Focused more on needs over wants in purchasing 46.5% (47.4%) More layoffs next 6 months 33.3% (31.4%) Current financial situation worse off than a year ago 31.7% (N/A) Top financial plan - "paying down debt" 33.1% (33.8%)Consumers continue to cast a wary eye on the price of gas and when asked what price a gallon of gas would be on Labor Day, they said an average of $3.14. More than half (61.1%) felt gas prices would rise by Labor Day, 31.4% said they would stay the same and 7.4% were optimistic and believed the price would decline. Shopping strategies appear to be evolving towards a price orientation as 17.8% cited only buying clothing when on sale, versus 13.7% who said sales are not important when buying clothing. However, familiar brands continue to increase in importance when buying clothing, with 42.5% saying so (versus 39.5% in August 06). Future purchase plans (next 6 months) for most big ticket durables were up from August 06 for computers, furniture, appliances, jewelry, TVs, digital cameras and vacation travel. To subscribe to BIGresearch's monthly Executive Briefing: http://www.formsite.com/prosper/bigscj/ About BIGresearch BIGresearch is a market intelligence firm providing analysis of consumer behavior in areas of retail, financial services, automotive, and media. They conduct the Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey (CIA) which monitors the pulse of more than 8,000 consumers each month. BIGresearch's syndicated Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM) is focused on consumers to gauge their consumption across media, products and services. Marketers can use SIMM to develop the types of consumer-centric marketing plans required to increase advertisers' ROI. The SIMM monitors more than 15,000 consumers twice each year. http://www.bigresearch.com BIGresearch's methodology provides the most accurate consumer information in the industry with a margin of error of +/- 1 percent.
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