Shirl Kennedy of The Resource Shelf’s Niche Information mentioned The Food Timeline today. I went to check it out and found it fascinating. (read: I spent way too long playing with it!)
Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip,and why?
You will find a plethora of popular lore and contradictory facts. Timeline? Well, it’s not perfect since foods evolve over time, but this is a very fun and interesting research site.
I’ve been wondering. How much do Americans spend on Fast Food? What do the trends look like?
For a Big Mac, we’ll tell you. (If you us get some fries, too, we’ll tell you even more.)
A new study by Research International “Fast Food Nation 2008: A Consumer Perspective on the Fast Food Industry” provides an understanding of consumers’ views on fast food.
“With the average American spending $500 a year on fast food, the industry clearly plays a major part in the country’s economy and we felt that our clients would benefit from gaining an in-depth understanding of this segment which is a large part of consumers’ lives,” said Alexander Kleijngeld, Research International, vice president-client services.
Some of the major findings from the study include:
Over half of the population eats fast food once a week with 20 percent eating fast food at least every other day.
Fourteen percent of the population accounts for almost half of all fast food sales. These high frequency users tend to be male, below middle-age and employed with high incomes.
High-frequency users have an average income of $67,575 which is 15 percent higher than the sample group’s average household income of $58,875.
Despite their above-average incomes, high frequency users are more likely to increase fast food consumption because of economic pressure and are attracted to “value” dining options.
Subway earned the highest Brand Energy score which measures how strong a brand is the minds of consumers. This score is a composite of four dimensions: Status and Momentum: strong brands not only perform well today (Status) but are also seen as continuously evolving and improving/innovating (Momentum); Affinity and Performance: strong brands not only offer a great experience functionally (Performance) but consumers also have an emotional bond with them (Affinity).
Frequent users are attracted to restaurants that have new menu options or promotions and react positively to healthy food choices that are in tune with a restaurant’s efforts to improve the healthiness of their menu.
More than half the country (57 percent) has been to McDonald’s in the past month followed by Subway (37 percent), Burger King (36 percent), Taco Bell (33 percent), Wendy’s (32 percent) and KFC (27 percent).
Convenience is the main reason consumers choose a fast-food dining option.
Did that say $500 a year? Per person? Yikes.
AND
Over half of all Americans eat fast food at least once a week (20 percent eat it every other day) and nearly 60 percent of us went to a McDonald’s in the past month.
We also learned that (as is common in most businesses) a small percentage of customers account for most of the sales. Almost 50 percent of all fast food sales come from 14 percent of consumers. And these aren’t who you’d expect. They have an average income of $68,000 and, though young-ish, they aren’t teens and college kids.
What markets are consuming the most fast food? According to MRI’s Market-by-Market study:
1.Lafayette, Ind. (Hi Kathy B.!)
2.Rochester, Minn./Mason City, Iowa (think it’s because of Mayo Clinic?)
3.Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Iowa City/Dubuque, Iowa
4.Detroit
5.St. Joseph, Mo.
6.Omaha, Neb. (Hello WG and Sara and Kevin and…)
7.Champaign/Springfield/Decatur, Ill. (Lori – you there?)
8.South Bend/Elkhart, Ind.
9.Columbus, Ohio
10.Cleveland/Akron (Canton), Ohio (Hey EK!)
Another interesting finding. People actually turn more frequently to fast food when the economy is less than optimal. So yay to all you in the biz!
According to today’s EPM email, 27% of mothers say nutritional content is their top consideration when buying groceries for their children; the kids preferences are the top consideration for 22%. (They credit pasta manufacturer Ronzoni for the data.)
As a marketer, I find it fascinating because children have long been considered the main influencer for moms. We do a lot of work relating to healthy eating and health trends, as well. So while we are not surprised that nutritional content is important, the trends are going to be worth watching!
There is a lot of pressure to switch over the light bulbs in my house to fluorescent. Can you go over the pros and cons?
Well, we found some expert opinions for you. (And we changed ours over some time ago!
Here goes:
Did you know that over half the energy consumed by an incandescent light bulb produces heat, not light? According to onebillionbulbs.com, compact fluorescent light bulbs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs because they typically use 65%-75% less energy than a standard incandescent bulb to provide the same amount of light AND they last up to 10 times longer than a regular light bulb.
Although CFL bulbs typically cost more than a standard incandescent bulb, the cost savings over the life of the bulb can be significant. If you replace multiple bulbs in your house, the savings can really add up.
And, don’t forget the heat. Given that standard incandescent bulbs throw off most of their energy as heat, your home cooling costs in the summer increase in order to offset the heat generated by your standard incandescent light bulbs.
There are environmental benefits as well.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road.
All that great stuff said, there are some cons to using compact fluorescent light bulbs.
According to Energystar each bulb contains a small amount of mercury, which can be hazardous if broken in your home. The EPA recommends the following steps if you need to clean up a broken bulb:
(1) you immediately open windows to reduce mercury concentrations inside your home; (2) you do not touch the spilled mercury; (3) you clean up the broken CFL glass carefully and immediately (but not with your hands or a vacuum cleaner), and (4) you wipe the affected area with a paper towel to remove all glass fragments and mercury. EPA further recommends that you place the paper towel and glass fragments in a sealed plastic bag and bring the sealed bag to your local Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Site.
Also, you need to contact your solid municipal waste agency to determine how to dispose of your burned out bulbs. Some jurisdictions have specified sites and some allow you to put them in your regular trash.
If you haven’t read of Groundswell yet, we recommend you consider it. Full of great stats (you know we love stats) and case studies, this practical book will help you think more deeply about what you’re strategizing, considering, and already doing in the social media space.
The social media phenomenon appears to be reaching a tipping point. Recent studies have shown Boomers embracing these new forms of communication almost as fervently as the generation that followed them. And with the adoption of blogs, forums, user generated content, Facebook, and MySpace (to name a few) by large segments of society, business can no longer afford to ignore the conversations that are taking place around them.
Groundswell, written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research, is a terrific resource about these technologies and tools in the context of reality. The authors have provided an excellent guide to understanding what these technologies are, how there use varies among different demographic segments, and how business can change strategies to benefit. The book includes useful case studies that demonstrate how companies have reacted to this change in the customer- business relationship.
Our only critique is that the book becomes somewhat repetitive as it presents case studies that do not differ from each other in a large extent, but frankly, we find that in most business and strategy books.
In the name of full disclosure, we were fortunate to receive a review copy of the book. (We did buy one also as a gift for a colleague.)
Definitely take the time to check out their blog. They have a free profile tool that is really interesting!
Scherer Cybrarian is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals
