Happy Valentine's Day!

OK, Boomers!  How many of you remember your parents saying "Youth is wasted on the young."  I do!  And I also remember having a conversation with a friend about her college-aged daughter's amazing adventures and opportunities: study aborad, internships, and more.  "When I die," she told me, "I want to come back as my daughter."

Earlier this week, another of our Polaris editorial team, Danica Kwon, explored the idea via her blog that your employees are also your customers.  Some companies may dismiss this but others take it to heart.

Polaris Marketing Research Inc. and its data collection partner SSI found that in its latest study of American consumer behavior online, looked at how – and how much – online Americans use Facebook.  Facebook users are very devoted to it, as more than half (55 percent) of Facebook users check several times a day.

As a marketing research professional, I’m always on the lookout for new, stimulating research.  I’m also always on the lookout for studies that may confirm what we already suspected, but sometimes produce surprising underlying findings.  Two cases in point:

Big news this week as the FDA unveiled the new cigarette warning labels. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The warnings represent the most significant changes to U.S. cigarette labels in more than 25 years and are required to be placed on all cigarette packs, cartons and ads no later than September 2012."

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably realized that the world did not end on Saturday, much to the dismay of Harold Camping, an 89 year-old California evangelical broadcaster, and his followers.  Camping’s California-based radio network, Family Radio Network, is not small since it broadcasts to over 66 U.S. stations and is heard in more than 30 languages through international affiliates.  In fact, some of his more fervent followers believed his doomsday prediction to the point of spending their life savings on billboards warning of Judgment Day and giving their pets to “non-believers” to care for once the “followers” are gone. 

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Royal Wedding in London last Friday was covered live by eleven television networks in the US, with an average audience of 22.8 million viewers.  Attendance figures for the wedding are estimated to be more than 600,000, based on the fact that the capacity of Westminster Abbey is 2,200, and outside, since the 1981 wedding between Charles and Diana had an estimated crowd of 600,000, similar numbers were posted.

I’ve been on the hunt for a new phone the past couple of days, as my phone for the last two years has lost its capabilities to text (my main form of communication these days). I went to a couple different websites to read some reviews to help me pick a cell phone for my needs.

"Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census."  Rob Lowe