Tailored ads likely to hit target consumer
Seventy-three percent of U.S. Internet users feel they are overexposed to advertising, according to a study from New York-based Nielsen Company and Irvine, Calif., online small-business advocate WebVisible. The study sought to measure how consumers in the Web 2.0 world find and interact with advertising, rather than be found by advertising. The study investigates the Web’s role in shaping the information and advertising that consumers want to see and examines where they go to find it and what they do with the information as they look to make purchase decisions.
The Web 2.0 community is using the Internet to build online experiences where advertising not only supports the sites, but, in many cases, the advertising increases the value of or is part of the experience. Destination sites that employ ads targeted conveniently to users’ specific interests and needs create loyalty and value with users and lead to more revenue for their properties. Local-related sites have a unique opportunity for personalization, loyalty and relevance in reaching local consumers and advertisers.
The Nielsen//NetRatings and WebVisible survey reports several key findings: while, as mentioned, 73 percent of U.S. Internet users believe that they are over-exposed to advertising, only 24 percent of people say their shopping habits are never influenced by advertising they encounter, and 72 percent say they would prefer finding products and services using search engines than having advertisements sent to them. Among the 73 percent that feel they are over-exposed to advertising, 91 percent would prefer using a search engine to having advertisements sent to them. At least once a month, two-thirds of people wish the advertising they encounter was better targeted to their needs.
Search engines have now become the No. 1 resource for people looking for a local retail or service business from which to shop, with 74 percent using Google, MSN, Yahoo! or something similar. Additional choices include: yellow pages (65 percent), Internet yellow pages (50 percent), a local newspaper (44 percent), white pages (33 percent), television (29 percent) and consumer review Web sites (18 percent). (Some panelists selected more than one answer.)
Relevance of advertising is of particular interest to consumers today. Only the Internet and television provided consumers with at least a few ads per month that they actually wanted or needed, at 56 and 53 percent, respectively. Consumer responses reported yellow pages and magazines the least-used, at 17 and 27 percent, respectively. For more information visit www.webvisible.com.
Greed and dishonesty markedly absent in U.K. survey respondents
Recent research from Survey Sampling International U.K. (SSI), London, found that the majority of survey respondents find compensation for completing a survey less influential than the desire to share opinions or influence decisions and product design when deciding whether or not to participate in surveys. SSI hosted a showcase of online research respondent dilemmas and resolutions at Insight 2007 in London to determine what motivates people to take surveys. The questions at hand are why people take surveys and why they don’t; why they drop out of surveys and why they persevere; and why they join more than one panel.
Elaine Barker, a member of the U.K. OpinionWorld community, said she takes surveys because she enjoys it. “I’m a lady of a certain age and semi-retired now, so it helps keep my mind occupied,” she said. SSI’s research confirms that Barker is not alone. The majority of people surveyed in France, Germany and the Netherlands are intrinsically motivated and say they take surveys because they want to give their opinions. Influencing decisions and the designs of products and services is also high on the list of reasons.
Beyond that, people welcome an opportunity to make a little money and win prizes. Directly asked about payment for surveys, Barker concurred: “Yes, that would be nice. I’m a member of a few panels that do pay for surveys, but I haven’t actually received any money yet.”
Still, survey-taking can be frustrating, and occasionally people drop out before they finish surveys. SSI research reveals that one reason people drop out of surveys is because of repetitive questions. In addition, respondents become angry or frustrated when they start to take a survey but are not allowed to continue and when they encounter a technical error. For Barker, the greatest frustrations in online survey taking are when surveys are closed when she opens the e-mail invitation, and extensive screening questions that lead to a, “Sorry, you are not eligible for this survey.”
SSI researchers asked Barker if she was ever confused by the surveys or the language used. “Only if the survey uses language I don’t understand. One question I got was about what sort of broadband connection I had. The answer list was a lot of technical gobbledygook to me. It didn’t let me say I didn’t know, so I just picked one to move on in the survey,” she said.
SSI’s research also addressed how being on multiple panels affects survey results. SSI found that just because a respondent belongs to multiple panels does not necessarily mean they generate bad data. Findings from studies in the U.K., France, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands of members of multiple panels show that these respondents are no more motivated by money than those on a single panel; do not take too many surveys; do not complete surveys faster than those on a single panel; and pay as much attention as anyone else.
It’s interesting to note that people said they join other panels because sample suppliers restrict the number of survey opportunities.
Other key findings:
Respondents rarely let another person take a survey for them; respondents rarely find the fastest way through a questionnaire just to collect the reward; respondents rarely answer a survey question untruthfully on purpose; and 70 percent of respondents admit they have, on occasion, stopped paying attention to a survey when it is boring, too long or uninteresting and 58 percent have abandoned a survey under these conditions.
Researchers can keep respondents engaged by asking sensible questions in a straightforward manner and telling the truth about how much time it will take to complete the survey. For more information visit www.sureysampling.com.
High gas prices tighten wallets; retailers feel the pinch
New York-based Nielsen Company conducted a survey to determine how consumers compensate for high prices at the pump and found that many retailers are suffering the effect of overall consumer cutbacks and a growing affinity for one-stop shopping. Results are based on Nielsen Homescan survey responses from nearly 26,000 U.S. consumers, geographically and demographically representative of the total U.S. population. The survey was conducted in December 2007, when regular gas averaged $3.06 per gallon.
The survey finds that 49 percent of U.S. consumers are reducing their spending to compensate for rising gas prices, up four points from June 2007. Consumers are also battling high gas prices by combining shopping trips and errands (70 percent), eating out less (41 percent) and staying home more often (39 percent).
“Our research shows consumers are adjusting their spending to a significant degree in order to counterbalance rising gas prices,” says Todd Hale, senior vice president of consumer shopping and insights, Nielsen Consumer Panel Services. “Large numbers of consumers eating out less and staying home more often signal a tough year for some restaurants, but there may be an opportunity for consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers to find continued growth in healthy, at-home meal solutions and at-work meals.”
Nielsen’s survey finds that record-high gas prices likely contributed to 2007’s less-than-stellar holiday sales season. Sixty percent of consumers surveyed said they had less money to spend during the holidays due to increased gas prices, and 44 percent of consumers reported they planned on spending less money on holiday gifts in 2007 as compared to the year prior.
“Unlike 2005 and 2006, gas prices didn’t drop in the fourth quarter of 2007 to enable consumers to do their typical holiday binge buying,” says Hale. “That said, our research shows a jump in consumers shopping on the Internet as a way to deal with high gas prices. This should be a wake-up call for manufacturers and retailers alike to step up their direct-to-consumer efforts and utilize the Internet to communicate directly with consumers in 2008, emphasizing value, variety and convenience.”
Nielsen finds that gas prices are impacting where consumers shop, with 27 percent of consumers reacting to gas prices by shopping more at supercenters, megastores and big-box stores, where more items needed are in one store.
“Although recent store expansions mean that supercenters are closer to more shoppers, nearly a third of households still travel 11 miles or more to a supercenter, and high gas prices will likely reduce the number of quick trips these households make. Supercenter retailers will need to entice shoppers with stronger earning power who are less vulnerable to high gas prices,” says Hale.
Increased fuel prices are resulting in more coupon clipping, with 25 percent of consumers using coupons to save money, up from 20 percent in June 2007. Twenty-three percent of consumers indicate they will buy less-expensive grocery brands to deal with higher gas prices, signaling a possible boost for private-label or store-brand products and lower-priced branded products.
“Manufacturers and retailers need to be alert to the fact that consumers are looking to save by altering where they shop, how they shop and what products and brands they buy. Value, convenience and competitive pricing will be more important than ever in the year ahead,” says Hale. For more information visit www.nielsen.com.
Multichannel campaign tracking shakes interactive marketers’ confidence
Most marketers say they don’t have much confidence in their ability to get the most out of their digital marketing efforts, with social networking claiming a top spot of both major uncertainty and major tracking efforts in the future.
Cambridge, Mass., marketing consulting company Sapient revealed the results of its annual Interactive Marketing Survey, which is designed to understand how marketers are implementing and tracking campaigns, the challenges they face and how they plan to allocate marketing spend across channels in 2008. The national survey is based on 120 senior-level respondents, all of whom are either directly or indirectly responsible for managing digital marketing budget allocation across multiple channels.
The Interactive Marketing Survey revealed that marketers lack the tools necessary to optimize their marketing efforts across the full spectrum of digital channels. Specifically, more than half the respondents felt only “somewhat confident” or “not confident at all” in their organization’s abilities to track campaigns across multiple channels in real-time, with only 19 percent reporting the ability to make campaign changes in less than 24 hours.
While social networking was cited as the least “trackable” digital channel, according to the survey, it was the channel with the largest anticipated increase in marketing analytics spend for 2008. Only 12 percent of respondents tracked social networking campaign performance in 2007; in 2008, 42 percent anticipate using analytics to track this channel. E-mail (32 percent) and search (30 percent) were cited as the two channels that marketers were most confident in their ability to track.
Three of the most major concerns were cross-channel measurement, shifting campaign spending in less than 24 hours and fear of recent acquisitions causing companies to be ignored or forgotten.
Nearly half of the respondents said they do not believe campaign data provided to them evenly measures and compares performance across all digital channels. Difficulty in comparing metrics across channels is the most common hurdle to accuracy in this area, cited by 28 percent of respondents.
Only 19 percent of respondents said they could make changes in campaign spending in less than 24 hours; the rest would need a couple of days or more. In the fast-paced social networking world, this inability to move quickly could become a big issue for marketing organizations, if not properly addressed.
Marketers are concerned about the wave of acquisitions involving Microsoft, aQuantive, Google, Double Click and others. Forty-one percent of survey respondents fear being lost in the shuffle with thousands of other clients as a result of consolidation in the online advertising industry. For more information visit www.sapient.com.
High-value consumers now expect cross-channel shopping
Sterling Commerce, a Dublin, Ohio, AT&T Inc. subsidiary, released the results of a recent survey that shows how consumers want to interact with retailers across channels. The survey found that “high-value” consumer groups – higher-income consumers, college graduates and younger consumers – have made cross-channel shopping a standard, indicating to retailers that achieving cross-channel execution can increase consumer loyalty and share of wallet. Increasingly, consumers are using the Web as a first touchpoint and want to channel-hop to complete their purchases, making integration across channels essential to retail success.
The survey, which polled 1,005 adults between January 18 and 20, 2008, found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of all respondents went online before making a purchase in the past three months. That percentage was even higher for “high-value” consumers, such as those with household incomes of about $75,000 (81 percent), college graduates (78 percent) and consumers age 25 to 34 (77 percent).
The survey also queried consumers about which cross-channel activities they deemed to be most important. The top three were: the ability to return merchandise to a store even if it was purchased via telephone or online (81 percent “very important/important”); the ability to pick up merchandise at a store after ordering online (56 percent “very important/important”), and store pickups are particularly important to younger adults (69 percent of those 25 to 34 years old); and the availability of gift registry information in the store, online and over the telephone (56 percent “very important/important”). As with store pickups, having gift registry information available in multiple channels is particularly important to those 25 to 34 years old (66 percent “important”).
Shoppers are hopping channels to gain more value out of their interactions with a retailer. In turn, the retailer has the opportunity to gain customer loyalty and share of wallet. The Web is becoming an important first touch-point, often serving as a research tool before a store purchase, according to more than half (57 percent) of the survey respondents. In addition, nearly one-fourth (24 percent) of respondents reported using a coupon or rebate offer found online. One out of six consumers (18 percent) checked an online gift registry as part of the purchase process.
The percentages are higher for the “high-value” consumer groups. Among those with incomes of $75,000 or more, 77 percent conducted research online in advance of an in-store purchase, 32 percent used a coupon or rebate found online, and 25 percent checked an online gift registry within the past three months. Among those who are college graduates, 74 percent conducted research online in advance of an in-store purchase, 31 percent used a coupon or rebate found online, and 21 percent checked an online gift registry within the past three months.
Consumers also are expecting away-from-home access to the Web to enhance their shopping experience. One-third of consumers consider it important to have access to an online kiosk while shopping in the store to conduct product research (37 percent); to have access to their online account while shopping in a store to view items they have tagged online (36 percent); and for call center personnel to have a record of what they have been researching online (32 percent). For more information visit www.sterlingcommerce.com.