Understand The Interaction Between New And Traditional Media

Ideally marketers need to influence the shoppers’ mindset before they set foot in a store. Brand Spark International’s Canadian Shopper Study, tracks shopper trends and how they embrace multi-media. Although this is a Canadian study, trends parallel those in the US. 

2011 Canadian Shopper Study Highlights:

• 37 percent of shoppers have a standard shopping list they refer to each week
• Only 15 percent make their purchasing decisions in-store
• Planning begins at home where 96 percent of shoppers read supermarket flyers and 93 percent read drug store flyers. (US statistics)
• 90 percent of shoppers are looking for low priced specials and more than 7 in 10 compare prices between stores.
• 25 percent of in-store shoppers rush to get the items on their list and then exit the store, while 66 percent indicated that they walk all of the aisles so they don’t miss anything
• Shopping for multiple categories is common: 62 percent of shoppers shop for food, 48 percent shop for personal care products and 37 percent shop for household care products. Shoppers buy most of these products on dedicated shopping trips
• A small segment of shoppers agree that they often make impulse purchases. 23 percent make impulse food purchases.

What Shopping Habits Reveal: 

Shoppers are interested in new products:  

68 percent say they are willing to pay more for new products that are an improvement over products they currently buy.  Consumers believe that research and development leads to better products. 71 percent believe that this is the case for health products, 67 percent for household care, 61 percent for personal care and 56 percent for food products. 

Leverage Social Media and Out-Of-Home Ads: 

In the Canadian Shopper Study, shoppers indicated that TV ads are the most successful at capturing their attention. 92 percent said they always/sometimes pay attention to TV ads, followed by 87 percent for out-of-home ads, 85 percent for magazines and 79 percent for Internet ads.

Product samples, retail flyers, TV ads, direct mail coupons, and magazines advertisements are considered the most convenient and useful channels for learning about new products. 

The survey also revealed that patterns of coupon usage are shifting. Paper coupons remain popular at 70 percent and newspaper coupons currently account for 70 percent of coupons used. Although magazines account for 50 percent of coupon usage, the data revealed that 50 percent of consumers use retail and brand websites or digital coupons. 

Optimizing Social Networks: 

Facebook dominates the social media universe and is currently the premiere social media starting point for any brand. 76 percent of retail and food service shoppers are on Facebook.  Among grocery shoppers, 21 percent and 17 percent respectively are Twitter and LinkedIn members.  54 percent  of shoppers have viewed ads on social networks and this figure increases to 67 percent among Early Adopters, defined as those who initially embraced, and continue to use, social media. 

Peer Recommendation:

Peer recommendation has a significant impact on consumer habits.  80 percent of respondents agree with the following statement: “If I find a product that I like, I will encourage friends and family to purchase it.”

Almost 90 percent agree with the following statement: “ If I get a deal on something, I love to tell my friends and family about it.”  70 percent say they are likely to choose a product based on the recommendation of others.

Posted by Bruce MacDonald

From his new book