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Meet the new debt addicts
Angry activists let the air out of DKNY bike campaign
InsideTrip puts quality control in the traveler’s hands
Middle-class millionaires feel the heat
They make up 8.4 million households in the U.S. They have a net worth between $1 million and $10 million. And more than three-quarters of them are super-nervous. They’re the “middle-class millionaires,” and the slowing economy has them sweating bullets and pinching pennies (Forbes.com 2.26.08). According to Russ Alan Prince, author of the book The Middle-Class Millionaire, 78% of middle-class millionaires are extremely concerned about being able to maintain their current financial situation. So what are they doing to ease the tension? 21% of them have slowed down spending, though they’re not putting the dough toward discount goods. They’re simply scrimping. The working rich are the folks who have all the cool goods and gadgets. They’re the affluent influencers who define aspirations for everyone else. Luxury goods will take another blow as even the rich trade wants for needs. Just because it’s a luxury item doesn’t mean it’s valuable. When it comes to high-end goods, ISM believes consumers have begun looking for a few more incentives to go along with the brand names. If they’re forking over big bucks for an item, consumers want it to come with a big badge of honor: Is it rare? Is it eco-friendly? Will it be gone if I don’t act now? It might be boutique-chic, but what does it reveal about my values?
Get a shot of this: Webcams in bars make the virtual scene
It’s Friday night—do you know what your local bar scene is doing? Consumers can find out on websites that aggregate continuously streaming webcam footage from area bars. Sites like BarSeenLive.com, Barmigo.com and BarOptic.com show potential patrons, via their computer or cell phone screen, that a bar is crowded, empty or just right for the night. Privacy? The videos aren’t stored and there’s no audio; essentially they’re taking pictures of people, which is legal. Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your business. ISM says it might not be for everyone, but many consumers are enthralled by innovation, interaction and the reality-TV element of webcams.
Meet the new debt addicts
Buried alive? Maybe. Americans of all income levels are amassing debt, a new market study by BIGresearch reveals. In fact, 80% of Americans are burdened by—and becoming buried in—serious financial obligations (MarketWatch.com 3.2.08). The most startling fact? Those earning wages well above average are also drowning in debt. About 30% of respondents making more than $75,000 a year say they squeak by until payday. And more than half of the respondents in that higher-income group said they don’t have enough in savings. We’ve mentioned the decline in discretionary spending and that even the superrich are cutting back on luxury goods. Consumers are looking for ways to regulate and control spending as the future looks increasingly tough. How can businesses capture these dollars? ISM thinks the key comes down to one word, value. Make sure there’s a return on investment—consumers want more than simple indulgences. They want to be certain they’re spending money on goods that will give back—in use, memories, time and more.
Angry activists let the air out of DKNY bike campaign
Guerilla marketing is all the rage, but ISM suggests you watch your step. During Fashion Week 2008 in Manhattan, Donna Karan attempted a hipster guerrilla campaign. The company painted dozens of clunker bikes bright orange, branded them with the DKNY logo, and then locked them up all over the city. The bicycle is a hip and growing subcultural icon. Unfortunately, the campaign looked like an appropriation of the “ghost bike” movement—an international grassroots movement that commemorates the sites of fatal bike accidents with abandoned clunker bikes painted white. The outcry from the tight-knit cycling community was swift and angry, and many of the bikes were spontaneously vandalized. Using bikes in a spring-line ad campaign? Cool. Painting them orange and parking them around town? Not so cool. ISM knows that appropriating sub-cultural symbols for marketing purposes can be a dangerous game. Even casual observers called the campaign tone-deaf. To many consumers, the bicycle represents high moral ground in terms of personal and planetary health. Mobilizing it as a marketing vehicle, free of any cause consideration, is a mistake.
InsideTrip puts quality control in the traveler’s hands
Finicky flyers are one step closer to boarding their ideal flight. InsideTrip.com is a free service that enables travelers to narrow down flight options based on their pet peeves, uh, preferences. Customers input the essential info and as many as 12 criteria: how much legroom is available, how old the plane is, how likely an airline is to lose your luggage, gate location, etc. Search results come back with all the usual information (flight times, price) plus an overall TripQuality score. Best in flight gets 100. It’s not always about more choices; sometimes it’s about better choices. ISM believes that letting consumers plan their travel experience based on their personal points of pain can create an experience that feels highly customized and empowering. Even the savviest Web surfers can feel choice fatigue. What’s easier than having all your choices boil down to a single number? A familiar point of reference (100 = perfection) lets consumers feel like they’re getting closer to an ideal.
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A Harris Interactive poll finds that 95% of people believe it is at least somewhat important that companies know “who I am, my buying history, past problems or complaints, preferences and billing record,” while 37% said knowledge of personal history is important, and 27% called it “very important.”
-- Advertising Age 3.10.08
Analysts at J.D. Power and Associates say gasoline would have to hit the $4 mark and stay there for six months or so before consumers would radically change their driving habits.
-- MLive.com (Michigan) 3.4.08
People are 84% more likely to recall a “vanity” 800 phone number (such as 1-800-FLOWERS) than a numeric 800 number in visual advertisements, and they’re nine times as likely to remember vanity phone numbers than numeric phone numbers in radio ads, says vanity-number service provider 800response.
-- EPMCom.com 2.25.08
Participation levels of online wealthy consumers in leading social networks are 16% for MySpace, 13% for LinkedIn and 11% for Facebook. Wealthy people average membership in 2.8 social networks, with an average of 110 connections.
-- MarketingVOX.com 3.13.08
Flexibility that contributes to better work-life balance is the most important job factor for nearly one in three U.S. workers, according to a Hudson survey; 23% of employees still rank pay as the top item when considering jobs, but 29% want occupations that provide better work-life balance.
-- Workforce Management 3.18.08
Many consumers have embraced the concept of buying items online for in-store pickup, according to a study by Krillion and the E-Tailing group: 55% of the shoppers surveyed have purchased a product this way, while for sophisticated, Web-informed buyers this number is 60%.
-- MediaPost.com 3.25.08
About 36% of adults say they buy green products on a regular basis. According to a recent survey by Mintel, that number is up from 12% last year.
-- Progressive Grocer 3.19.08
A July 2007 Gallup poll indicates that, of Americans who consume alcohol, 40% consider beer their beverage of choice, over wine and spirits.
-- WineSpiritsDaily.com 7.30.07
According to a National Sleep Foundation survey, most people average six hours, 40 minutes of sleep a night on weeknights, even though they estimated they’d need roughly another 40 minutes of sleep to be at their best. Roughly one third said they had become very sleepy at work in the past month.
-- AP 3.4.08
People are more likely to do background research on a product than execute the purchase online, according to a Pew Internet Project survey released in February 2008. Some 60% of Americans say they have used the Internet for product-related research in September 2007, up from 35% who had done this in June 2000.
-- Center for Media Research 2.28.08
About 23% of U.S. mobile phone users have seen advertising on their cell phones in the last 30 days, and about half responded to the ads, according to a Nielsen report.
-- Boston Globe 3.4.08
A U of Virginia study showed that 92% of in-store consumers would rather be offered a free sample than a coupon; 70% will try a sample offered to them; almost 40% buy the product they’ve sampled. Sales of sampled foods spike as much as 300% on the day they’re sampled.
-- Hartford Courant 3.6.08
For online classifieds such as Craig’s List, in a September 2007 Pew Internet Project survey, 24% of Americans report having used them, an increase from the 14% who said this in February 2005.
-- Center for Media Research 2.28.08
Americans spent $5.7 billion on yoga classes and products (such as equipment, clothing, DVDs) in 2007, up 87% from 2004, according to Yoga Journal.
-- EPMCom.com 3.10.08
According to the NPD Group, 5.6% of Americans started their day with tea in 2007, up from 4.7% in 1997. During that same period, morning coffee drinkers dropped from 36% to 31%.
-- Boston Herald 3.16.08
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