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Consumers who own tablets are adopting new communications habits, but are also making fewer visits to stores, according to multimarket research.

InMobi (@inmobi), the mobile advertising network, and Mobext (@mobext), the agency run by Havas, polled 8,400 people in India, France, South Korea, the UK, and US, finding 69% of tablet owners shopped via the devices in the 30 days before the survey.

·         Over 20% of tablet early adopters claim to have made less trips to brick-and-mortar stores after obtaining the device. A third of people yet to own such an appliance hope to buy one in the next 6 months.

·         61% of the existing tablet community says this channel plays a key role in building brand awareness when used at home, as do 58% for "active evaluation," and 63% for completing transactions.

·         58% of people with an iPad or similar offering access content - and especially rich media - in short bursts throughout the day, as do 56% of their smartphone counterparts.

·         72% watch TV and use their slate simultaneously; 20% spend more time in front of the television having bought a tablet.

·         51% of tablet owners say using it fills "dead time;" 49% share it with family members.

·         44% "would not want to be separated" from their tablet.

·         42% say tablets have "revolutionized" the way they communicate with friends and colleagues.

·         Tablet users shop more on their device than PC and smartphone users.

Read this in full.

Read the news release.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish your content for tablets.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

In Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly), Joe Wikert (@jwikert), general manager, publisher, & chair of Tools of Change for Publishing (@ToC) (#toccon), asks bookstores, “What business are you really in?” Simply selling books, he says, is too narrow. He challenges sellers to focus on their unique benefits, such as personalized service and community-building.

Despite the sluggish economy of the last few years, some bricks-and-mortar retailers have found ways to grow their business. Apple is a terrific example. Regardless of whether you’re an Apple fan, there’s always something new and interesting to discover in an Apple store. I can’t tell you the last time I felt that way about a bookstore. I’m not talking about eye candy or glitzy merchandising; when you enter an Apple store you know you’re in for a treat.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if customers entering your bookstore had that same feeling? I realize Apple can invest a lot in its store experience because it’s selling higher-priced items, but maybe that means you need to look beyond simply selling $20 or $30 books. I’m not talking about adding stationery and toys, like some bookstores have done over the years. It’s time to think much bigger.

Take a page out of Apple’s playbook and create a genius bar service for customers interested in self-publishing. Establish your location as the place to go for help in navigating the self-publishing waters. Remember, too, that most of the income earned in self-publishing is tied to services, e.g., editing, cover design, proofreading, and not necessarily sales of the finished product. Consider partnering with an established expert in these areas or build your own network of providers. The critical point is to evolve your business into something more than just selling books.

Read this in full.

Also see the Forbes (@Forbes) article by Phil Johnson (@philjohnson), "The Man Who Took On Amazon and Saved a Bookstore," about Jeff Mayersohn and Harvard Book Store (@HarvardBooks). And "Inside Amazon's Idea Machine: How Bezos Decodes The Customer" by George Anders (@GeorgeAnders).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you “think bigger.”

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

For all the technology we have, it doesn’t seem to be bringing us much happiness, according to a recent survey conducted by research firm Market Probe International and integrated marketing communications agency Euro RSCG Worldwide (@EuroRSCG).

This Digital Life (@prosumer_report) surveyed the opinions of 7,213 people in 19 markets and discovered that

·         55% of respondents believe technology is robbing us of our privacy, while more than half of Millennials worry that a family member or friend will post inappropriate personal information about them online.

·         42% of consumers believe it’s "too soon to tell" whether new technology will have a bad effect on society. 10% already believe the impact is negative.

·         60% say it’s "wrong" for people to share a lot of their personal experiences and feelings online.

·         58% agree people are "losing the ability to engage in civil debate."

·         1 in 3 Millennials say sites such as Facebook and Twitter make them "less satisfied" with their lives.

·         40% of consumers would be happier if they "owned less stuff."

The report says marketers will have to adapt their communications to suit this consumer mood, specifically in “helping people feel a greater sense of control and security.”

"People are looking to replace hyper-consumption and artificiality with a way of living that offers more meaning and more intangible rewards — even as they wish to maintain the modern conveniences upon which they've grown reliant."

Read this in full.

Read the report.

See larger image of above Infographic.

Also see JWT Singapore's (@JWT_Worldwide) news release, "Survey Shows Mounting Social Media Obligations Have Become a Stress and a Chore."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you properly communicate your brand message.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Simultaneous media use has become deeply embedded in the day-to-day habits of US tablet owners, with more than two-thirds regularly going online via the devices while they watch TV.

A new media trends report, State of the Media Spring 2012 (part 2), from market researcher Nielsen (@NielsenWire), says 45% of people who own devices such as Apple's market-leading iPad "multi-screen" at least once a day, while 69% do so on multiple occasions during the average week.

·         61% say they check their email on their tablet while watching TV and

·         47% access their social media profiles.

·         Over one in three (37%) look up information related to the TV program they’re watching on their tablets, while more than 1 in 5 (22%) say they look up coupons or deals related to a TV ad as they watch.

Read this in full.

The average American watches nearly 5 hours of video each day, 98% of which they watch on a traditional TV set, according to the Nielsen Cross-Platform Report. Although this ratio is less than it was just a few years ago, and continues to change, the fact remains that Americans are not turning off. They are shifting to new technologies and devices that make it easier for them to watch the video they want, whenever and wherever they want.

Read this in full.

According to ABI Research’s (@ABIresearch) new report, Connected Home Devices Market Data, about 21% of US homes, or about 27 million, have an Internet-ready TV, game console, Blu-ray player, or smart set-top box that’s connected (not just owned, but connected) to the Web. By far, a gaming console is the most popular route to the Web — it reaches 80% of connected homes.

Read this in full.

American teens are well-known for their consumption of online video content, but they're also among the biggest producers, according to the latest findings from the Pew Research Center’s (@pewresearch) Internet & American Life Project (@pewinternet). The project's latest report, Teens and Online Video, estimates 27% of Internet-using teens (12-17) record and upload video to the Internet.

"One major difference between now and 2006 is that online girls are just as likely these days to upload video as online boys," Pew notes, citing a similar study conducted 6 years ago.

The study also finds that 13% of Internet-using US teens stream live video to others on the Internet, and more than a third (37%) regularly participate in video chats utilizing applications such as Skype, Googletalk, or iChat. Girls are more likely than boys to have such chats.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you communicate your publishing content from screen to screen.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

On MediaPost’s (@MediaPost) Engage:GenY, Sharalyn Hartwell (@SharalynHartwel) executive director at Magid, writes, “Millennials [those born in the ‘80s and ‘90s]...aren’t kids anymore. In fact, according to our Millennial Life Stage Segmentation, only one in ten Millennials (11% of Millennials or approximately 10 million) isn’t an official adult (i.e., is under the age of 18). Approximately 13 million, or 15%, are college students and about 12 million, or 14%, are in flux — not working or married, but don’t have kids. The majority of Millennials are ‘grown-ups’ in the way society tends to define them — they are working (36% or 31 million) or parents (24% or 21 million).”

Millennials are no longer the youth population in this country, which means there’s a new generation of youth for marketers to know.

Presenting the Pluralist Generation. The oldest Plural is 14, turning 15 in 2012. The youngest is a newborn.

Plurals are America’s last generation to have a Caucasian majority, and based on immigration projections, they will also be America’s first generation to be pluralistic, or have no majority race. Their own ethnic composition is a catalyst for the overall ethnic transition in our country. In 2019, less than 50% of live births in this country will be Caucasian. In 2042, just 30 years from now, our entire population will be less than 50% Caucasian. Plurals are being raised in the environment of change and, in their 30s and early 40s, they will be the ones managing the transition into a truly pluralistic society.

Read this in full.

See the news release, "Magid Generational Strategies Reveals America's Newest Generation."

Actually the name of the next generation is still up for grabs. Reveries.com (@cool_news) says that, along with Pluralist, other suggested identifiers are Generation Wii, iGeneration, Gen Tech, Digital Natives, Net Gen, Multi Gen, Post Gen. You can vote on which one you think it should be.

Read this in full.

How will you prepare now for Pluralist consumers of the future? Write your comments below.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you sort through research statistics and what they mean to effectively communicate your brand's message.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

PaidContent’s (@paidContent) Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) reports, “New stats from the Association of American Publishers (@AmericanPublish) show that kids’ and young adult ebook sales grew by triple digits in February, while adult ebook sales appeared to flatten. But the AAP notes that’s partly due to the fact that so many adults are reading YA ebooks like the Hunger Games trilogy.”

Read this in full.

Bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The above Infographic is by Mobile Marketing Association (@MMAglobal).

More statistics are included in the article "Study: Most Use Phones To Get Info, Solve Problems." Also see the report, "Nielsen: Smartphone owners surpass 50 percent mark."

MediaTel’s (@MediaTelGroup) Newsline reports on an extensive new study by payment processor WorldPay (@WorldPay_US), covering 19,000 consumers and 153 senior decision makers from global retailers. The Global Online Shopper Report identifies the online shopping habits of consumers in the UK, US, China, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Argentina, and India. Here are some highlights:

·         22% of consumers' annual expenses go toward buying goods and services online.

·         Online shopping takes up 5 hours a month.

·         95% of ecommerce purchases are conducted within the home; 54% of global consumers shop in the living room and 43% the bedroom. 5% shop in the garden and 3% in the bathroom

·         For m-commerce, 55% of time is spent using a laptop; 30% using a mobile device

·         74% of global online spending takes place between midday to midnight, with most (44%) done during the evening. Cumulatively, this helps to create an international "spending peak" of 8:40 pm — the time at which most customers are shopping online at a purely global level.

·         For "heavy spenders," (classified as those who spend 30% of disposable income online), 55% have shopped online with a mobile phone and 67% with a tablet in the past 3 months.

·         China has the largest percentage of consumers using smartphones to shop, (nearly 46%) followed by India at 40%

·         Only 9% of US shoppers use instant messaging while shopping compared to the global average of 18%

·         69% of online shoppers used credit cards; PayPal was used by 40%; debit cards by 37%. (The total is higher than 100% since shoppers can use multiple payment methods while shopping online.)

·         Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, was the most popular website for buying online. 43% of consumers worldwide had shopped at Amazon in the past 3 months, but in the US that number jumped to 83%. EBay came in at 33% and 45% respectively.

·         The top reason why online shoppers leave a site without paying: "Presented with unexpected costs" (56%)

Read the full report.

Also see the Harris Interactive (@HarrisInt) poll report (commissioned by Placecast (@placecast), “Not Just for Talking: Nearly 40% of US Adult Mobile Phone Owners Say Making Purchases via their Device is Important, as Phone is Seen Increasingly as a Commerce Tool” and the Nielsen (@NielsenWire) study, “How US Smartphone and Tablet Owners Use Their Devices for Shopping.”

Bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

NPR (@npralltech) journalist Steve Henn (@HennsEggs) reports on the mobile shopping revolution and one way store retailers can compete.

When you shop online, marketers are following your every click. But when you walk into a store they know almost nothing about you. That detailed information about in-store shoppers is exactly what retailers want. A company called Nearbuy Systems (@NearbuySystems) is using mobile technology to try to give it to merchants.

"Our challenge was, take what we already have, and most stores have — Wi-Fi and ... video for security and things — and mix those two signals together to create something that is more accurate," says Bryan Wargo, co-founder of Nearbuy Systems.

Retailers could use this technology to build apps to guide customers through their store aisles to specific products, or even deliver discounts and coupons based on where people are standing in any particular store.

Read this in full.

Bookmark and use daily SomersaultNOW, our (@smrsault) online dashboard designed for publishing and marketing executives.

According to the online business journal of the Wharton School, Knowledge@Wharton (@knowledgwharton), the latest research from two Wharton professors suggests that when it comes to creating buzz-worthy advertising campaigns, how people communicate (e.g., whether they talk face to face or over email) is a big factor in determining what they discuss. It's not as simple as blanketing the Web with pop-up ads or blasting the airwaves with commercials, they note. It's about picking the right medium for the right message.

In their paper, How Interest Shapes Word-of-Mouth over Different Channels, marketing professors Jonah Berger and Raghuram Iyengar conclude:

How interesting a product is to discuss matters more when people communicate through discontinuous channels, such as blog posts, texts, emails, and online conversations.

The professors draw a distinction between discontinuous and continuous channels. The latter include face-to-face or phone conversations in which there is an instant response. When people speak in this manner, interesting products or brands are not talked about with any more frequency than less distinctive ones because social convention demands an immediate response. “It’s awkward to have dinner with a friend in silence, or ride in a cab with a colleague without conversing, so rather than waiting to think of the most interesting thing to say, people will talk about whatever is top-of-mind to keep the conversation flowing,” they write. “It's not that people do not have enough interesting things to talk about; rather, they do not have the time to select the most interesting thing.”

By contrast, discontinuous channels allow the participant to take time to craft a good response — or no response at all. It is socially acceptable for a woman to post a link on Facebook about a new pair of shoes that caught her eye, for example, and have no one “like” it. Berger notes, “Imagine if you’re online and someone sends you something. You don’t have to reply. You’re only going to share things when they cross a certain threshold of interesting. The option of not saying anything is fine in a discontinuous conversation.”

“Practitioners often believe that products need to be interesting to be talked about, but our results suggest they are only right for certain word-of-mouth channels,” the authors note in their paper. “If the goal is to get more discussion online ... framing the product in an interesting or surprising way should help. Ads or online content that surprises people, violates expectations or evokes interest in some other manner should be more likely to be shared.”

Read this in full.

Another academic paper, What Makes Online Content Viral? by Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, concludes that positive content is more viral than negative content, but the relationship between emotion and social transmission is more complex than valence alone.

Virality is partially driven by physiological arousal. Content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral. Content that evokes low-arousal, or deactivating, emotions (e.g., sadness) is less viral. These results hold even when the authors control for how surprising, interesting, or practically useful content is (all of which are positively linked to virality), as well as external drivers of attention (e.g., how prominently content was featured).

Also see our previous blogpost “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you generate word-of-mouth marketing for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, especially the Social Media/Word-of-Mouth tab.