BOCA RATON, FL and DEARBORN, MI -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 10/19/07 --
-- While a majority (55.2%) agree with banning imports from China until
safety can be assured, 53.6% agree that banning Chinese made products would
cause problems for U.S. economy.
-- While only 35.4% of consumers agree that they can recognize products
made in China when shopping, 47.8% note that they have stopped buying some
products after discovering they are manufactured in China.
-- 61.1% agree that because of the sheer number of products made in
China, avoiding buying these products is not possible.
When asked who is primarily to blame for safety issues on imported products
from China, one in three survey respondents (33.6%) selected U.S. companies
that import or resell products made in China for failing to adequately test
these products. Only 12.6% of 1,000 consumers identified the Chinese
government for lack of adequate policing, and only 8.2% pointed the finger
at the U.S. government. Meanwhile, 45.6% of the survey respondents selected
"There is enough blame to go around for all concerned." The U.S. consumers
were surveyed in early October as part of a study conducted by Amplitude
Research and the University of Michigan - Dearborn.
Only one in five of the consumers surveyed (19.4%) felt that recent news
stories on the quality and safety of Chinese imports are unfairly
portraying China as the biggest offender.
"Statistical analysis of the data from our survey of 1,000 consumers
showed that older consumers rate the safety of China-made products lower
than younger consumers, while women and older consumers tended more so than
males and younger consumers to take the stance that the U.S. should ban all
imports of products made in China until their safety can be assured," said
Steve Birnkrant, CEO of Amplitude Research.
According to the survey findings, 83.2% of consumers agreed that laws
should be passed requiring adequate testing of all imported products for
safety. This question resulted in the highest level of agreement among
respondents of all questions on the survey.
Thomas J. Callahan, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of
Michigan - Dearborn, said: "The consumers paid attention to the questions
and answered them thoughtfully. We know this from factor analysis of
respondent data, a statistical method that gives credibility to the quality
of consumers' responses. We are excited by the quality of the data."
As thoughtful as the survey respondents were in answering the questions,
there were also indications that American consumers are lacking in their
understanding of which countries export certain products to the United
States. For example, China, Canada and Thailand are by far the three
largest exporters of seafood to the United States. To test respondent
knowledge of country of origin, respondents were asked to identify the top
two seafood exporters to the United States. Overall recognition was
reasonably good with regard to Canada (38.5% recognition) and China (48.2%
recognition). However, 47.3% of the respondents identified Japan and 20.7%
identified Norway as top-two seafood exporters when in fact these two
countries comprise small percentages of the export market. Only 15.6%
identified Thailand as a top exporter.
Inability to recognize country of origin was further exhibited by responses
to questions about ease of recognition for specific product groupings such
as cars, tires, toothpaste, toys and large appliances. Only cars had more
than 50% recognition with less than a third of the respondents agreeing
that it is easy to determine country of origin for tires (24%), toothpaste
(27.4%), and large appliances (30.2%). "It's safe to say that as a country
we could be better educated regarding which countries are responsible for
exporting to the U.S. specific kinds of products," noted Professor
Callahan.
The study was conducted by Amplitude Research over the period October 5th
to October 9th 2007 among its nationwide consumer web panel and had 1,000
total survey respondents with a margin of error of +/-3.0% at the 95%
confidence level. Note to Media: To obtain a summary of the results,
contact Michael Krems of Krems Public Relations at krems@kremspr.com.
About Amplitude Research.
Amplitude Research® (www.amplituderesearch.com) is a privately owned
survey research organization headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, with
blue chip clients located throughout the United States and Canada.
Amplitude combines its powerful survey platform, experienced survey
administration, high-quality sample, and advanced reporting to deliver Loud
and Clear(TM) results. Its leadership team has over 30 years of combined
experience in quantitative survey research, and is supported by its
experienced staff of survey design experts, statisticians, project managers
and IT professionals.
Amplitude's nationwide consumer panel (www.panelspeak.com) was formed in
early 2002 and is growing at the rate of 4,000 sign-ups per month. Sign-up
demographics include over 100 different targeted selects. Amplitude's
proprietary panel management software applies seven distinct quality checks
to filter sign-up information, including automated address verifications.
Amplitude's survey engine also deploys timers on questionnaires to track
individual respondent completion times.
All surveys are programmed and hosted by Amplitude Research® using its
proprietary, multi-language platform supporting a myriad of question types.
The name "Amplitude" Research and its tagline "loud and clear" signify
Amplitude's commitment to high-quality reporting with clear and concise
presentation of the findings.
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