Research

Consumers have once again found a little extra money to add to their holiday budgets this year, according to the findings of a new National Retail Federation (NRF) survey. The NRF 2004 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch for NRF, found that the average consumer plans to spend $702.03 on the holidays, up 4.5 percent over last year. Total holiday spending this year is estimated to reach $219.9 billion.

Nielsen Media Research announced that Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO of the NAACP, has endorsed the use of Local People Meters (LPMs) as a “more accurate and reliable way of tracking household viewing habits” in local markets around the country.

A new study from the Pew Hispanic Center finds that the wealth gap between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White households has increased in the recent past. And the gap in wealth is far greater than the gap in income.

As the fastest growing minority group in the US, the Hispanic market is capturing the attention of marketers, advertisers and companies representing all sectors of the business community.

Households with higher incomes or children are much more likely to own a range of media technologies, from PCs to high-speed Internet access to DVD players, according to a new report series from Knowledge Networks/SRI. By comparison, the “digital divide” between different ethnic and age groups is less severe, though still substantial in some cases.

NOP World announced that Mercedes, BMW and Toyota are the world’s most advocated brands according to its 2004 Global Advocacy Study of 43 companies that queried over 30,000 consumers across 30 countries. Over half of the customer base of these companies is classified as “active brand advocates,” individuals so passionate about a particular brand that they are likely to help spread the word about its benefits and recommend its products.

Euro RSCG Worldwide has just released an online survey of more than 13,000 respondents in six countries. With just under 2,000 US respondents, this comprehensive survey of consumers’ attitudes, compiled in June with analyses completed this month, reveals some striking results on the threats Americans perceive they face.

As part of the activities of the third Asociación de Ejecutivos de Ventas y Mercadeo de Puerto Rico (SME) convention, a study titled Tendencia M: Perfil del hombre Puertorriqueño moderno will be presented. This presentation will take place on Saturday October 30th at 10 am at the Westin Rio Mar Beach.

Consumers are educating themselves about the pending RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags about to be implemented by major retailers across the country according to the new Consumer RFID Buzz survey conducted by BIGresearch and Artafact LLC.

According to a new analysis from Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI), 8.1% of U.S. households do not have landline telephones, up sharply from just 4.2% in the spring of 2000.

Non-landline consumers-those who have chosen to rely solely on cellphones or no phone at all-are traditionally downscale. But the non-landline consumers of 2004 are increasingly younger and more upscale, according to MRI. In the spring of 2000, the median age for the non-landline population was 23% below that of the general adult population. By the spring of 2004, it was 30% lower.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) praised Nielsen Media Research, the television ratings company, for its commitment to explore ways of better understanding gay and lesbian market demographics.

Geoscape International will unveil its current and forecasted geo-demographic data set on October 7th at the Multicultural Market Intelligence Summit-which takes place on October 6-8 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami. The “American Marketscape DataStream: 2005 Series” goes into unprecedented depth and breadth to accurately measure the American population, which special emphasis on cultural segments such as Hispanic, Asian, African American and other ethnic groups.

Following years of pleading from Madison Avenue, Nielsen Media Research Monday quietly told its clients it would finally make TV commercial ratings available beginning in October 2005.

Texas edged closer to joining “majority-minority” Hawaii, California, New Mexico and the District of Columbia, according to new state and county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin of the U.S. Census Bureau.