All this talk about generations made me particularly alert to this article, Five Things You Don’t Know About Baby Boomers from the National Retail Federation.

As a group, the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 is much too large and diverse to share a single lifestyle, life stage, purchasing proclivity or political agenda. And most of them are too wealthy to be ignored by marketers and retailers obsessed by youth.

Lots of stats here. And marketing ideas. And segmentation info.

All the stuff that keeps us going over here.

According to Pew’s just released report, 62% of all Americans are part of a wireless, mobile population that participates in
digital activities away from home or work.

We weren’t surprised.

But some of the stats from Pew Internet Project�s December 2007 survey are surprising and some? Just plain interesting! (And useful, we think.)

• 58% of adult Americans have used a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to� do at least one of ten mobile non-voice data activities, such as texting, emailing, taking a picture, looking for maps or directions, or recording video.
• 41% of adult Americans have logged onto the internet on the go, that is, away from home or work either with a wireless laptop connection or a handheld device.
• 62% of all Americans have some experience with mobile access to digital data and tools.
• When asked how hard it would be to give up a specific technology, respondents are nowmost likely to say the cell phone would be most difficult to do without, followed by the internet, TV, and landline telephone. Big change.
• Hispanic respondents were much more likely to use mobile data services.

And for the big shocker:

• 18-24 year olds are most likely to use mobile data services. (okay, no shock! But you might be surprised to know that 36% of respondents 65 and older have used cell phones or PDAs for some sort of data activity!

A loyal reader asks�For a presentation I�m doing, I need to know the correlation between the make and model of the car one drives, and the kind of radio stations one listens to. For example, do 50 percent of the drivers of Dodge Rams tune into country stations?

There was a great study done by Scarborough Research in combination with the Radio Advertising Bureau that looks at domestic and foreign vehicle ownership. Here is a brief summary of some interesting points.

Domestic Vehicles

Foreign Vehicles

If you’re so inclined, you can read the whole report here.

A loyal reader asks: With all the hype about buying organic, I�ve been hearing a new term �slow food�. What is it?

Glad you asked.

The slow food movement started in Europe and propagates the idea of good, clean and fair food. It is the belief that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:

• forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems
• developing an “ark of taste” for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated
• preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
• organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)
• organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada)
• promoting “taste education“
• educating consumers about the risks of fast food
• educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms
• educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties
• developing various political programs to preserve family farms
• lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy
• lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering
• lobbying against the use of pesticides
• teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners
• encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces

A reader asks: What’s the average time spent on listening to radio per day among people 25-34? Has it decreased over the past 5 years?

Yes, it has. But not as dramatically as you might think. Check this out:

Time spent listening overall has decreased by 3 hours and 15 minutes per week in the past 10 years. That is a lot. But the past 5 years have slowed, with a loss of just over an hour. So the biggest changes in total listening was from 1997 through 2002.

In looking at the demographic of most interest to our reader (thanks for sending such a great question, by the way!), we’ve compiled the data from years of Arbitron reports. Note that 2002 is missing. The trends look a lot like the above chart – steady decreases. Notice also, that men consistently listen more than women. (click on the chart and it gets nice & big!)

A loyal reader asks: Does anyone go to the library anymore?

Oh reader! As huge library fans, we hope so.

Here’s what we learned.

Pew Internet (we love those guys!) just came out with a new study. Evidently, of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, Gen Y-ers (18-30 year olds) are the biggest users. Shocking. The study said that compared to the older folks, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose. And these young adults also say most frequently that they will use libraries in the future.

This is a good sign for libraries.

Read the study. You’ll see that computers are a huge part of the library experience these days. No big surprise. But still, we at Scherer Cybrarian love libraries and were excited to see that the trends are positive. (Note: Our local library is always packed. So anecdotally, we felt good about this already!)

Another dataset to consider:

The first annual report on the State of America�s Libraries, the American Library Association says:

• Almost 90% of Americans are satisfied with their public libraries. Most agree that public libraries are under-funded and need more support.
• Libraries are keeping up with the times�and with the public’s needs.
• Libraries are experiencing great local support and are growing and adding services and enhancements, including serious connectivity. State funding has decreased, and the public support has made the difference.
  
• 1.8 billion visitors checked out more than 2 billion items from U.S. libraries in fiscal year 2004.
• Circulation and participation at American public libraries continue to rise.
• Almost 2/3 of Americans have a library card.