*All That's Fit to Print: A new survey finds that Americans consider television and daily newspapers the most credible sources of news and information. Television was
viewed as the most trusted media source, scoring a 6.6 on a 1-to-10 credibility scale. Daily newspapers ranked second, earning 6.3 points out of 10.
The national study of 1,005 adults was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation's CARAVAN Services and sponsored by ARAnet, which provides content to newspapers and Web sites,
including two-thirds of the nation's top 100 daily newspapers.
Survey respondents assigned credibility scores ranging from 1 for "not at all credible" to 10 for "extremely credible" to seven types of media. The results of the survey are as
follows:
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Television: 6.6
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Daily newspaper: 6.3
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Radio: 6.0
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Online: 5.6
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Weekly community paper: 5.2
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Magazines: 4.6
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Free shopper: 3.5
The credibility scores corresponded with the amount of news and information people say they receive from each media source each month, with television and daily newspapers
ranking as the top two sources.
Source: ARAnet
*Consumers Set Bar High for Companies, Even During Poor Economic Climate: The recently released 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study reveals that consumers continue to have
high philanthropic expectations for companies struggling amid the current economic crisis. More than half (52%) of Americans feel companies should maintain their level of
financial support of causes and nonprofit organizations. Another quarter (26%) expects companies to give even more. Fortunately for marketers, consumers are also more receptive
than ever to cause messages. They will reward companies that give back both with their goodwill and their wallets. Among the study's findings:
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85% of Americans say they have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about (remains unchanged from 1993);
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85% feel it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause in their marketing (compared to 66% in 1993);
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79% say they would be likely to switch from one brand to another, when price and quality are about equal, if the other brand is associated with a good cause (compared to
66% in 1993); and
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38% have bought a product associated with a cause in the last 12 months (compared to 20% in 1993).
When asked what issues they want companies to address in their cause programs, the answers were as follows:
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Education (80%);
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Economic development (80%);
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Health and disease (79%);
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Access to clean water (79%);
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Environment (77%);
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Disaster relief (77%); and
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Hunger (77%).
Source: Cone Inc.
*Moms Stressed Out: Stress levels had been rising among moms across the country well before the recent financial crisis began, and the current economic environment isn't
helping matters. According to the recent "State of the American Mom Report" from the Marketing to Moms Coalition, nearly all moms (90%) saw the economy getting weaker even before
the collapse on Wall Street. According to the nationwide survey of 1,033 mothers, more moms (40%) feel stressed about their current family life than feel good about the way things
are in general (33%).
- Season of Stress: Overall, moms say the holidays are the most stressful time of year (40%), followed by summer when children aren't in school (32%), back-to-school
time (25%) and the end of the school year (6%). However, there were some interesting differences:
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Self-employed moms (43%) and moms with more children at home think summer is the busiest time of year for them, as they juggle working and childcare on top of children's
summertime activities; and
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African-American moms also say that summer is most stressful (34%) followed by back to school time (33%), and the holidays (28%).
*What Matters Most: When asked what are the most important issues on moms' minds in 2008, the findings were in this order:
1. Relationship/communication with their child.
2. Quality of education for their children.
3. Safety in the world for their children.
4. Drug use among their children's peer group.
5. Cyber/online safety for their children.
Source: Marketing to Moms Coalition