Europe 2002 Survey Results

Ipsos-RSL's recently published Europe 2002 study updates the results in this survey series, which covers the top 4% of Europe's decision makers and leading consumers, representing 10.6 million high status individuals in 16 countries. The results confirm the strength of international media and reveal the growing technology focus of Europe's elite.

Consumption of international media remains high - 52% are Average Issue Readers (AIRs) of international publications or view a Pan European TV (PETV) News channel at least once a week. Within this the AIR for these publications is 26% and weekly reach for PETV News channels is 39%. In addition, when accessing the Internet for business reasons, 47% read business news, 31% read publications on-line and 46% look at corporate or company information.

The average Europe 2002 respondent has a personal annual income of €78,000, personal investments of €318,000 and is responsible for €200,000 of business purchasing annually. Other indicators of their high status are: ownership of a second home - 35%, three or more cars in household - 20%, spend 30 or more nights in a hotel - 33%, take six or more international business flights per year - 31%.

Europe's decision makers and leading consumers are rapidly embracing new technology, with 26% using a WAP mobile phone, 28% a handheld or palmtop computer and 22% (up from 7% in 2000) a minidisk player. 78% agree that keeping up to date with technology is important to them.

87% of this elite target market are prepared to pay extra for quality and 49% prefer to buy well known brands. When deciding to buy a car, their purchase is driven by safety 40%, price 39%, reliability 37% and make 35%. When choosing an airline, previous experience, 34% and price/special offers, 33% are the main factors influencing choice.

According to Roger Gane, Managing Director of Ipsos-RSL, 'I am delighted with the strong and growing support we are receiving for the Europe 2000 series from both media owners and agencies. Europe 2002 is an essential tool of the trade for European campaign planning and we look forward to building on this with future releases.'

Europe 2002 is the third survey in the Europe 2000 series, which measures readership, TV viewing, website use, consumer and business behaviour and attitudes of the top 10.6 million (4%) of Europe's leading consumers and decision makers. The Europe 2002 methodology comprises telephone screening of over 255,000 households across 16 European countries to find eligible individuals, a telephone interview for TV viewing and a postal self completion questionnaire for all other data, these data are then fused to form a complete data set for the 9,012 survey respondents. To be included in the Europe 2002 universe, respondents must be least 25 years old, work at least 15 hours per week, work in an executive or professional occupation, and either have a personal income in the top 5% in each country or have been on at least 6 international business trips in the past year or are a director of a company with at least 25 employees.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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