On-liners want easy access, ease of use

Consumer use of on-line services and the Internet will continue increasing dramatically over the next 12 months, according to a recent survey by Response Analysis Corp., Princeton, N.J. Telephone interviews with households with annual income of $35,00 or more found record levels of online service and Internet use along with plans to add online access capabilities. More than 60 percent of these households have at least one personal computer, 38 percent report having data or fax modems, 18 percent use on-line services, and 10 percent access the Internet. In addition, many current nonusers report plans to acquire such services over the next year. Response Analysis predicts a 20 percent increase in the number of on-line service users and an even more significant increase in the number of Internet users by next summer.

Raymond Boggs, Response Analysis vice president, says that the explosion of on-line interest comes despite consumer concerns that could limit the appeal of the technology. "Many people are still shy about taking the on-line plunge," Boggs says. In addition, the gender gap is still fairly wide regarding on-line access: Only 42 percent of Internet households identify a female user, while more than 80 percent identify a male user.

Response Analysis research points to three inhibiting factors that could dampen the enthusiasm of both prospective and current users:

Fear of Nerding - Curiosity about on-line services can be offset by concern about the commitment required to be a successful user. Consumers with a general desire to be on-line literate are sometimes discouraged by the amount of effort they think is necessary to negotiate the Net. As new software tools make the benefits of on-line service more accessible, this concern will subside.

Post-Traumatic Web Syndrome - Once consumers do go on-line, they may find the experience less than satisfying. Providers of direct access to the Internet offer limited customer support, and some have been troubled with reliability problems as the number of users has increased. Even the major on-line services have been challenged to maintain support standards in the face of soaring subscriber enrollment. Although navigating the World Wide Web has become less complex in the past year, it can still be confusing for beginners. Some consumers enjoy the challenge of independent Web-browsing, but a growing number are more interested in the destination than the voyage. On-line dropouts rather than Nerd converts are the inevitable result of user frustration.

Windows 95 Overload - The advent of the new Microsoft operating system with Microsoft Network's point-and-click access will ultimately encourage on-line service growth. In the short term, however, it could have the opposite effect for current PC owners. Rather than simply decide to add on-line capabilities, consumers must consider whether to upgrade to the new operating system and then whether to use the built-in MSN access. As Windows 95 momentum builds, PC owners will also have to consider whether their existing hardware will be powerful enough to accommodate the new software. These considerations may cause potential on-line customers to delay making any decision at all.

Looking to the future, children will play an increasingly important role in expanding the number of on-line households. Focus groups conducted by Response Analysis indicate that the development of computer literacy in children - including the ability to communicate on the Internet - is a critical motivator in a PC purchase. Children also might be able to help their parents find the modems in their computers. "We know that virtually all computers sold at retail over the past five years are equipped with modems, yet only about three in five PC owners surveyed are aware that they even have a modem:' Boggs says. Response Analysis expects modem consciousness to increase as more households acquire PCs for the express purpose of going on-line.

The telephone survey was conducted in July with a random sample of 757 households with incomes of $35,000 or more and was directed by the Response Analysis Telecommunications and Information Technology Group.

Car buying men are tire kickers no more

Remember when Dad used to walk into a car dealership, kick a few tires of a wood paneled station wagon and haggle with the dealer over whether or not to pay extra for whitewalls? According to a survey, modern guys probably already know what car they're going to buy before they enter a dealer's showroom, and they're more than likely shopping when the dealer's home watching Sunday football games.

The survey, conducted by J.D. Power and Associates for Men's Health magazine reveals that nearly a third of the men surveyed (32 percent) say that they deliberately visited a closed dealership to examine cars and check prices. In fact, the survey "How Men Buy Their Cars" finds that men spend an enormous amount of time just thinking about what car to buy even before they step on the showroom floor or dealer lot.

The survey finds that nearly half (48 percent) of men say that they spend between three weeks and three months thinking about purchasing a new vehicle before they visit the dealership. Another quarter of men (26 percent) spend three months or more examining their options before they enter the dealer's showroom.

On average the survey finds that men spend 13.7 weeks (over three months) thinking about purchasing a new car, spending their time talking to others, reviewing information and planning their options.

"Men hunt for cars the wayan experienced tracker hunts for wild game," says Mike Lafavore, editor for Men' s Health magazine. "They spend a lot of time just planning their attack, arming themselves with the necessary weapons and stalking their prey when hopefully it can't see them."

How do men decide what cars to purchase or what dealerships to visit in the first place? According to the study, the three most important sources of information for men in choosing a make or model were ar­ticles in newspapers or magazines (42 percent), previous experience with the vehicle or manufacturer (41 per­cent), and recommendation of friends or relatives (29 percent). Among the survey's highlights:

  • Forty-one percent of men say they have already decided on the make of a vehicle before they visit a dealer­ship. Similarly, 41 percent of men say they have narrowed their choices to two to three makes of a vehicle before visiting a dealership.
  • Three out of four men (77 per­cent) had a price in mind prior to visiting a dealership.
  • Half of men (50 percent) say they had already decided on whether or not to purchase a domestic or im­ported car prior to visiting a dealer­ship.
  • Among those men (50 percent) who had already decided on whether or not to purchase a domestic or im­ported car prior to visiting a dealer­ship, 93 percent bought the national­ity they were predisposed to.
  • Nearly a third of men (29 percent) say that prior experience with a deal­ership and its location are very or somewhat very influential factors in their decision to purchase a car at that dealership.
  • Younger men (under age 50) were more likely to visit a dealership when it was closed. In fact, 66 percent of men who deliberately visited closed dealerships were under age 50.
  • The three most important factors for male auto shoppers in choosing a dealership were having the models they desired (48 percent), the service reputation of the dealership (45 per­cent), and the sales staff reputation (36 percent).
  • Convenience is not always a factor in choosing a dealership. In fact, 38 percent of men did not buy from a convenient "same make" dealership.
  • Why don't men buy from conve­nient dealerships? Key factors pre­venting them included high prices (48 percent), unavailability of models (29 percent), lack of trust in sales­people (27 percent), and a prior bad experience with the dealership cited by 16 percent of those surveyed.

Not surprisingly, Saturday is the most popular day for closing an auto sale, with twenty-one percent of men purchasing their car on that day. Tues­day was the second most popular day (17 percent) followed by Wednesday and Monday (14 percent). Sunday was the least popular day to close an auto deal, with only 4 percent of men pur­chasing their car on that day.

"How Men Buy Their Cars," was conducted for Men's Health by J.D. Power and Associates and is based on male respondents to their 1995 Power Car and Truck Media Reports who purchased their light vehicles between May of 1993 and April 1994 and were recontacted during February through April 1995. For more information call 610-967-5171.

Annuities growing in popularity

Many Americans, especially the older and more affluent consumers, are turning to annuities as a way to secure savings and defer taxes on earnings, according to a poll con­ducted by Chilton Research Services, Radnor, Pa.

"Annuities are especially attractive to older, affluent investors because they offer higher yields compared to money market funds and CDs and are less risky than investing in stocks and bonds," says Don Dietrich, Chilton Group vice president and head of its Business and Industry Services Divi­sion.

Like commodities, annuities strongly appeal to an older popula­tion segment. Two-thirds of annu­ities holders are 45 years or older and 41 percent are 55 years or older. Like investors in stocks and bonds, annu­ities holders tend to be affluent and well-educated with 40 percent earn­ing $50,000 or more a year. The poll shows that annuities are equally fa­vored by men and women and that most annuity holders also own stocks (54 percent) or mutual funds (59 per­cent).

The Chilton survey shows that nearly half of all Americans (46 per­cent) currently hold one or more of the following kinds of investments: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, com­modities or annuities. The most popu­lar type of investment is stocks (26 percent), followed by bonds (24 per­cent ) and mutual funds (22 percent). About one in seven Americans holds annuities (15 percent) and 3 percent own commodities.

The source of the data is the EX­PRESS Omnibus survey conducted by telephone on June 7-11, 1995 among a random national sample of 1,000 adults age 18 or older. The results have a margin or error of ±3 percentage points.

For more information about this survey or a copy of the latest report, "Profiles of Investors: Surveys of Consumers 1994-1995,"contactBar-bara Nuessle 610-964-4694.

Spices perceived as healthiest food ingredients

Americans rated spices as the healthiest food ingredients in a na­tional survey that tracked consumer opinions about food ingredients. Satu­rated fats, MSG, salt and caffeine were rated as least healthy. The sur­vey was conducted by CDB Research

& Consulting Inc., the research sub­sidiary of the public relations firm Creamer Dickson Basford, New York. Survey respondents were asked to rate the following food ingredients and additives using a scale of 1 to 10, where "10" means very healthy and "1" means very unhealthy.

Ingredient/Additive                      Rating

Spices such as garlic or pepper........ 7.8

Olive oil ........................................ 6.6

Corn oil......................................... 5.9

Soybean oil.................................... 5.7

Unsaturated fats............................. 5.5

Peanut oil....................................... 4.8

Sweeteners such as NutraSweet or saccharine............. 4.8

Sugar............................................. 4.4

Caffeine......................................... 3.4

Salt................................................ 3.3

MSG............................................... 2.5

Saturated fats................................. 2.1

"These results suggest that the efforts of nutritionists to communi­cate that spices are a healthy way to add flavor and excitement to food are working," says Penny Clark, M.S., R.D., and Creamer Dickson Basford's registered dietitian.

Larry Chiagouris, managing di­rector of CDB Research & Consult­ing says, "The low ratings of cer­tain ingredients - saturated fats, MSG, salt and caffeine - may be an indication that the public is re­acting to the ongoing media cover­age about the effect of these ingre­dients on their diets. On the other hand, the high ratings consumers gave to olive oil suggest olive oil manufacturers' efforts to create a health positioning for their product have been successful."

The company's proprietary Na­tional Research Panel follows con­sumer attitudes and trends, includ­ing perceptions about food and nu­trition issues. Survey question­naires were mailed to 1,079 Na­tional Research Panel members across the nation. A total of 356 completed and returned the survey, a response rate of 33 percent. For more information call David Kellis at 212-887-8015.

Few Spanish-speaking heads of household are registered to vote

A recent omnibus study with Spanish speaking female heads of household revealed that less than 40 percent of them are registered to vote. The study, by Hispanic Mar­keting Communication Research, Belmont, Calif., was conducted in Los Angeles, New York, and in Miami with a total of 900 respon­dents (300 per market).

Respondents in Los Angeles were considerably less likely than those in New York and Miami to be reg­istered to vote, only 15 percent in Los Angeles, as opposed to 36 per­cent and 39 percent in New York and Miami, respectively.

Some of these market differences in Hispanic voter registration are most likely due to differences in the composition of the Hispanic populations across markets. For example, one reason that Hispanics in New York may be more likely to be registered voters is that many of them are Puerto Rican, and there­fore have citizenship rights (due to Puerto Rico's commonwealth sta­tus). Likewise, the high representa­tion of Cubans among Miami His­panics may at least partially ex­plain why Miami Hispanics are more likely to vote than those in New York or Los Angeles. Cubans have been more likely than other Hispanics to become citizens be­cause of their antagonism towards the political regime in Cuba. Mexi­cans, who make up the overwhelm­ing majority of Hispanics in Los Angeles, are more likely to believe they will return one day to Mexico and thus may be less likely to be­come U.S. citizens.

The results of this research indi­cate that the more education Span­ish speaking Hispanics have, the more likely they are to be regis­tered voters. Higher exposure to mainstream English language me­dia is also associated with a higher likelihood of being registered to vote, suggesting that Spanish me­dia could play a more meaningful role in encouraging Hispanics to register to vote.

Hispanic women who have smaller households and who have been in the U.S. for longer periods of time were also more likely to be registered voters. Also, older and more economically prosperous Spanish speaking women heads of household were more likely to be registered voters.

The data shows that there are pro­found differences with respect to party affiliation among Hispanics from different countries of origin. The Hispanic groups most likely to vote Democratic are Dominicans (56 percent), followed by Mexicans (50 percent). Cubans are most likely to vote Republican (60 percent), compared to Hispanics from other countries of origin.

The implications of these trends are that political education and en­ticement to register to vote seem to be political priorities for Spanish speaking women in the U.S. For these primarily Spanish speaking Hispanics, information on voter reg­istration in Spanish might help to increase their likelihood to regis­ter. Since these findings also indi­cate that those who are not regis­tered tend to be less educated, it would be important for this infor­mation to be clear.

Another crucial implication of these findings is that while many politicians may think of Hispanics as a monolithic group, there are very significant differences within the Hispanic community with re­spect to not only the likelihood of being a registered voter but also with respect to party affiliation.

The omnibus study was conducted during August 1995 with female heads of household who reported speaking Spanish at home most of the time. The margin of error is +5 percent. For more information, call Rebecca Abravanel at 415-595-5028.