Consumers with a household income of $100K+ aren’t immune to the happenings in Washington. From an ailing economy to the proposed healthcare reform, these consumers appear concerned about Congress’s actions. They don’t know what’s going to transpire next, and they don’t like what they see so far, according to an analysis of BIGresearch’s Consumer Intentions and Actions (N=8,000+) and American Pulse Townhall Survey (N=4,000+).
Consumers continue to indicate they are frugal when it comes to spending and same store sales growth do not appear likely over the next 75 days for most retailers, according to the latest ForecastIQ™ analysis (a service from Prosper Technologies, LLC). However, retailers with a discount offering, such as Aeropostale, Ross and TJX are likely to see growth.
Marketers continue to grapple with effectively allocating media in a changing consumer-controlled marketplace in which social media is a growing force. According to a new analysis of BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Usage Survey (SIMM 14-Jun 09) of over 22,000 consumers, social media impacts consumers, which in turn directly impacts marketers, but not all options are the same. Social media users are likely to use more than one platform, some at a higher rate than others. For example, 60.2% of MySpace Users (those who regularly use the application) regularly use Facebook. On the other hand only 24% of Facebook Users utilize MySpace.
Almost thirty percent of Americans say the stimulus may not stimulate them to spend and instead will save their extra cash, according to the February American Pulse™ (N=4910). 24% will put it towards credit card bills and 20.3% will pay down installment loans. When it comes to the stimulus bill, close to two-thirds (66.1%) don’t believe that Congress read and understood the close to 1,100 pages before they voted on it. Further, 47.3% say that members of Congress used it to promote their own agendas.
On average, Chinese consumers age 18 to 34 save 14% of their annual income, almost doubling that of Americans the same age (9%). Positive economic growth plus high consumer savings rates is a formula for strong consumer confidence among young Chinese consumers.