Wealthy

Graduation season is here, and Americans will shell out $4.6 billion to reward high school and college seniors, per results from a survey conducted for the NRF by BIGinsight. Gift-givers will spend about $94 on average, or $49 per recipient, down from last year's $100 average. Unlike other events and holidays tracked by the NRF, which have seen increases in spending this year, total projected spending on graduation gifts this year is down from last year's forecast of $4.7 billion. Read more »

Wealthy consumers are as likely to make purchases in-store as online, and few have embraced showrooming, loosely defined as the practice of checking out a product in-store before buying online. According to new research from the Luxury Institute, 78% of wealthy consumers (earning at least $150,000 a year) had bought something in a store in the previous 12 months, and 77% had ordered something online via computer. Only 1 in 4 reported buying online after checking out merchandise in-store (the study did not mention the use of a mobile device in-store). Read more »

The influence of mobile devices on local content continues to grow, details the Local Search Association in a new study [pdf] prepared using comScore data. According to the study, 48% of mobile phone users accessed local content in December 2012, up from 42% a year earlier. And that figure should only grow alongside rising smartphone penetration: smartphone users were more than 5 times as likely as non-smartphone users to access local content (77% vs. 14%). In fact, a significant 24% of traffic to online directories and other local resources came from mobiles and tablets in December 2012, quadruple the 6% share from a year earlier. Read more »

87% of Mass Affluents (current investors with $100,000 - $1 million in assets, excluding the value of their homes) have used social media in the past year, with about three-quarters using Facebook, half using LinkedIn, and roughly one-quarter on Twitter, per results [download page] from a study conducted by LinkedIn in partnership with Cogent Research. Almost 40% of Mass Affluents report using social media for discovery (21%) or consideration (32%) of financial companies: interestingly, they're more likely to learn about financial information through an ad or brand content than through an individual. Read more »

The Great Recession widened the wealth gap between whites and minorities in the US, according to [pdf] a new report from the Urban Institute. Between 2007 and 2010, Hispanic families lost 44% of their average wealth (measured as total assets minus total liabilities and debts), compared to a 31% loss for blacks and a relatively more modest 11% decline for whites. Hispanics were particularly hard hit by the real estate collapse, with their average home equity plummeting by 49%. Read more »

Although they watch less TV during the day, wealthy households (income of more than $100k per year) still make up more than one-fifth share of primetime viewing, virtually unchanged from last year (20.6%) and the year before (22.2%). The data is part of Nielsen's "Advertising & Audiences" report [download page], which analyzes the distribution of primetime TV viewing by income and education level, also finding that primetime viewing among homes headed by a college graduate remains steady at about one-quarter share. Read more »

A research study [pdf] conducted in the UK between October 2011 and November 2012 by Tremor Video and the IAB UK has found that video-on-demand (VOD) campaigns can serve as an effective complement to TV advertising, increasing both brand awareness and message association, particularly among light TV viewers. In one campaign, 29% of survey respondents in the UK who watched TV and VOD ads correctly associated the brand with its messages prior to the brand's campaign, with that figure rising to 48% after the brand's 2-month TV and VOD campaign, higher than the 43.6% among those only exposed to the TV ads. Read more »

The "world's most valuable audience" has been identified, at least according to [download page] a new report from Turn. These 2% of global consumers - the "global digital elite" - see 24 times as many ads as the average consumer, and are so prized by marketers that they command 85% higher eCPMs than average. So who are they? They're young, urban, have above-average income (typically $76k and up), and have an affinity for gadgets. They also love to shop, are interested in fashion, and have diverse media tastes. Read more »

Bad customer service experiences are more likely to be shared than good ones, according to results from a ZenDesk-sponsored survey conducted by Dimensional Research. Separate results from the survey [pdf] indicate that not only are bad service experiences shared often, they're also likely to have a long-term impact on customers. Respondents were asked to think about experiences with mid-sized B2B or B2C companies whose good or bad customer service impacted their behavior. Fully 39% of respondents who had a bad experience said their behavior was impacted for at least 2 years after the negative experience. Read more »

A comprehensive study of multiculturalism in America by Geoscape determines that Asian and Hispanic households will outspend non-Hispanic White households in their lifetimes. The study (executive summary download page here) pegs consumer spending for the remaining lifetime of an average Asian household at roughly $2.4 million, compared to slightly less than $2 million for Hispanics, about $1.6 million for Whites, and $1.3 million for Blacks. Read more »