More than 60% Brits don’t own any Apple product

January 19, 2011

Apple announced its financial result for the first fiscal quarter of 2011 with astounding $26.74 billion revenue, more than 4 million Mac computer, 16 million iPhone and over 7 million iPad shipment. But how many people in the UK actually own any Apple product?

We used our Toluna QuickSurveys tool to poll UK members of our online community, with the aim of finding out the exact answer.

We asked the following questions:

-  Which of the following Apple products do you own?

-  What is your primary computer?

-  Which are you considering to purchase?

-  Which of the following do you purchase from iTunes?

Of the 2,842 people who answered, more than 60% answered that they don’t own any Apple product, and only 13% and 11% answered that they own an iPod Nano and iPod Touch. For the very popular iPhone product, about 7% answered they own an iPhone 3G or 3GS and less than 4% own an iPhone 4. Interestingly more people own a Macbook Pro than Macbook (2.25% vs. 1.9%)

Regarding to the primary computer they use, almost 39% answered PC laptop and 29% answered PC desktop, but only 2.64% answered Apple Macbook as their primary computer.

In terms of attitudes to purchase an Apple product, about 9% answered iPhone 4 and close to 10% answered iPad, but only about 2% mentioned Macbook Pro, Macbook or Macbook Air.  

We also asked the respondents what they purchase from iTunes, while 56% answered they don’t buy anything, about 25% answered they buy music and over 11% buy apps.

Full survey results are available here

These results suggest that Apple’s high-margin and low-market share strategy works quite well for the moment and also, people seem to be more willing to purchase Apple products selling at lower price, such as the operator-subsidized iPhone and entry level tablet computer iPad. However, if we view the results by gender, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of difference.

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16% Americans Prefer Inception and Black Swan for Oscar Award

January 18, 2011

The 2011 Oscar Award is on its way. Although ‘The Social Network’ has turned out to be the bigger winner for Gloden Globe, history teaches us it’s not always a good predictor for the Academy Award. However it might be interesting to find out what the audiences think who should ge the award.

We used Toluna QuickSurveys tool to poll US members of our online community, with the aim to discovering their attitudes on Oscar winners:

We ask the following questions:
- Who should get the best leading actor award?
- Who should get the best leading actress award?
- Who should get the best directer award?
- Which film should get the best picture award?

The Results for the audiences’ opinion on Oscar Award

Of the 2000 people in the US who answered, almost 32% answered that Colin Firth should get the leading actor award for his performance in ‘The King’s Speech’, with 25% for Robert Duvall in ‘Get Low’ and 22% for Jesse Eisenberg in ‘The Social Network’.

As for leading actress award, Natalie Portman has a clear lead at almost 60% for her performance in ‘Black Swan’.

However the opinion seems quite split for the best director and best picture. About 30% voted Christopher Nolan for ‘Inception’, 23% David Fincher for ‘The Social Network’ and 19% Darren Aronofsky for ‘Black Swan’. Most interestingly, it seems people really can’t decide which film should get the best picture award with ‘Black Swan’ and ‘Inception’ at 16%, ‘The Social Network’ at 12%, ‘Toy Story 3′ at 14% and ‘True Grit’ 14%. Or does this mean American audiences tend to vote for American flims?

If we look at the numbers by age, about 25% people in the 16-34 age group voted ‘Inception’ and 21% in the over 55 age group voted ‘True Grit’ for best picture.

click here to find the full result.

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24% in the US said they wanted the healthcare bill repealed

January 14, 2011

Recently, Toluna ran a QuickSurvey™ asking 1,000 US-based respondents about healthcare reform in the US. Recent media buzz about the Republican majority in the House of Representatives wanting to repeal the bill had us wondering what respondents think. Of the respondents we polled only 23% answered that they wanted the entire bill signed into law by President Obama repealed, while a comparable 21% want the bill kept as it is or strengthened with more reforms. One quarter of the respondents want either most of it repealed but some kept (14%) or most of it retained and only some repealed (11%). want most of it repealed but some of it kept. Fully 31% are unsure about making changes. Perhaps one reason for the divide in Americans’ preferences for the future of the health care reform bill is that an equal 31% of respondents think that someone in their family may either benefit or be harmed by the law as it now exists.

Respondents were then asked to consider one of the provisions of the healthcare reform law, regarding tax penalties for uninsured adults and children. Roughly half (51%) of respondents oppose this provision.

Finally, respondents were asked to state whether they think each of five reasons frequently cited as making the requirement to push people to buy health insurance necessary is a reason for that requirement.. While nearly half (47% )of respondents believe “to increase the number of insured people and decrease the number of uninsured people” is a reason for the requirement, only between roughly on e quarter to one third of the respondents named each of the other factors as a reason for mandating coverage.. The next most popular response (35% of respondents) was “it would reduce the amount of uncompensated care provided by doctors and hospitals.

Click here to see the full result.

Toluna’s Healthcare Practice

Toluna Healthcare Group has developed proprietary panel recruitment plans, technologies and management techniques that set us apart from our research peers and ensure you have access to a high-value respondent community. Toluna gives you access to a pre-identified, pre-screened and highly-qualified pool of global physicians as well as our panel of pre-identified sufferers giving you access to the opinions of the patients that matter most to you and your clients. At Toluna, our commitment to quality is executed in everything we do. With a team in place that focuses on the healthcare market, we ensure highly relevant communications to survey respondents, and clients alike.

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65% not incentivised by offers for check-ins on location based services

December 20, 2010

Checking into Facebook Places
Checking-In on Facebook – Photograph by Jorge Quinteros

With more and more people using smartphones, it is unsurprising that location based check-in services such as Facebook Places and Foursquare are becoming increasingly popular. Brands are seeking to capture this interest and raise awareness for their presence on these services by offering incentives and rewards for users who check-in to brand-owned locations – as pointed out in this Saatchi and Saatchi blog post.

We decided to use our Toluna QuickSurveys tool to ask our UK community members how they feel about location based check-in services.

Our questions included:

  • Do you use social networking check-in/location-based services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, etc.?
  • If so, which services do you use to check-in to places?
  • Would you use check-in services more if there were better incentives for checking in to places (freebies, discounts, etc.)?
  • Would the fact that a brand is using location-based services to promote their products or services affect your feelings towards that brand/product/service?
  • Do you see these services playing a bigger role in marketing as time goes on?

Location Based Check-In Software Survey: The Results

Asked if they actually use location based check-in software, a massive 70% of our 1000 respondents said that they do not, compared to only 30% who said that they do. Of this 30%, Facebook Places reigns supreme as the software of choice, with 86.89% of the share, followed by Twitter Places (7.87%), Foursquare (3.28%), Brightkite (1.31%) and Gowalla (0.66%). The staggering popularity of Facebook Places in particular is interesting, when compared with this blog post by Ketchum, which suggests that Foursquare is king.

Respondents were also asked if better incentives such as freebies or discounts would encourage them to check-in. 65.54% of respondents answered that it wouldn’t, compared to 34.46% of people who said that it would. The increasing use of incentivised based check-ins amongst brands (such as a pizza in the case of Dominos) seems somewhat at odds with these results.

When asked whether a brand’s use of location based check-in services would affect their feelings toward the brand, 71.91% of respondents answered that it wouldn’t affect their feelings at all, while 17.83% said it would affect their feelings in a positive way and 10.26% said it would affect their feelings in a negative way.

To round up the survey, we asked if our respondents thought that location based check-in services will play a bigger role in marketing as time goes on. Opinion was split almost down the middle with 55% responding that they don’t think they will play a bigger role and 45% responding that they think they will.

You can read the full survey results here.

What Does This Mean for Brands Using Location Based Check In Services?

The most interesting result in the survey for brands is the percentage of respondents (65%) who claim not to be encouraged to check-in to places through incentives. This is particularly interesting as more and more brands appear to be using this as part of their marketing strategy. For example, the aforementioned Dominos promotion has been running since May, Starbucks has been offering discounts for Foursquare check-ins since May in the US and as mentioned in the Saatchi and Saatchi post, McDonalds in Germany has been running location activated advent calendars for Christmas.

Does this apathy to incentivised based check-ins mean brands are wasting their time and money? Probably not.

The start of the survey found that only 30% of the respondents are currently using location based check-in services, which leaves massive potential for further growth. This growth is inevitable with more and more people using smartphones that facilitate these services, such as iPhones and BlackBerrys, combined with the worlds largest social network, Facebook, offering its own location based check-in service, Facebook Places.

Although 71% of respondents answered that brands using these services wouldn’t affect their feelings towards the brand, it doesn’t necessarily follow that these people won’t check-in to branded locations, or take advantage of incentives attached to location check-ins.

Do you agree with our members’ responses? What are your thoughts on location based check-in services, and brands using them? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Over 72% of UK TV Audience Claim to Not be Affected By Product Placement

December 9, 2010

Cans of Coca Cola
Cans of Coca Cola – Photograph by Nina Matthews

In the run-up to Christmas, advertising on UK television reaches fever pitch as companies vie for exposure on the finite amount of commercial airtime available to them. It is with great interest, then, that the UK TV regulator Ofcom is reviewing its stance on product placement during programming, as discussed in this Edelman podcast.

To help understand the impact that product placement might have on consumers and consumer attitudes, we used our Toluna QuickSurveys tool to ask our UK community members on their feelings about this contentious subject.

Our questions included:

  • Has product placement on television programmes or in movies ever influenced your shopping decisions?
  • How do you feel about product placement becoming more prevalent on our television screens?
  • Would bought/paid for references to brands in television programmes change your attitude or feelings towards those brands?
  • Do you think there is too much advertising on our television screens at the moment?
  • How much of your Christmas shopping are you planning to do online this year?

Product Placement Survey: The Results

Asked if they had ever been influenced by product placement in the past (either in existing imported TV programmes or movies), over 57% of our 1000 respondents claimed that product placement had never had an effect on their shopping decisions, with only 9.6% responding that it had influenced them several times. A further 19.6% and 13.2% claimed that it had affected them infrequently or only once or twice.

When quizzed on their feelings about product placement potentially becoming more prevalent on their television screens, only 10.6% thought it was a good thing. 56.3% claimed indifference, whereas 33.1% expressed strong negative feelings.

Feelings were far more unequivocal when it came to whether bought/paid for references to brands in TV programmes affecting consumer attitudes, with an overwhelming 72.6% claiming that it wouldn’t affect their feelings at all. When the question of whether there was already too much advertising on TV screens was raised, the responses were not quite so clear cut, with 44% responding that there was far too much, and 24% responding “No”.

As we are on the cusp of Christmas, we also asked our members how much of their Christmas shopping they were planning on doing online this year. Interestingly, 21.7% replied with none, and 7.1% replied with all of it. Further to this, 27.9% replied with most of it whereas an overwhelming 43.3% stated that they would be doing at least some of it online.

Advertising
Photograph by Simon McGarr

You can read the full survey results here.

What Does This Mean for Product Placement on TV?

Far from being as clear cut as may have been anticipated, these results show that product placement on UK TV will probably not be greeted with overwhelming negativity. Despite the largest single response to question one showing that product placement has never affected shopping decisions, the remaining response data shows that product placement has worked in the past for 42.4% of people at least once.

Apathy is by far the biggest reaction towards product placement, with a total of 56.3% indicating that they don’t mind it becoming more prevalent – surely a reassuring statistic for those in the advertising industry.

Indeed, despite 44% of people responding that they think there is too much advertising on screen at the moment, an increase in bought/paid for brand references in TV programmes wouldn’t change 72.6% of people’s attitudes towards that brand. Again, this shows that product placement may well be able to slip in without much fuss from the audience.

Finally, with a total of 78.3% of respondents stating that they will do at least some of their Christmas shopping online, this is surely good news for the advertisers who will now have more of a chance to influence their target audience in the comfort and convenience of their own homes.

Do you agree with our members’ responses? Ever had a particular positive or negative experience with product placement? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Nearly 50% of Online Consumers Claim Not to Interact with Brands on Social Media

November 25, 2010

’Social media strategy’ is a common buzz-phrase in today’s marketing world. Since its Pages platform launched in 2007, brands like Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Skittles have been using Facebook for business, amassing over 45 million ‘Likes’ between them. According to an infographic released by Mashable, the average Facebook user follows 8.7 brands.

Coca Cola on Facebook

Brands on social media aren’t only investing their time on Facebook and can also be found other popular platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

We used our Toluna QuickSurveys tool to poll UK members of our online community, with the aim of discovering their attitudes to brands on social media and the frequency of their interactions.

We asked the following questions:

  • How often do you interact with brands on social media?
  • What is your general attitude to companies using social media?
  • What do you think a company’s main intentions for using social media are?
  • How do you think brands could improve their approach to using social media?

The Results of our Brands on Social Media Survey

Of the 1000 people who answered, almost half (48.17%) answered that they “never” interact with brands on social media, and a further 23.2% claimed to only interact infrequently or when necessary. Only 16.98% of respondents answered that they interact regularly with brands on social media followed by 11.65% who said they do so “all the time”.

In terms of attitudes to companies or brands using social media, 50.6% of survey respondents answered that they hadn’t given it any thought. One in five answered that they don’t like companies using social media and that social networks should only be about people. Of the remaining respondents, 16% agreed that it depended on the brand and only 13.3% stated that they like brands using social media as it gives them a chance to interact with them on a personal level.

We also asked the respondents what they thought a company’s main intentions are for using social media. Around one in every three respondents (36.33%) answered that they don’t know why brands use social media followed by 26.55% who believe that it is a brand awareness exercise and 22.31% who think that it is done to improve sales and revenue. Despite “reputation management” being a popular buzz-phrase amongst social media consultants, only 6.61% believed that brands use social media to improve brand reputation.

Full survey results are available here (requires TolunaPro login, register here for free).

Starbucks on Twitter

What Does This All Mean?

These results suggest that while having a solid social media marketing strategy is important, other off and online brand interactions are still important. As sites like Facebook and Twitter become more integrated with a brand’s social media marketing strategy, social media interactions are bound to increase, especially where customer service is concerned.

Over a quarter of respondents (26.36%) answered that brands should be more honest about their intentions for their use of social media, indicating that there is a need for more openness in brand social media marketing strategy..

What are your thoughts about brands on social media? How often do you interact with brands on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter? Do you think they need to be more honest about why they use it? Let us know in the comments.

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Embed you Vimeo videos in your Toluna QuickSurveys!

September 5, 2010

We are happy to announce that QuickSurveys now support the embedding of Vimeo videos! The process is the same as embedding a YouTube video:

  1. Upload your video to Vimeo
  2. Copy the video’s URL
  3. Create your QuickSurvey- click the “add a video button” for the question or answer you wish to embed your video to:

4.  Paste your video’s URL into the search window and click “GO”; a preview of your video will be displayed:

    5. Click “Save”- your video has been embedded!

      This new feature can be very useful if you require enhanced privacy settings for your videos; click here for more information about Vimeo’s privacy options.

      The QuickSurveys team

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      Site perfromance issues

      June 1, 2010

      For the past few days TolunaPro and QuickSurveys have been unstable due to unforeseen technical issues linked to an unforeseen increase in traffic. Our technical staff are working around the clock to resolve these issues and fully restore the system as soon as possible. Users whose QuickSurveys were affected by these problems are invited to email us at tqs-support@toluna.com and we will credit your account accordingly within 72 hours as recompense for any inconvenience.

      We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced and thank you for your patience and understanding.

      The QuickSurveys Team

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      Facebook’s “Like” buttons added to Toluna.com poll and topic pages

      May 2, 2010

      The Like button is a widget that you are likely to find on many websites in the near future; it is a great new way to share and recommend sites and content with your Facebook friends and the rest of the world, and we’ve added a Like button to all Toluna.com poll and topic pages:

      When you click the Like button your Facebook friends will be notified in their news feed, and the “recent activity” section of your profile will be updated;  for more information on Facebook’s Like button please click here.

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      15 Million Votes Gathered on Toluna.com in January!

      February 14, 2010

      Member Voting Activity at an All Time High!

      Toluna, the world’s leading online research panel and survey technology provider, announced a record number of votes were gathered on Toluna.com, the company’s member community website in January 2010.

      Toluna.com was launched in North America in July 2009, and that provides a forum where over 4 million members globally to interact and poll each other on a broad range of topics in real-time.

      “The ability for members to engage with one and other, and participate in a ‘community’ is unique, and the fact that we’ve gathered millions of votes in January proves that this is a successful means of engaging respondents,” said Frédéric-Charles Petit, CEO and Founder of Toluna.   “Furthermore, 30% of the voting that took place was done in North America, further proving that the concept of a panel ‘community’ has global appeal.”

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