Research shows that Christmas will start earlier than ever, with Americans sounding off on the impacts of a potential economic slowdown and the impending impeachment of President Trump
SAN FRANCISCO – November 14, 2019 – Bospar, the boutique PR firm that puts tech companies on the map, has revealed the findings of its #ThanksChristmas2019 Study, which found that one in four Americans (24.5%) believe that the Christmas shopping season will start earlier than before and definitely before Thanksgiving. In fact, 81.6% believe holiday deals will start earlier than last year. Bospar teamed up with Propeller Insights to survey 1,105 Americans November 9-11, 2019.
Americans were divided on how big the shopping season would be, with 44.2% thinking it will be the same size as last year, 39.3% thinking it will be bigger, and 16.5% thinking it will be smaller. A majority of Americans (52.1%) say they will spend the same amount of money on holiday shopping compared to last year. Nearly a quarter (24.8%) said they will spend less, and 23.1% said they will spend more. Many Americans (50%) admitted that concerns about an economic slowdown would affect holiday shopping, with 25.4% saying these concerns would very much impact their shopping and 24.5% saying these worries would not have an impact.
When asked what new tech people are most excited about, the top choices were:
- Smartwatch
- New Samsung Galaxy Phone
- New Apple iPhone 11
- New Apple iPhone Pro
- Amazon Echo Dot
When asked which holiday owes how it’s celebrated mostly to public relations, the number one choice was Christmas (35.5%), followed by Valentine’s Day (17.6%). Thanksgiving was third with 6.5%. When Americans were asked what aspects of Thanksgiving were influenced by PR, the number one choice was the Thanksgiving dinner itself with 20.8%, followed by the story of the native Americans helping the pilgrims (19.3%) and the popularity of turkey as a meal choice (13.6%). Taking the day off as a national holiday came in fourth at 10.8%, while the “fixings” followed, including pumpkin pie, apple pie, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mashed potatoes.
Most Americans (67%) believe we should honor Sarah Josepha Hale (October 24, 1788-April 30, 1879), the woman credited with establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday – and creating the nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb.” The first choice was creating a national holiday to honor her, followed by naming a dish after Hale, putting her likeness on American currency, and, finally, naming a lamb after her.
When asked what Americans will expect from Thanksgiving, an overwhelming number of Americans (63.6%) thought it would be further sublimated by Christmas, including:
- 8% – It will get further overtaken by physical Black Friday preparations
- 0% – It will get further overtaken by physical Christmas shopping the day of Thanksgiving
- 8% – It will get further overtaken by online Christmas shopping
Only 12.3% thought Thanksgiving would be less overtaken by Christmas shopping, and 12.1% thought Thanksgiving would be overtaken by family drama. Additionally, only 11.9% thought Thanksgiving would be overshadowed by impeachment news. In fact, when asked how the impeachment of President Trump would distract Americans’ holiday experience, the overwhelming response was “not much.” When asked about how long the impeachment saga would last, over 40% of Americans (40.6%) think the impeachment proceedings will never go away as long as Trump is president; nearly the same number (39.5%) think it will last until the 2020 elections; and only 19.9% of Americans expect the impeachment proceedings to die off in the Senate before the new year.
“At Bospar we were struck by how Americans believe public relations has influenced how we celebrate the holidays,” said Curtis Sparrer, a principal of Bospar. “Consider this: over 80% of Americans admit that PR has influenced how we celebrate the holidays, and nearly one in five say that PR has given each holiday a national shared set of expectations. We see these shared feelings as knitting us closer together as a society. When you consider that southern states considered Thanksgiving a ‘Yankee abolitionist holiday’ throughout the 1800s, we see Americans’ adoption of Thanksgiving as proof that we have come a long way as a country. That gives us hope, given where we are today.”
About Propeller Insights
Propeller Insights is a full-service market research firm based in Los Angeles. Using quantitative and qualitative methodologies to measure and analyze marketplace and consumer opinions, they work extensively across industries such as travel, brand intelligence, entertainment/media, retail, and consumer packaged goods.
Propeller conducted its national online survey for Bospar of 1,105 U.S. adults between November 9 and November 11, 2019. Survey responses were nationally representative of the U.S. population for age, gender, region, and ethnicity. The maximum margin of sampling error was +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
About Bospar
Bospar is a boutique tech PR firm featuring a team of highly seasoned professionals who exist to put tech companies on the map. Bospar’s principals include a long-time PR and tech industry guru, a former broadcast TV producer and award-winning media maven, a standout PR agency manager from the corporate side of a leading global law firm, and an experienced executive with both agency and public company credentials. Bospar’s larger team includes experts in both social and traditional media, as well as financial and analyst relations and public affairs.
