More Americans purchasing private-label products

NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- There are alwayssmall ways to save a little bit of money. Bringing lunch to work or skippingthe morning latte may not feel significant, but the cost savings add up overthe long run. A number of Americans have done or considered doing these thingsand have cut back in other small ways to save money. Over the past six months,three in five U.S. adults (62 percent) have purchased more generic brands andover two in five (45 percent) are brown-bagging lunch instead of purchasing it.In June, similar numbers of Americans said they were buying generic (65 percent)and brown-bagging it (48 percent).

These are some of the results of The Harris Pollof 3,084 adults surveyed online between October 11 and 18, 2010 by Harris Interactive.

Some of the other findings of this Harris Poll include:

·        Justover one-third of Americans are going to the hairstylist or barber less often(37 percent) and have switched to refillable water bottles instead ofpurchasing bottles of water (37 percent);

·        Innot so good news for the print industry, over one-quarter of adults (27 percent)have cancelled one or more magazine subscriptions while 17 percent havecancelled a newspaper subscription. In addition, one in ten Americans haveconsidered cancelling a newspaper subscription (11 percent) or a magazine subscription(8 percent);

·        Onein five Americans have stopped purchasing coffee in the morning (22 percent)and cut down on dry cleaning (21 percent) while 14 percent have beguncarpooling or using mass transit;

·        Media,entertainment and communication may also have taken a hit in these economictimes—one in five U.S. adults have cancelled or cut back on cable televisionservice (22 percent), just under one in five have changed or cancelled cellphone service (17 percent) or cancelled their landline service and are onlyusing their cell phone (17 percent);

·        Breakingthis down by generation, Gen Xers (those 34-45) are most likely to purchasegeneric brands (70 percent), brown bag their lunch (62 percent), go to the hairdresser less often (45 percent) and to have stopped purchasing coffee in themorning (35 percent); and,

·        EchoBoomers (those 18-33) are much less likely to have cancelled a magazinesubscription (18 percent) compared to at least three in ten of all the othergenerations who say they have done this, although Echo Boomers are more likelyto have cancelled their landline phone service (22 percent).

So What?

Financial advisors often recommend cutting back on thelittle things to save a lot of money. And, in the current economic climate,Americans seem to be listening and saying no to these items. The question is:what happens when the economy turns around? Do they come back and buy thatlatte in the morning again or has this become a true behavior change?

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within theUnited States between October 11 to 18, 2010 among 3,084 adults (aged 18 andover). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and householdincome were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actualproportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used toadjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they useprobability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are mostoften not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverageerror, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with questionwording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" asthey are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible samplingerrors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with100 percent response rates. These are only theoretical because no publishedpolls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among thosewho have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data havebeen weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because thesample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactivepanel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles ofdisclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used inadvertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission ofHarris Interactive.

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The Harris Poll® #139, November 11, 2010

By Regina A. Corso, SVP, Harris Poll, Public Relations andYouth Research, Harris Interactive