The More Media the Merrier

With the exception of coupons in the grocery segment, no one medium determines the buying behavior of a majority of shoppers, according to the latest Simultaneous Media Survey from BIGresearch.

Among the more than 14,000 consumers surveyed, coupons influenced 52% of respondents when shopping for groceries. News inserts influenced 40%, followed by word of mouth (31%). But only 9% said that the Internet influenced their grocery shopping decisions.

Yet 19% said that the Internet influenced their electronics shopping decisions. Word of mouth was the greatest influence here, however, with 35% citing it as an influence. News inserts were the second most influential medium (26%), followed by TV broadcasts (24%).

Among those shopping for apparel, news inserts were again the most influential medium (28%), followed by word of mouth (26%), and TV (20%). When shopping for home improvement items, word of mouth was cited most frequently as an influence (26%), followed by news inserts (22%), and TV (19%).

“The consumer’s determination of which media most influences their purchases is a basic building block for increased advertising ROI,” Joe Pilotta, Ph.D., vice president of research for BIGresearch said in a statement. “If consumers are not receptive to a media, blanket exposures cannot make it influential.”