NEW YORK: Media advertising still has an impact on how people spend money, a study from market researcher Yankelovich and the Television Bureau of Advertising indicates. The study examined 15 product categories and how advertising influenced consumers in various stages of the buying process, or “purchase funnel.” The results revealed new information on just where ads were most effective in that process, from Awareness to Consideration to Preference to Purchase.
In the travel category for example, 87 percent of consumers report being influenced by media in the Awareness phase of the funnel, while 59 percent were influenced in the Purchase stage. In the automotive category, 81 percent report being influenced by media in the Awareness phase, while 41 percent were influenced at Purchase. Overall, media made an impact 80 percent of the time in the Awareness phase and 53 percent of the time in the Purchase phase.
Television provided the most influential advertising throughout the purchase funnel in all categories. Newspapers were typically next, except with Automotive, Restaurants, Entertainment and Travel, where the Internet was more influential. Radio, Outdoor, Email and “Other” as well as “No Media Influence” was considered.
The individual categories were:
Vehicles or auto dealers
Financial services
Restaurants
Department or discount stores
Automobile or life insurance
Schools, colleges
Furniture, mattresses, carpeting/flooring
Healthcare
Entertainment
Services
Telecommunications or electronic products
Travel
Food
Home improvement
Commercial Web sites
The study queried, between Jan. 29 and Feb. 10, 3,002 adults who’d seen a TV ad in the past two months that made an impression on them. -- Deborah D. McAdams
(Creative Commons image by Peter Rukavina.)
