••• leisure research
Gardening is, uh, growing
Baseball may be the nation’s unofficial pastime but gardening continues to make gains. The $36.9-billion-dollar DIY yard and garden industry is growing at a slow and steady rate, led by Millennials and by growth in food gardening, according to this year’s National Gardening Survey from the National Garden Marketing Research Company.
“While headlines may not be as dramatic as in 2015, when spending finally leapt out of the recession, the 2016 National Gardening Survey shows steady consumer consolidation,” says industry analyst Ian Baldwin, who contributed to the report.
Seventy-four percent of all U.S. households participated in lawn and garden activities in 2016, up from 70 percent of households in both 2013 and 2014, but just slightly below 2016. The average amount spent per household was $407.
“Though overall gains were small, the 2016 data indicates that consumers are feeling more confident in their discretionary spending of both time and dollars with regard to gardening,” says Baldwin.
Flower gardening made a moderate comeback while water gardening showed remarkable growth to an all-time high participation rate of 19 percent.
While the survey finds DIY gardening is now a $36.9B industry, “do it for me” shows strong growth as more affluent consumers pay others to do the work. The number of households purchasing landscape design, installation and maintenance services has doubled in the past six years.
••• pharmaceutical research
Docs offer poor diagnosis for pharma Web sites
Physicians value useful content from pharma companies that helps them do their jobs and manage care better but physicians feel few are doing a good job of providing quality digital content and say most of what they get from drug companies online is advertising, according to a study by Manhattan Research, Burlington, Mass.
The findings, based on a survey of U.S. physicians across 25+ specialties, show that 27 percent of physicians say they find pharma Web sites to be a credible source of professional information. Seventy percent of physicians agree “it is crucial that pharma companies provide education resources rooted in science to gain my trust.”
However, 62 percent of physicians agree the info pharma companies provide on third-party Web sites for health care professionals is “always ads” for their products and 34 percent say they trust the information provided on these Web sites. Nearly half (49 percent) of physicians who watch professional online video agree it influences their clinical decisions but 52 percent say they don’t think any pharma company is doing a good job at providing quality physician video content.