FGI Research » 2009 » September

Student Loans have Reached New Heights

Admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:30:59 +0000

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, “Students Borrow More Than Ever for College,” student borrowing for college has reached a record high. Just last year, the amount of borrowing for educational loans grew nearly 25% where such borrowing had once been as low as 1.7%. As students across the nation headed back to school, FGI Research conducted a study to learn more about respondents who had borrowed money to pursue higher education.

Where Aid Comes From

Of those who responded, 83.92% said they had qualified and used Financial Aid. Respondents were asked to share all forms of financial aid that they received for their education. The majority of this aid came from Stafford Loans (76.98%), followed by Perkins Loans (36.51%) and then private loans (29.37%). While most respondents were female, the gender distribution of those seeking financial aid were mostly equal. Moreover, respondents receiving financial aid were diverse ethnically and in terms of age, making it apparent that this trend has affected multiple demographics since the country’s economic downturn.

Consumers Turn to Social Media
The subject of student loans has also hit social media outlets. Facebook has seen a rash of groups, notes, and blogs to discuss the issue of financial aid. 34% of students got their information from the popular social-networking site. Respondents also cited YouTube as a source for information about student loans. 23% of those surveyed said they had used YouTube to inform their decisions about financial aid. And it’s not just students using social media to discuss the issues surrounding Financial Aid. In June 2009, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi posted a note on Facebook with information to make students aware of the many benefits available to help them manage their student loans. Again, we see the rising role of social media not just in campaigns but in the daily act of governing.

The Loans Linger
Approximately half of our respondents are still paying off student loans. Not surprisingly, 82% of them reported that the debt affects their standard of living. 65% reported changes in their spending habits with regards to leisure activities, food and household purchases; 40% said loans have prevented travel; and 32% said they have postponed major milestones such as marriage, starting a family, or purchasing a house. If the economic downturn persists, the question remains as to how to reap the benefits of higher education without incurring the risk of overwhelming debt from student loans.

Actionable Insights
Given that students said they had changed their purchasing habits to cope with debt, studies like these have very real implications for many industries. Young adults are a demographic with considerable sway in the market. If many of them are cutting back on discretionary spending to cope with student loans, it helps to know what will attract their business. The way to find out is through advanced research methods. Social media monitoring is especially pertinent in this case, since so many young people are using tools like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and now Twitter. Yet online survey data can always lend deeper insight into consumer trends. Robust research can help any business cope with this and other symptoms of economic downturn.

Next Steps You Can Take

Learn more about the results of this study: complimentary access to the data in this report, including cross-tabulated results, is available upon request from FGI Research.
Contact FGI Research: click here or call us at (919) 929-7759
Explore FGI Research’s market research solutions, including custom panels, full service research, and our online sample (SmartPanel).
Join FGI Research’s online panel to participate in future studies.

Survey Methods
Date of Study: 9/22/2009
Total Responders: 143
Sample Source: FGI SmartPanel

This nationally-representative sample consists of adults aged 18 and up and is balanced to the US population using recent census data. One can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

The Future of Market Research?

Admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:20:17 +0000

The changes in the market research industry over the past 30 years have been significant: the widespread adoption of the CATI system for telephone interviewing, predictive dialers to help us reach our respondents more efficiently, the use of sophisticated scanning techologies to speed the processing of mail surveys, and, more recently, the implementation of online research.

Using both qualitative and quantitative methods allows us to present audio and visual stimuli more easily, shorten field windows, and even reach audiences that had previously been unreachable through random digit dialing. Online research is driving accelerating change in market research. So, what’s next?

As market researchers, the onus is on us to help our clients find new and creative ways to get answers to their business problems, without sacrificing the best practices that make those answers actionable. This could mean combining multiple modes of data collection to ensure we reach our target population where they “live” (web, phone, mail, mobile), finding new environments for clients to interact with their customer base (custom panels, communities, social networks) or investigating new technologies to get at information that might not be revealed using traditional research methods (social media monitoring). The world is changing faster than ever before – we all need to be ready to move with the times.

Heather Woodward
Director, Online Research
FGI Research

To Tweet, or Not to Tweet?

Admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:16:37 +0000

In an age of rapidly increasing uses for social media, Twitter has emerged as a social network that provides up-to-date data on consumer reactions. While it is still quite uncertain whether or not Twitter will rise to the popularity that Facebook and MySpace have experienced, the site is certainly seeing a vast increase in users month after month. Connecting to customers through sites such as Twitter will be influential in creating relationships and gaining “followers.”

This social media site also creates an excellent new source of customer feedback that can be combined with traditional methods such as focus groups or surveys. New tools such as Tweetdeck now allow companies to follow competitors, track key words, or determine consumer opinion concerning their brand or product. Our clients who have begun monitoring social media sites prior to product launches have gained great insight into consumer reaction, competitor response and the marketing tactics that should be used. With Twitter expected to have close to 50 million users by the end of the year, it’s important to employ expert advice in social media mining and web monitoring.

Ashton Smith
Social Media Intern
FGI Research