Live From DMDNY: DMA Consumer Study Highlights Timing And Trust
Peter A. Johnson has a challenge for the entire direct marketing industry, or at least those that haven’t read about the DMA’s new consumer study. Name the factor most often cited by consumers regarding why they don’t respond to direct marketing solicitations. Take two guesses. Take three.
Likely responses include the offer not being relevant, expense, preference for a different brand, quality concerns and consumers wanting to touch or see what’s being ordered before purchasing it. These are all good guesses. They’re also all wrong.
More consumers cited a lack of timeliness than any other single factor for not responding — 25% of them, just above the 24% that mentioned irrelevant offers.
“Consumers may be telling marketers this is next frontier of relevance,” Johnson, who serves as vice president and senior economist within the DMA’s strategic information unit, said.
The good news is that, given timely and relevant offers, consumers are DM-responsive: Nearly 80% made a purchase within the past 12 months in response to a direct marketing solicitation. Within this large contingent, however, are three distinct sub-groups: those who have made purchases within the last seven days (Johnson called them “DM intensives”); those who made purchases within the last month (the “semi-engaged”); and those who recalled making a purchase within the last year (the “peripherally engaged”).
The implication is that through timing offers to the peripherally and semi-engaged consumers, they can be spurred to making more frequent purchases.
The survey also found that privacy concerns were not as strong a dissuading factor as trust issues. Trust encompasses everything from a guarantee of merchandise quality to order and information security, and its existence — or absence — is a much stronger predictor of purchase likelihood.
The research’s other findings include:
* Catalogs at non-catalog direct mail remain the strongest DM channels, generating orders among 47.6% and 27.8% of respondents, respectively
* Nearly 72% of respondents made a purchase through an offline channel compared with just under 42% who completed a transaction via an online medium;
* During a 48-hour “DM diary” period in which respondents recorded every interaction with a direct marketing solicitation they encountered, 68% of respondents did not make a purchase, 19% spent under $100; 8.4% spent between $100 and $300; and 4.6% spent more than $300.
* During the diary period, e-mail ($254.84) and advertising telephone calls ($244.95) generated the highest average purchase amounts, followed by Internet search ($151.46); direct response newspaper ads ($83.65); direct mail including catalogs ($74.35); direct response radio ($59.86); direct response TV ($53.94); and direct response magazine ads ($39.64);
* During the diary period, almost 10% of the sample reported receiving no solicitations, while one-quarter received five or more per day, on average.
The new study is based on 1,027 surveys completed by U.S. consumers between October 2006 and January 2007, coupled with transaction diaries detailing all solicitations received and actions taken during an assigned 48-hour period. During the aggregated 48-hour periods, the sample group took 7,000 actions, resulting in 703 total purchases. The full survey data consists of seven separate reports which parse the date by online and offline media and product and service verticals. The reports are is available through the DMA.
