<P>This week's findings from BIGresearch show the influence of different media on electronics spending among women.<BR></P>
As a follow up to last week's installment featuring women who regularly purchase online, this week we will take three media clusters -- Active Explorers, Ravenous, and Independents -- and look at the media which influence their purchase decision for electronics. (For a description of media clusters, please reference this previous column of ours.)
The following chart displays the three groups and the influence of media on their electronics purchases.
| Active Explorers |
Percentage |
| Email Advertising |
77.3% |
| Internet Advertising |
72.6% |
| Word of Mouth |
57.6% |
| Coupons |
56.4% |
| Direct Mail |
55.3% |
| Newspaper Inserts |
53.0% |
| Read Article on Product |
51.0% |
| Magazines |
46.4% |
| Newspaper |
44.0% |
| TV/Broadcast |
40.9% |
| Ravenous |
Percentage |
| Word of Mouth |
71.7% |
| TV/Broadcast |
69.9% |
| Read Article on Product |
68.5% |
| In Store Promotion |
61.3% |
| Cable |
53.7% |
| Coupons |
53.3% |
| Magazines/Newspaper Inserts |
51.3% |
| Newspaper |
47.9% |
| Email Advertising |
42.5% |
| Direct Mail |
37.1% |
| Independents |
Percentage |
| Word of Mouth |
33.6% |
| Read Article on Product |
33.2% |
| Internet Advertising |
26.1% |
| TV/Broadcast |
24.3% |
| Newspaper Inserts |
21.3% |
| Email Advertising |
19.5% |
| Magazines |
15.7% |
| In Store Promotion |
13.7% |
| Coupons |
12.4% |
| Newspaper |
11.1% |
The data for the above chart is drawn from the BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey VII, with a sample size of 15,027 and conducted in December, 2005. The number of women who regularly shop online is 1,490. The overall SIMM data exceeds 100,000 respondents.
As you can see in the charts, across the three categories, word of mouth becomes the top influencer on electronics purchases, with internet advertising playing a significant role is the Active Explorer and the Independents' desire to purchase. The Independents make up a sizable portion of the U.S. population and they are the hardest to reach, but not impossible.
Active Explorers are promotion consumers, therefore a synergetic mix of coupons, email advertising, and internet advertising make for a good influential mix.
The Ravenous are high consumers of electronic and network print media. Therefore, reading articles about a particular product and TV/Broadcast television notably influences the Ravenous on purchase decision. The Ravenous are also givers of advice and the giving of advice often takes the form of "spreading the word" via network, online, blogs and cell phones.
The independents as we said, are hard to reach or hard to influence. Their electronics purchases require literary information and trusted influences via word of mouth. However, internet advertising, TV/Broadcast and Newspaper Inserts seem to carry comparable weight or influence on their purchase decision.
Take Aways
It is important for advertisers to understand that both the clusters, and the features of each cluster, do not remain static.
Rather, variation of media synergies change by daypart, product and media influence on the product. The clusters will change based on changes in media convergence, usefulness, relevance and perhaps in affordable media.
A detailed paper on media clusters will be presented at the ESOMAR conference, June 5, 2006, Shanghai, authored by Martin Block and Don Schultz of Northwestern University and myself. The report will be entitled, "Media Consumption and Consumer Purchasing: Connecting the Dots."