Vast majority of shoppers use advertising to plan purchases
May 26 2010
Retail Wrap >>

An urban retail and readership survey has revealed that 87% of purchase decision makers use advertising to plan their shopping — good news for the advertising sector, which is finding itself having to justify spending on it.

The Roots 2010 survey was launched by Caxton/CTP and the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, a division of Caxton and CTP Publishers & Printers, and conducted by TNS Research Surveys.

It found that of the 87% of respondents who used advertising to plan grocery shopping trips, 54% looked for insert adverts in their community paper, 13% made use of their daily newspaper, 19% used inserts or adverts delivered at home and 11% got their information via television.

The research, conducted every three years, involves a 45-minute interview with 25000 purchase decision makers across 105 urban communities in SA on their purchasing trends and views on food, clothing, technology, financial planning, health, travel and technology. It is done both inside and outside the areas covered by Caxton’s community newspapers.

John Bowles, joint MD of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, said only 1,7% of those interviewed used weekend newspapers, which he believed was because 65% of shopping happened at the weekend, and the papers arrived too late for many shoppers.

He said the high success rate of insert advertising, particularly in community newspapers , seemed to be because they were localised, offering services in the consumer’s home area. Inserts are also useful for browsers.

“From the survey results 40% read inserts when looking for something in particular, and 53% read them all the time, simply browsing to see what is in the market. Only 7% do not read them.”

Gill Randall, joint MD of the bureau, said the survey, which took place in a recession, found generally that fewer “consumers were buying, they were buying less often, buying less and were very value-conscious”.

Randall said that while grocery shopping remained largely stable in the review period, from about February to November last year, consumers changed their shopping habits, moving to Shoprite and Pick n Pay.

When looked at by segment, soft furnishing purchases dropped 58%, durables 40% and clothes saw a three-month drop, but over six months remained stable.

Adapted from Source: www.fastmoving.co.za, 19 May 2010