Out of the total adult population of Americans, 63% watch some form of DRTV advertising, translating to a customer base of 136.2 million viewers, according to a study by the Electronic Retailing Association.
And while this is strong participation, overall DRTV viewership has declined 11% points since a previous 1996 study. “Not all the news it brings is good news as the data reflects challenges faced by all marketers for consumer attention in an increasingly fragmented and overcrowded media landscape,” ERA CEO, Elissa Matulis Myers, said in a statement. “But much of the news is great and reflects the growing importance of direct response TV in the marketing mix.”
People who watch and buy from DRTV are more likely to be employed, and more affluent than people who don’t watch DRTV. Buyers are also more likely to be married with children when compared to the other groups. While DRTV viewers continue to skew female, they do not hold as dominant a position as previously believed.
On average DRTV viewers are four years younger than Americans who don’t watch DRTV. Among the youngest viewer group (ages 16 – 24) time spent watching infomercials has increased from a year ago. “This is especially significant because the general population trends are going in the other direction and skewing older,” Myers said. “This is the highly desirable, 70 million strong population that traditional advertisers spend billions trying to attract.”
Infomercial buyers are most likely to purchase because they “believe the product will help them” while live shopping buyers were motivated by “finding the best price” and direct response spot buyers because they “always wanted the product,” the ERA said. In addition to generating immediately trackable sales, DRTV campaigns also drive retail store traffic. More than one third of viewers indicated that they purchased a product that they were first exposed to via DRTV. This incidence was highest among infomercial viewers (39%), followed by live shopping (34%) followed by 60-second to two-minute TV spots (32%).
DRTV viewers are more likely to trust infomercials than Congress, used car salesmen and corporate executives, the report found.
The study was conducted by the ERA to monitor and update direct response television viewership trends as well as consumer attitudes and preferences about electronic retailing. The ERA commissioned the Leisure Trends Group of Boulder, Colorado, an independent market research firm, to conduct a nationally representative telephone survey of American adults in the third quarter of 2002.
The full study is available free to ERA members. Non-ERA members may purchase the study results for $300 by contacting James Stouffer at 1-800-987-6462 [email protected].
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