Snap Decisions
A sale sign dangling from the window of an apparel store will drive passersby to pop in and buy a blouse five times more often than a traditional TV spot for the same brand.
In a recent study of consumer attitudes and buying habits, Decision Analyst, an Arlington, TX-based international marketing research and marketing consulting firm, asked consumers to identify the types of advertising that most influenced their clothing purchase decisions.
More than half of the respondents (52.6%) cited in-store print or P-O-P information (think signage, displays and posters) as having the greatest influence on their clothing purchases.
Another 23.9% rated print advertising as the top influencer, while 15.8% said word of mouth influenced their purchases.
“The study really highlights, particularly for clothing, the whole point-of-purchase experience,” says Jerry Thomas, president and CEO, Decision Analyst. “This whole in-store experience is much, much more important than it is for most other product categories. People are so emotionally involved in clothing. [They] want to see clothing. They want to touch it. We’re seeing a reflection of that in these numbers.”
Print ads compared to TV spots fared better to prompt consumers to head to the cash register, according to the survey. While TV spots still have value, only 14.1% of consumers surveyed said TV ads motivated them to head to the store, the study found.
“Print advertising gives consumers the luxury of using their imagination,” Thomas says. People can sit and study it. The other media is a fleeting picture and you can’t remember it.”
The Internet plays a minor role in driving consumers to shop, the study found. But that will change, Thomas speculates. Of the study’s respondents, 10.4% said Internet advertising influenced their final purchases, compared to 8.4% and 1.8% of consumers who considered direct mail advertising and radio spots, respectively, as top motivating drivers for clothing buys.
“We will see the Internet grow tremendously as a medium [for advertising],” Thomas says. “It is…a medium in which you can sit, look at and study clothing. It’s already a significant medium at 10%, and I think we’ll see those numbers increase dramatically.”
The study surveyed 599 U.S. consumers ages 18 and older as part of the company’s American Consumer Opinion Online Panel, one of the world’s largest Internet consumer opinion panels. The panel has close to 6 million participants worldwide.
