Influencing purchase...

• Thursday, 18 June 2009
• By Catheryn York
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I came across some very research regarding which media influences greater purchases. Although its US based statistics I thought it would be interesting particularly to some of our clients that are pushing to increase social marketing in place of other activities. The obvious reason being that it is cheaper in most cases, however consideration must be given to whether its effective in actually producing sales...the ultimate goal!

An outline of the research by Harris Interactive that surveyed 2.355 American adults:

Consumer purchase decisions are informed by a mix of "old" and "new" media, but more traditional forms of communication appear to exert a greater influence than social networking websites.

The most common way shoppers mentioned that they collected information prior to buying a particular product was:

• 36% via a company website.
• 22% via "Face-to-face" interaction with a "salesperson or other company representative".
• 21% spoke to someone "not associated with the company".
• 19% found out about a brand from print advertising.
• 15% via broadcast ads,
• 14% made judgments "based only on my past experience."

In terms of online behaviour:

• 19% used independent websites featuring product reviews – like Amazon.
• 11% accessed internet message boards.
• 4% turned to social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, with a similar number visiting "private social networking sites" and “customer communities".

Results varied slightly by age group:

• 16% of 18–24 year olds employed social media to conduct product research. Although this result was higher the figure was still 5% lower than for ads on TV and radio, and 6% below that for print media among this demographic, and some 24% smaller than the number visiting company websites.
• Ads on broadcast media were most widely-used among 25–29 year olds, at 22%.
• Print ads were most popular among 50–64 year old shoppers, on 27%.

Over all demographics:

• 57% communicated about their positive product/service experience to others after making a purchase.
• 41% "recommended" what they had bought to others.
• 11% of this group did so with regard to a negative experience, and only 6% "recommended against" purchasing an item.
• 63% expressed their positive or negative experience when talking to "a family member, business colleague or a friend.", 30% used email, 12% used a company website, 9% employed social networks, 8% opted for online message boards, and 7% added their comments to independent review websites.

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