On the mind
By Times Wires
Published November 16, 2007
Biz tidbits from surveys
Stand behind your green promises
Consumers are ready to hold corporations liable for bad eco-faith. American consumers are increasingly interested in save-the-planet products, said a recent survey, and they want to see companies live up to "green" promises. BBMG partnered with research firm Global Strategy Group to conduct an unscientific online survey of more than 2,000 American adults in September.
- Americans surveyed overwhelmingly want to buy energy-efficient and eco-friendly products and support fair labor and trade, so long as price remains low and quality high.
- 66 percent of respondents cited quality as the most important factor when deciding when to buy.
- 58 percent listed price as the most important factor.
- Attributes such as a product's country of origin, how energy efficient it is and its health benefits were more important to consumers than convenience.
- Favorite socially responsible companies included Whole Foods Market and Newman's Own.
Adults still prefer e-mail to IM
Three-fourths of adults say they send more e-mails than instant messages, the reverse of teens, according to an Associated Press-AOL poll released Thursday. The online survey of 410 teens and 836 adults was conducted from Oct. 25 to Nov. 5 by Knowledge Networks. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 6 percentage points for teens and 4.3 points for adults.
- About eight in 10 adults who IM use it to send personal messages from work. About half of adult IMers say they log on to IM at least daily - slightly below the percentage of teens who do so that often.
- Teens dominate when it comes to high usage. One in 10 say they spend three hours or more a day instant messaging, about double the adult rate. Nearly a fifth, or 17 percent, send more than 100 IMs daily, about triple the number for adults.
- Adultsoutdo teens in only one activity while messaging - online shopping.
- AOL, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have the most popular messaging programs, collectively handling several billion IMs daily.
- People reported IMing slightly less than they did in a similar AP-AOL survey last year. Industry analysts said they believe IM usage is growing, and said people could be confused about whether to include IMs sent from phones and Web sites.