Ran across a fairly recent NAA study (performed by Scarborough Research in 2008 and MORI Research in 2009) and given all the not so great news that came out this week around newspaper circulation, thought a counter point of view would be worth while to explore.
Overall newspaper inserts are still being used by those that have access to them.
- 75% of all U.S. adults read a newspaper in print or online in the past week; over 170 million adults. For shoppers, newspaper advertising is an opt-in medium in an opt-out world.
- 59% of adults rank newspapers first as the media used to help plan shopping or make purchasing decisions in the past 7 days.
- 80% of newspaper readers report looking at advertising when reading the paper.
- 41% say newspapers are the medium used most to check out ads, more than all electronic media combined. (TV, radio, Internet)
- 77% of newspaper readers took an action as a result of a print newspaper ad in the past 30 days. 59% clipped a coupon, 52% bought something advertised and 45% visited a store.
- 60% of newspaper readers followed up a newspaper ad online in some way. 44% went to a website after seeing a print newspaper ad and 28% conducted an online search after seeing a newspaper ad.
- 82% of readers used a preprinted insert in the past 30 days.
- 59% used to compare prices, 55% used to compare one circular to another, 52% saved until visiting the store and 43% used to make an unplanned purchase.
- 4.4 days is the average time frame that an adults keep an inserts.
Masha Sajdeh of Arc Worldwide presented a great piece of brand new multichannel research at the In-Store Marketing Expo that took place here in Chicago last week. This studies methodology and sample was a solid:
- 3 countries
- 5,609 respondents
- 60 minute online survey
- 20 categories of products examined
- 10 unique channels probed
The entire Arc multichannel study is worth a careful read, but due to it’s length (57 pages) we’ll only examine a few portions that pertain to better understand which channel different types of multichannel shoppers are using and why.
For those not familuar with the concept of what multichannel shopping is all about, this is a great visual explanation.
So first let’s examine a few of the insights uncovered around how much time different multichannel shoppers spend per channel on a monthly basis. Surprisingly, the circular is the channel that showed the highest usage across all of the different types of mutlichannel shoppers (excluding a retailer’s own web site and store).
Note how the circular across all types of multichannel shoppers plays a critical role in adding the shopping process.
If we take a closer look at just the medium and heavy mutlichannel shoppers, the picture becomes even more stark. A retailer’s own web site and physical store are used heavily and fairly equally by both types. However the usage pattern around circulars is very different with heavy multichannel shoppers (arguable the most desirable and profitable type of shopper) using the circulars 95% of the time, which is higher than the retailer’s own web site. Even the more moderate mutlichannel shoppers are using the circulars at pretty hefty rates of 61%, which when again compared to a retailer’s own web site usage of 69% clearly demonstrates the continued importance of the circular to multichannel shoppers.
Wow, circulars are nearly as used by heavy multichannel shoppers as a retailers own physical stores!
Finally let’s try to get to the bottom of the ‘why’ – in this case, the ‘why’ is what causes these multichannel shoppers to use which channel when. Not surprising, circulars are all about saving money. Catalogs on the other hand are all about providing shoppers with inspiration.
Every single channel has a unique use and value proposition to a multichannel shopper.
According to a recent BIGresearch study for the National Retail Federation (NRF) that eMarketer re-published, consumers responded that in this down economy, during the “Back To School 2009″ season, circulars are being turned to by over 42% of shoppers this year as an effective way of saving money. Smart shoppers are increasing price comparing across multiple retailers, and circulars provide a great way of enabling this type of shopping.
Circulars remain top of mind for budget conscience consumers this back to school season.
Here at ShopLocal, the team also sees this exact same, cross-retailer shopping behavior growing. By having such a high density of the top US retailers as direct clients that use the SmartCircular product, ShopLocal can actual measure the % of consumers that visit multiple online circular sites within any reference time period. Curious to learn what % of your customers Mr. Retailer are hopping from your online circular over to your competitors? Or what % of your circular traffic is coming from a competitors circular? Give the ShopLocal team to learn the answers today.
The NAA (Newspaper Association of America) recently updated a study that MORI performed back in 2006 around consumer’s usage of newspaper advertising.
Here is a quick side-by-side comparison of some of the trends that this new 2009 NAA study uncovered around consumer’s use of circulars and newspapers for shopping information:
- % of adults that read preprints (or FSIs / circulars) at least occasionally
- 2006 NAA Study: 77%
- 2009 NAA Study: 73%
- % of adults that used newspapers to plan shopping in last 30 days
- 2006 NAA Study: 64%
- 2009 NAA Study: 59%
- % of adults that bought something in last 30 days as a result of newspaper advertising
- 2006 NAA Study: 53%
- 2009 NAA Study: 50%
- % of adults that turn to newspapers when they check for advertising
- 2006 NAA Study: 55%
- 2009 NAA Study: 41%
- % of adults that turn to the Internet when they check for advertising
- 2006 NAA Study: 19%
- 2009 NAA Study: 21%
Sunday newspaper ads (or as in the industry they are known as preprints, FSI or tabs) still are a major force in influencing consumers shopping.
While the newspapers have dropped most significantly as the primary place to check for advertising (from 55% to 41%), they are still clearly the #1 option that consumers turn to for checking advertising with the Internet ranking in the #2 slot at 21%. One can conclude that the Internet has not yet picked up much of the mindshare that newspapers have lost in this area, even though the Internet’s penetration is now greater than the newspapers’. The ShopLocal team suspects that is at least partly because consumers don’t know where to find advertising when they want to check it. That in turn is the real opportunity of ShopLocal – giving consumers a viable, targeted and personalized source of local shopping information.
(Disclaimer: ShopLocal is fully owned by Gannett Corp, Inc.)
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