American Idol leaves research firm idle
Omaha, Neb., research firm the MSR Group reported in May that American Idol was hurting its interviewers’ production. According to statistics gathered by the company over a two-week period, Americans were less likely to answer their phones on nights the popular television singing competition airs, particularly during the “Idol Gives Back ” episode.
“Over the two weeks, we saw our interviewers’ production levels go down significantly on American Idol nights. The rates went from 3.2 completed surveys per hour to about 2.5, a 22 percent decrease. The biggest drop occurred during the ‘Idol Gives Back’ episode, where we saw a 41 percent decrease,” said Dick Worick, president and CEO of The MSR Group. “Production rates remained normal on all other days of the week and even for other times of the day.”
The reduction in response levels led the company to change its staffing patterns on Idol nights.
Now playing: grills gone wild
According to the NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y., grilling in America has nearly doubled in 20 years, reaching an all-time high. And while summer is still the most popular time of year to barbecue, grilling throughout the year is on the rise.
In 1985, 17 percent of households used a grill at dinner at least once during an average two-week period throughout the year; in 2006, it was 32 percent.
Summer remains the most popular season for grilling, with about 50 percent of households using their grills. Although summer grilling has remained steady over the last 10 years, grilling throughout the year has grown. Fall in particular has grown by 6 percent over the past decade in terms of household grill usage. Spring has grown by 5 percent; winter has grown by 4 percent.
Undoubtedly, the reason for off-season increases in usage is due to the increase in grill ownership. According to NPD’s Kitchen Audit data, the majority of consumers now own an outdoor gas grill over a charcoal grill.
According to NPD’s 21st annual Eating Patterns in America, 35 percent of women say they “never” prepare meals on the grill, while 40 percent of men say they “always” prepare meals on the grill.
Compact fluorescents flunking the ‘wife test’
As reported by Blaine Harden in The Washington Post , America’s wives may be the biggest barrier standing in the way of wide acceptance of compact fluorescents (CFLs).
Harden chronicled the experience of Oregon couple Alex and Sara Sifford and Alex’s ongoing efforts to get his wife to warm up to the energy-saving bulbs by sneaking them into fixtures around the house. “What really got me was when my husband put a fluorescent in the lamp next to my bed,” said Sara Sifford, who claimed that she yelled at her husband for “violating the last vestige of my personal space.”
Experts on energy consumption call it the “wife test.” And fluorescent bulbs still seem to be flunking out in most American homes. “There is still a big hurdle in convincing Americans that lighting-purchase decisions make a big difference in individual electricity bills and collectively for the environment,” said Wendy Reed, director of the federal government’s Energy Star campaign.
“I have heard time and again that a husband goes out and puts the bulb into the house, thinking he is doing a good thing,” Reed said. “Then, the CFL bulb is changed back out by the women. It seems that women are much more concerned with how things look. We are the nesters.”
The current generation of CFLs suffer from the transgressions of their predecessors. Earlier fluorescents were bulky and expensive, they flickered and hummed and they cast an unflattering light.
A new breed of bulbs solves most, if not all, of the old gripes. They are smaller and cheaper. Most bulbs pay for themselves in reduced power consumption within six months. They last seven to 10 years longer than incandescent bulbs. The hum and flicker are gone, and many bulbs are designed to mimic the soothing, yellowish warmth of incandescent bulbs.
Still, many consumers - especially women - are left cold. A Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that while women are more likely than men to say they are “very willing” to change behavior to help the environment, they are less likely to have CFL bulbs at home. Wal-Mart company research shows a similar disconnect between the pro-environmental attitudes of women shoppers and their in-store purchases of CFL bulbs.
Utility company surveys show the same gender-based bulb-buying pattern in the Pacific Northwest, which has the highest CFL market share in the nation, about 11 percent. Men have been aware of CFLs longer than women, have bought them earlier and have installed more of them in the house than women, according to surveys that the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance has been conducting since 2004.
In groceries and drugstores, where 70 percent to 90 percent of light bulbs historically have been sold and where women usually have been the ones doing the buying, CFLs have not taken off nearly as fast as they have in home-improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, where men do much of the shopping. “My gut feeling is that the last remaining factor that we have not cracked in selling these bulbs is the ‘wife test,’” said My Ton, a senior manager at Ecos Consulting, a Portland, Ore., firm that does market research on energy efficiency.
A major part of the CFL problem in penetrating the American home “is a lack of communication between the sexes,” Ton said. “The guy typically brings a CFL home and just screws it into a lamp in the bedroom, without discussing it with his wife. She walks in, turns on the light and boom - there is trouble. That is where the negative impressions begin, especially when the guy puts it into the bedroom or the bathroom, the two most sacred areas of the home.”
Ton advises husbands and wives “to talk about it before the light bulb is screwed in.”
“Fluorescent Bulbs Are Known to Zap Domestic Tranquillity - Energy-Savers a Turnoff for Wives,” The Washington Post , April 30, 2007