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TAKE NOTE
ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS ONLINE?
If you’re looking for clients from high-income households, you
can bet they’re online and using high-speed connections, too.
A Nielson/Net Ratings survey earlier this year found that online surfers
with total household incomes of $150,000 or more grew by 31 percent
since March 2003. This increase makes them the fastest-growing income
group among Internet users.
Not surprisingly, high-income users also prefer high-speed connections
with only 31 percent using a dial up service.
THE VALUE OF TIME
Product quality and price are key ingredients for building customer
loyalty, but a new study examining how women—who often are the
chief purchasing agents for their households—calculate good value
shows that saving time may be the most important factor.
The study, “Elevated Expectations: The New Female Value Equation,”
was released by the U.S.-based consultants Frank About Women. It found
that three out of four women surveyed said they would pay a little
more for a product that saves them time, and 48 percent said they
would pick a product that saves them time over a product that saves
them money.
While price and quality remain important, women also look for products
that do what they want them to do and products that make them feel
how they want to feel.
FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS
American work ethics tend to keep relationships at the office on a
strictly business level. But a study led by University of Michigan
sociologist Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks notes that keeping co-workers at
an emotional distance may not be the most effective way to get the
job done in today’s global environment.
“An impersonal style tends to restrict the bandwidth of information
a person attends to in the workplace,” Sanchez-Burks says. Friendly
workers pay attention to indirect meanings, work well with other cultures
and are perceived as trustworthy. |
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