 3.6% say it is "not very important."

• Cosmetic surgery procedures showing the most growth between 2001 and 2002 were abdominoplasty, also called tummy tuck, (17%); breast augmentation (15%); breast reduction (8%); facelift (6%); and breast lift (4%). Those losing ground were thigh lifts (down 31%), buttock lifts (down 25%), hair transplants (down 18%), and lip augmentation (down 15%).

• Over one-half (55%) of Americans say they would rather walk than drive during the day, either for exercise or to get to specific locations. Driving is chosen over walking most often by people because of the distance they must travel to get to stores, restaurants and schools.

• The U.S. birth rate was 14 births per 1,000 total population in 2001. This was 16% lower than in 1990 and is a record low.

• States where more than one-third of their population was without health insurance during all or part of 2001 and 2002 are Texas (39.9%), New Mexico (38.6%), Louisiana (36.0%), California (35.5%), Mississippi (34.9%), Arizona (34.7%), Arkansas (34.0%), Florida (33.8%) and Oklahoma (33.7%).

• Americans eat 58 quarts of popped popcorn per capita each year. About 70% is eaten at home.

• About 44% of all American households contain at least one person on a diet.

• Employees who work where they do not have a window to look through call in sick 23% more often than those who can see grass or trees through their windows.

• The U.S. homicide rate in 2000 was about one-half (5.5 per 100,000 population) of what it was in 1980 (10.2 per 100,000). In 1950, it was 4.6 per 100,000.

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