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For Immediate Release February 9, 2004
Contact: Cristi Allen
callen@decisionanalyst.com
Phone: 817-640-6166

Arlington, Texas (February 09, 2004) - If you're planning on sending your sweetheart flowers this Valentine's Day, or wooing them at your favorite romantic restaurant, better not wait too long to put those plans into action. Florists and restaurants will be extra busy this year (in the U.S. at least), according to the 2004 romance survey from American Consumer Opinion® Online, a worldwide online panel that pays people for their opinions.

A recent survey of 1,249 men and women, drawn from a balanced sample of the U.S. population, found that taking a loved one out to dinner is the big favorite for this Valentine's Day, with more than one in four (27 percent) respondents putting it at the top of their plans. Last year, by contrast, less than 17 percent of those surveyed were heading to the restaurants.

Flowers are also high on the list of this year's Valentine's presents, although roses no longer dominate the plans of floral romantics. Fifteen percent of respondents expect to send their loved ones roses this year, but 22 percent will give other blooms instead (up from 13 percent last year).

Roses or not, few Americans will spend heavily to shower their loved ones with expensive Valentine's gifts this year. The survey found average spending on Valentine's Day expected to be just $51 this year. That's not only well down from 2003 levels ($65), but also low by international standards. Among other countries also surveyed by American Consumer Opinion® Online, only Germany (at $40) was lower, with respondents from the UK, Canada (both at $64) and France ($65) expecting to spend significantly more than U.S. romantics.

These international differences may relate to different purchase intents - the French, for example, put jewelry ahead of flowers as the number one purchase for their sweethearts. Yet Canadians share almost identical purchase plans with their counterparts in the U.S. and are spending more. If the gifts don't impress, U.S. romantics might have a hard time explaining themselves to their loved ones this year.

Methodology

For its 2004 "Global Romance Study,'' balanced samples of between 1058 and 1772 participants (per country) were selected from the U.S., Canadian, French, German and UK members of American Consumer Opinion� Online, one of the world's largest Internet consumer opinion sources, with nearly 3.5 million participants. The total survey size was 6,675. This study's margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent at a 90 percent confidence level.

About Decision Analyst/American Consumer Opinion� Online

Decision Analyst, Inc. is a leading marketing research and marketing consulting firm specializing in advertising testing, strategy research, new product development, and advanced modeling for marketing decision optimization. The firm delivers competitive advantage to clients throughout the world in the consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, retail, high technology, medical and pharmaceutical, utilities, and e-commerce industries. Decision Analyst operates American Consumer Opinion® Online, one of the world's largest Internet consumer opinion panels, with nearly 3.5 million participants

For additional information contact:
Cristi Allen
Publicity
Email: callen@decisionanalyst.com
Phone: 1.800.ANALYSIS (262.5974)
Address: 604 Avenue H East
Arlington, TX 76011

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