Friday, August 03, 2012

‘Consumers Trust Traditional Media More Than Digital Sources’



With the prominence of digital marketing and growing transition from traditional to digital marketing, the study in this article is very interesting. It basically shows that consumers trust traditional media more than digital media sources. Television was still rated the most trusted medium for news and information. Newspapers and radio then followed. Digital and social media were the least trusted sources.
The study shows that traditional media has a “powerful influence” in influencing purchasing. “Nearly 64% of consumers admitted to buying a product after seeing it advertised via TV, radio or newspapers. Again, Internet advertising lagged. “

One caveat the study presents is that the internet is powerful for engaged customers. This means that people who see an ad on TV are initially engaged and then go online to do research. They trusted this internet research more than ads in the media.

This study’s conclusions are pretty interesting, but one wonders what the sample set of the study was. It could potentially be that the sample set was older or more traditional. Also, I’m not sure how they asked the question regarding whether consumers bought a product after seeing advertising via TV, radio or newspapers but this may be a leading question as consumers may themselves not be aware of the impact of advertising via email, mobile, social media, etc. on their perceptions and purchase decisions. This goes to the challenge of attribution.

In any case,  just the numbers present an interesting perspective, especially given the shift from traditional to digital marketing., 

1 comment:

auerblog said...

Well, all I can say is that when it came down to booking a South African Safari adventure, the last thing I wanted to do was do a google search for "best safaris in south africa" for sheer fear of what sketchy, unreliable recommendations I would get back. Being wholly unfamiliar with the country, the important features of safari packages, or even what a good price would be, I did what any female in their mid-twenties would do, and googled the Housewives of Atlanta to see where they had gone on their recent South African safari. SUCCESS! Within seconds, I was able to pull up all the details of their trip, contact the reserve directly, and not have to worry about getting scammed or ripped off by some random travel website that boasted "the best safaris EVER." My take is that when it comes to big purchases or frankly anything that involves safety/traveling, I will use traditional media over digital any day of the week.