Marketers Opinions on Societal and Cultural Trends

Favorites

For the top favorite innovations of the past 10 years, Google (search) topped the list (41%) followed by heated car seats (34%) with social networking, iPod and GPS ranking 3rd through 5th (20%, 19%, 17%, respectively).

Words: In & Out

Responding marketers' favorite words or expressions that have entered the vernacular during the past 10 years are carbon footprint (39%), staycation (36%) and tied for third place: wardrobe malfunction and lol (25% each).

Asked which words that have entered the vernacular during the past 10 years marketers would like to see disappear, there was a tie for first place between bff and bridezilla (38% each) with bromance coming in a close second (35%).

Asked which technologies marketers have added to communicate for business over the past 10 years, email topped the list (58%), followed by smart phones (49%) and SMS/texting (43%).

Naming those technologies they have added for personal communications, the list was slightly different with SMS/texting coming in first (74%) followed by Facebook (58%) and smart phones (56%).

Marketers responded that they have adopted green practices in their routines with 95% recycling, 76% using energy efficient light bulbs and 58% using dishes instead of disposables.

Do you wonder which celebrity scandal marketers found most offensive over the past 10 years? Of the many options, the top three selected were: "Mel Gibson's racist tirades," "Michael Vick dog fighting," and "Charlie Sheen's infidelity and mental health meltdown."

On the bright side, when asked which celebrity spokespeople have had the greatest impact on their charity or cause over the past 10 years, marketers selected Michael J. Fox (67%) followed by a tie for 2nd place between Bono and Paul Newman (48%). George Clooney held third place with 43%.

Corporate Communicators

We wondered which corporate scandal over the past 10 years marketers found to be most egregious and which corporate crisis was best handled. The scandals rated as most egregious were BP (Gulf oil spill) with 98%, Enron (financial) 66% and Madoff (ponzi scheme) with 61%.

The corporate crises marketers selected as handled best were Toyota's recall with 56%, followed by ConAgra's beef recall and "Other" tying with 24%. Of interest is that about 20% of respondents wrote-in responses -- virtually all simply stating "none" or "none of the above."

Future Outlook

Lastly, we wondered how marketers saw the probability of various societal events occurring during the next 10 years on a scale of low, medium and high. The topics ranged from scientific discoveries to public policy changes and the state of the global economy. Some of the noteworthy findings:

• 73% thought there was a high probability that the "Age for Social Security increases to 67 or 70" with 4% saying that probability would be low
• Marketers were somewhat optimistic about a "First U.S. woman president" over the next 10 years with 36% rating the probability as high and 50% as medium
• 50% rated the likelihood of "U.S. suffers mass casualty WMD terror attack" as medium with more ranking low than high (31%, 19%, respectively)
• Only 7% felt there is a high probability that the "American education system's international ranking in math goes from 25 of 30 countries and reading from 14 of 30 (USA Today) to the top 10," while 82% responded it would be a low probability
• 33% responded a high probability for "Green practices become the standard of doing business" and 55% rated this as medium
• Low probability items were "Discover proof of life on Mars or other planets" (54%) and "Universal health coverage for all Americans" (46%)
• 39% rated low probability for "Organs cloned for transplant" and 54% indicated that as a medium probability
• 14% responded that the probability of a "Major breakthrough in cancer cures" would be low, with 34% rating it as high and 52% at medium

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Fielded by Ivy Cohen Corporate Communications, Inc. among marketing, public relations and communications professionals via Marketing Coach, LinkedIn and Twitter.