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A study by The Boston Consulting Group (@BCGPerspectives) says young consumers in the US are developing distinct attitudes and habits, providing brand owners with a chance to build long term loyalty. “The Millennial generation (16-34 year olds) is bigger than the Boomer generation (47-65 year olds) and growing in influence.”

Although the youngest members of the Millennial generation are still economically dependent on Mom and Dad, older Millennials are beginning to enter their peak spending years. While they are not yet set in their ways, they are forming preferences, exhibiting tendencies, and influencing one another’s opinions and behaviors. This generation engages with brands, channels, and service models in new ways limited only by the rate of technological advancement and innovation.

·         US Millennials are extremely comfortable with technology....They tend to own multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets, and gaming systems.

·         US Millennials are much more likely to multitask while online, constantly moving across platforms — mobile, social, PC, and gaming.

·         Both groups spend roughly the same amount of time online, but Millennials are more likely to use the Internet as a platform to broadcast their thoughts and experiences and to contribute user-generated content. They are far more engaged in activities such as rating products and services (60% versus 46% of non-Millennials) and uploading videos, images, and blog entries to the Web (60% versus 29%).

·         US Millennials spend less time reading printed books and watching TV. Only 26% watch TV for 20 hours or more per week (compared with 49% of non-Millennials), and when they do watch, they’re more likely to do so on their computers through services such as Hulu (42% versus 18%).

·         US Millennials are engaged in consuming and influencing; a generation that embraces business and government and believes that such institutions can bring about global change, one that is generally optimistic, and one that has often-unexpected attitudes and behaviors.

·         US Millennials are all about instant gratification. They put a premium on speed, ease, efficiency, and convenience in all their transactions.

·         For this generation, the definition of “expert” — a person with the credibility to recommend brands, products, and services — has shifted from someone with professional or academic credentials to potentially anyone with firsthand experience, ideally a peer or close friend.

·         US Millennials use technology to connect with a greater number of people, more frequently, and in real time.

·         This desire for connection and shared experience also extends offline. Millennials are much more likely than non-Millennials to engage in group activities — especially with people outside their immediate family.

Millennials believe that working for causes is an integral part of life, and they are drawn to big issues.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogposts, "US Consumer Habits Evolving," “Young ‘Millennials’ Losing Faith in Record Numbers,” and "Millennials Aren't Kids Anymore; Plurals Are."

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you analyze consumer research to better understand your market.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Research tab.

The above Chart Of The Day (@chartoftheday) depicts a portion of the Pew Research Group’s (@pewinternet) survey of people’s e-reading habits. The most popular way for people under 30 to read ebooks is on their desktop and laptop computers, surpassing e-readers, smartphones, and tablets.

Among the survey’s other findings:

·         83% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year. Some 75% read a print book, 19% read an ebook, and 11% listened to an audiobook.

·         Overall, 47% of younger Americans read long-form e-content such as books, magazines, or newspapers. E-content readers under age 30 are more likely than older e-content readers to say they’re reading more these days due to the availability of e-content (40% vs. 28%).

·         60% of Americans under age 30 used the library in the past year. Some 46% used the library for research, 38% borrowed books (print books, audiobooks, or ebooks), and 23% borrowed newspapers, magazines, or journals.

·         Many of these young readers don’t know they can borrow an ebook from a library, and a majority of them express the wish they could do so on pre-loaded e-readers. Some 10% of the ebook readers in this group have borrowed an ebook from a library and, among those who have not borrowed an ebook, 52% said they were unaware they could do so. About 58% of those under age 30 who don’t currently borrow ebooks from libraries say they would be “very” or “somewhat” likely to borrow pre-loaded e-readers if their library offered that service.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan your ebook publishing and marketing strategy.

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Apple, Walmart, Google, Target, and Microsoft are the brands which US shoppers regard as being the most "inspiring."

The consultancy Performance Inspired (@P_inspired) asked 2,175 adults to name the companies they perceived as meeting this criteria.

"Apple is the most inspiring again this year because it has become a part of the consumer's personal identity," said Terry Barber, chief inspiration officer for Performance Inspired.

The main terms associated with Apple include "innovative," "fun," and the idea that it lets customers be more "creative.”

Walmart is praised for its low prices, diverse range of products, and friendly atmosphere. Google is seen as "informative," "good," and "nice."

Target is lauded for the contribution it makes to the local communities it serves. Microsoft is valued for its products at work.

Other brands in the top 25 are Amazon, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Macy’s, Costco, Nike, Disney, Kohl’s, Ford, The Home Depot, TOMS, jcpenney, Whole Foods Market, Best Buy, Johnson & Johnson, Goodwill, Trader Joe’s, and Pepsi.

• 86% of consumers would recommend a company they find "inspiring" to friends and family
• 71% would be willing to pay a premium for goods offered by such firms
• 54% think about the brands they find "most inspiring" at least once a week and 38% talk about them with a similar level of frequency.

"Consumers are not only feeling inspired by certain businesses, but are acting inspired by spending more with these companies while evangelizing to others about their inspiring experience," says Barber.

Read this in full.

How inspiring to your consumers is your brand?

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Presented by: OnlineDegrees.org

In his coverage of the recent Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) Discoverability and Marketing conference, Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) reports, “Reader behavior is in flux and the ways in which people engage with and discover new content has grown exponentially.”

–     In 2011, nearly half of consumers changed their book-buying behavior (chart below)

–     39% of books are sold online, 26% in stores, and the rest in nearly a dozen other ways (chart below)

–     People discover new books in up to 44 different ways

...Amid all the change in how readers read and discover books, one thing has remained constant: in-person, personal recommendations are the No. 1 way people discover books, no matter who they are or how they read.

Read this in full.

Also see "Discoverability & Marketing Conference: A Diversity of Challenges."

And read our previous blogposts “How Ebook Buyers Discover Books” and “Sites That Facilitate Book Discovery.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically plan your book’s disoverability.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

The above Chart of the Day (@chartoftheday) graph depicts research by Kontera (@Kontera) to determine when people use their PC (stationary) versus smartphones and tablets (mobile).

PC usage is strongest from 11 am to 5 pm (the work day while in the office) and mobile usage is strongest from 6 pm to midnight (the leisure hours at home).

The research also finds that 22% of all Internet content consumed in the US is on mobile devices.

Here’s another chart, showing how people are using their smartphones and tablets.

How might this influence your digital publishing strategy?

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you think through your mobile content effectiveness.

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

New findings from a Nielsen (@NielsenWire) online survey of respondents from 56 countries:

·         Nearly half (49%) have purchased a product online.

·         46% have used social media to help make purchase decisions.

·         37% purchase from online-only stores most frequently.

·         1 in 5 global respondents plan to purchase electronic books and digital newspaper and magazine subscriptions in the next 3 to 6 months.

·         The online purchase intent of hard copy books and physical subscriptions declined from 44% in 2010 to 33% this year.

·         Categories with growing global purchase intent include computer/game software (+18%), entertainment tickets (+10%), computer/game hardware (+6%), video/music production (+5%), cars/motorcycle and accessories (+4%) and apparel/accessories/shoes/jewelry (+1%).

·         More than one-quarter (26%) of global respondents plan to purchase food and beverage products via an online connected device in the next 3 to 6 months — a jump from 18% reported in 2010.

Also see the Infographic “The Pre-Purchase Habits of Shoppers” and our previous blogposts, “Why Shopping Will Never Be the Same” and “Tablets Change Shopping, Media Habits.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help digitally publish and market your content.

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

BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) program The Forum (@BBCTheForum) featured an interview with Dr. Robert Heath, senior lecturer in advertising at University of Bath School of Management (@BathSofM), board member of the Wharton (@wharton) global Future of Advertising project, former advertising executive who worked for some of the world’s top brands, and author of Seducing the Subconscious: The Psychology of Emotional Influence in Advertising (Wiley-Blackwell (@WileyNews & @WB_Business), 2012). He argues that advertising today is no longer about providing information but works more subtly through subliminal emotional meta-communication to increase consumers’ positive and enduring feelings towards the brand.

He uses approaches from experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience to outline his theory of the subconscious influence of advertising in its audience’s lives. In addition to looking at ads’ influence on consumers, Heath also addresses how advertising is evolving, noting especially the ethical implications of its development.

Listen to this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically and effectively communicate your brand message.

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The Infographic is by Milo (@miloshopping). Enlarge it.

Floatingsheep.org (@floating_sheep), a website that maps the geographies of user-generated online content, has created the pdf booklet “Geographies of the World’s Knowledge,” a joint venture between Convoco and the Oxford Internet Institute (@oiioxford). Through creative maps, it visualizes the distribution of the world’s knowledge through 10 categories

1.    Literacy and Gender

2.    Internet Penetration

3.    The World’s Newspapers

4.    The Location of Academic Knowledge

5.    Academic Knowledge and Language

6.    Academic Knowledge and Publishers

7.    Mapping Flickr

8.    The Distribution of all Wikipedia Articles

9.    Time-series of the Distribution of Biographies on Wikipedia over the Last Five Centuries

10. User-generated Content in Google

Data, evaluated in an unprecedented way, shows the current distribution of knowledge in the different parts of the globe. Some of the implications of this are surprising, others are worrying. The maps visualize where the foci of knowledge — and, thus, the forces of innovation and economic growth — are located. Thanks to this scientific visualization the most important factors involved can be grasped at a glance.

The booklet is also available in interactive format for iPads.

Consider how this information should influence your publishing strategy.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan, execute, and analyze market research for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Research tab.