••• advertising research
Just do it
Consumers act on ads they trust
While trust in advertising can lend itself favorably to consumers’ goodwill toward a company, willingness to take action as a result of exposure to a specific message is good proxy for how effective the advertising is. And, according to New York research company Nielsen’s Trust In Advertising report, trust and action often go hand in hand.
Nielsen polled 29,000+ Internet respondents in 58 countries to measure consumer sentiment on 19 forms of paid, earned and owned advertising formats. Not surprisingly, word-of-mouth formats such as recommendations from family and friends and consumer opinions posted online prompted the highest levels of self-reported action among 84 percent and 70 percent of respondents, respectively. Roughly two-thirds indicated that they take action at least some of the time based on ads shown on TV (68 percent); branded Web sites (67 percent); ads in newspapers (65 percent); consumer-consented e-mails (65 percent); editorial content in newspapers (64 percent); and ads in magazines (62 percent).
For some ad formats, the take-action score even exceeded the trust score, suggesting that consumers may be willing to check out a product even if they didn’t find the ad completely credible. While there is a sizeable difference between respondents who said they always take action and those who said they sometimes take action, the overall scores demonstrate that, broadly speaking, ads are prompting a reaction.
Quantitatively, Latin Americans reported the highest levels of trust in 13 of 19 forms of advertising. The region also reported the highest percentage of respondents willing to take action on all 16 types of paid/owned advertisements and one of the three types of earned advertising formats (editorial content). Respondents in Asia-Pacific were the most willing to take action based on recommendations from friends and family and opinions posted online. In addition to reporting the most skepticism across all forms of advertising – except consumer opinions posted online – Europeans were also least likely to take action based on ads.
www.nielsen.com
••• internet/web
Who’s offline and why
A look at the 15 percent of adults who don’t use the Net
For many Americans, going without an Internet connection is like going without oxygen. Today’s business is conducted largely online and the Internet has also become a main source of entertainment. Forget baseball – Facebook is America’s pastime! But things are not always as they seem. According to the Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C., as of May 2013, 15 percent of American adults over the age of 18 do not use the Internet or e-mail at all.
When asked why they do not use the Internet, 34 percent of non-Internet users think the Internet is just not relevant to them, saying they are not interested, do not want to use it or have no need for it. Another 32 percent of non-Internet users cite reasons tied to their sense that the Internet is not very easy to use. These non-users say it is difficult or frustrating to go online, they are physically unable or they are worried about other issues such as spam, spyware and hackers. This figure is considerably higher than in earlier surveys. Nineteen percent of non-Internet users cite the expense of owning a computer or paying for an Internet connection and 7 percent of non-users cited a physical lack of availability or access to the Internet.
Internet use remains strongly correlated with age, educational attainment and household income. One of the strongest patterns in the data on Internet use is by age group: 44 percent of Americans ages 65+ do not use the Internet and these older Americans make up almost half (49 percent) of non-Internet users overall.
Though they themselves do not go online, non-Internet users often report that the Internet touches their lives. Forty-four percent of offline adults have asked a friend or family member to look something up or complete a task on the Internet for them and almost one-quarter of offline adults live in a household where someone else uses the Internet at home – a proportion that has remained relatively steady for over a decade. Fourteen percent of offline adults say that they once used to use the Internet but have since stopped.
Overall, most adults who do not use the Internet or e-mail do not express a strong desire to go online in the future. Just 8 percent of offline adults say they would like to start using the Internet or e-mail, while 92 percent say they are not interested. Pew also asked offline adults whether they would need assistance going online if they did wish to do so and found that only 17 percent of all non-Internet users say they would be able to start using the Internet on their own, while 63 percent say they would need assistance.
www.pewinternet.org
••• online research
You text your mother with that mouth?
Consumers bolder behind the cyber curtain
If you’re looking for candid responses from research participants, consider asking them to open up via text or e-mail. Forty-three percent of global respondents admit they say things in text and e-mail that they would not say voice-to-voice or person-to-person, according to a global poll conducted by Ipsos OTX, a Los Angeles research company.
Strong majorities in China (90 percent) and South Korea (80 percent) say they text or e-mail things they would not say over the phone or in person, which presents an opportunity for online research in these regions where respondents can be overly polite and reserved. Seven in 10 of those in Indonesia (76 percent), India (69 percent) and Saudi Arabia (67 percent) say they do so. Following next are Turkey (58 percent), Brazil (48 percent), Japan (46 percent), South Africa (45 percent), Argentina (42 percent), Mexico (42 percent) and Russia (39 percent).
Only one-third or less in most of the countries surveyed say they reserve some communication for text or e-mail: Canada (34 percent), Australia (33 percent), France (33 percent), Great Britain (32 percent), Poland (32 percent), Belgium (31 percent), Italy (31 percent), the United States (30 percent), Germany (25 percent), Hungary (24 percent), Spain (24 percent), Norway (22 percent) and Sweden (22 percent).
Demographically, age appears to be the most significant variable, as those under the age of 35 (54 percent) are considerably more likely than those ages 35-to-49 (41 percent) and those 50-to-64 (26 percent) to text/e-mail things they won’t say out loud.
Education is also a significant factor. Half of those with a high level of education say they do so (38 percent), compared with four in 10 among those with low education. Similarly, income appears to be a factor: 46 percent of those with a high level of household income will engage in the behavior compared with 43 percent of those with medium or low income. Women (44 percent) appear slightly more likely than men (42 percent) to say so.
www.ipsosotx.com
••• television research
Have it both ways
Ideal TV service must satisfy many important, conflicting desires
TV viewers are looking to maximize control, minimize cost and streamline the TV-viewing and subscription experience and cord-cutting is just one avenue viewers are taking to satisfy a long list of important and sometimes conflicting desires. MarketCast, a Los Angeles research company, has released TV Re-Packaged: How Viewers See the Future of the Medium, a study conducted among American TV viewers that looks at what television viewers want from their television service and the role that the cord plays (or does not play) in how consumers view the future of television.
When thinking about the ideal package of television services, a la carte programming is the most desired feature, second only to low cost. In an ideal world, consumers would have total access to all content but pick and choose (and pay for) only the programming they want.
But consumers don’t want to disaggregate to get there. Just over half of cord-cutters (i.e., those who don’t subscribe to a traditional, wired TV service) say that the chief reason for ditching is that they no longer wanted to pay for channels they don’t watch. But at the same time, their biggest frustration with Internet-based TV (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant, etc.) is the hassle of maintaining multiple subscriptions. The specter of disaggregating – and paying multiple bills – is also the No. 1 reason why cord-connected consumers stick with their existing services, despite their being plenty vocal about other problems with their provider. This is the disconnect that is opening the door for disruption.
The cost of sports programming is disproportionately shared by all TV viewers. But for 82 percent of TV viewers, live sports does not feature prominently in their ideal TV package. Only 18 percent of TV viewers value live sports access more than they do other features but for this small group, sports trumps everything else – including the desire to pay a low monthly subscription cost.
TV viewers overwhelmingly prefer the freedom to choose when they consume their favorite programs to being able to choose where they consume, such as on multiple devices or outside their home. As a specific selling point, the idea of making TV more mobile is likely to be a more attractive proposition when positioned as time-shifting rather than as place-shifting.
While only 25 percent of consumers think that traditional TV service subscribers are in the minority today, 53 percent think that those who subscribe to this model will be in the minority in five years.
Around four in 10 of those who currently subscribe to a traditional service say that they are extremely or very likely to cancel in the future. However, the near-term threat to traditional providers is much less severe. Seven in 10 of these Cord Considerers admit that their bundled package remains a major tether to their existing provider. Additionally, concerns about a lack of programming variety from online services coupled with a reluctance to manage multiple subscriptions continue to play a large role. Most interesting though, 60 percent of Cord Considerers admit that they simply lack the conviction to follow through.
While cost factors into the decision for why they stopped subscribing to traditional TV services, Cord Cutters are not low-value consumers when it comes to paid media. Compared to other groups, Cord Cutters demonstrate the highest average annual consumption for paid media. Their advantage over other TV viewer subgroups is most pronounced in television consumption, where they are spending more on episodes and entire seasons via purchases and rentals of DVDs, Blu-ray discs and digital downloads.
www.mcast.com
••• trends/forecasting
What’s coming in 2014
Global study looks at trending consumer behaviors
The year is wrapping up and many marketers are already well into planning for 2014. Still, only time will tell what the new year may bring. Chicago research company Euromonitor International’s Global Consumer Trends study explores consumer spending intentions, shopping attitudes, consumer technology, meal and snack preferences, healthy living patterns, personal values and household demographics in nine developed and emerging markets.
So what can we glean from 2013 that will inform the future? One key area where information, values and economics intersect is eco-conscious buying. Consumers pay the most attention to environmentally- or ethically-conscious features when purchasing products they are going to personally apply, eat, drink or touch. Not only do consumers pay attention, they are willing to pay at least a little extra for such features. Nearly two-thirds of respondents in the U.S. are willing to pay extra for such green features in packaged food (62 percent), though only 8 percent are willing to pay a lot more. Half of Brazilian respondents will pay at least a little more for sustainably-produced apparel and footwear (51 percent).
As for consumer spending intentions, fast food is out, travel is in. Nearly 40 percent of consumers plan to decrease their spending on fast food in the next 12 months, while one-quarter anticipate increases in their travel budget. Even in developed markets, where economies have been hit hard, younger consumers are twice as likely as their older counterparts to anticipate increasing their spending in the next 12 months (20 percent of those under 45, compared with 11 percent of those over 45).
Consumers continue to be interested in value in the form of high quality, especially as represented by strong brands and low prices. Independent consumer reviews are eclipsing traditional media, such as TV ads, as the most influential marketing channel in consumers’ minds. One-third of Internet-connected consumers now own a tablet computer and online shopping continues to gain traction among consumers. Over 80 percent have now purchased apparel, shoes or consumer electronics online at least once, if not more frequently.
Although the availability and acceptance of ready meals and take-out is increasing, consumers are still sitting down to home-prepared meals daily. When shopping for food, consumers look for added vitamins or fiber on labels and shun artificial ingredients, particularly in emerging markets. Overall, global online consumers tend to have positive perceptions of their health, especially in emerging markets. Weight management and dieting is also on the radar for global consumers, as 44 percent actively monitor their weight and 23 percent are on a formal diet.
In this hyper-connected era, Internet-connected consumers are nearly all looking for ways to simplify their lives and maximize time with family.
www.euromonitor.com