A recently conducted survey reveals the top methods via which consumers find out about new products that they potentially find interesting.
Advertisements lie plastered all over the internet nowadays. They adorn our walls across all social media platforms. Sites such as YouTube have gotten, ahem, bold enough to display two ads or sometimes even more back to back on videos that are barely 10 minutes long. However, is all of this marketing overkill? Are advertisements really the most effective tool that brands have to their name? Well, the study we’re about to look into may hold the answer to such a question.
Statista is platform that markets itself as the number one global business data platform. The statistics-based research firm conducts multiple studies regarding trends and developments in the world of social and entrepreneurial commerce. The study of theirs that we are addressing, entitled Sources of Shopping Inspiration, gathers and presents information regarding all the different ways that consumers find interesting products that they consider buying later on. The methodology was as such: 5,400 individuals from the U.S., aged 16 to 64 and all possessing some form of online presence, were asked to participate in the survey. The individuals were then presented with the question “how do you usually find out about new interesting products”? The answers, when complied together, presented us with the insights that we are going to be looking at right now.
42% of all individuals that participated in the study agreed upon their reliance on search engines to find valuable, interesting products. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone, considering how important search engines are to people across the board, being a major and reliable source of information. 40%of the sample population stated that their source of news regarding useful products came from friends and family. This amount of reliance on word-of-mouth should send out a clear message to brands: before one starts marketing a product, they should build something effective and useful in the first place. However, advertisements aren’t fully out of the game yet.
37% of the sample population answered that social media was a source of interesting products to them. This evokes a mixture of well-placed advertisements, as well as simply encountering the natural usage of such products in images and videos. This is where the line between advertisements and normal posts starts to blur. Since much of the content utilizing products is often sponsored by brands, it becomes difficult to gauge what is an ad and what is not. This has even led to a general counterculture against ad culture, with memes and entire forums dedicated to mocking and ridiculing their online presence.
33% of the survey’s participants listed advertisements as a source of product information, scoring second last of all the major answers. Customer reviews were firmly in last place, with only 24% of the population relying on them for information.
Read next: These Social Media Trends Can Indicate the Future of the Industry
Advertisements lie plastered all over the internet nowadays. They adorn our walls across all social media platforms. Sites such as YouTube have gotten, ahem, bold enough to display two ads or sometimes even more back to back on videos that are barely 10 minutes long. However, is all of this marketing overkill? Are advertisements really the most effective tool that brands have to their name? Well, the study we’re about to look into may hold the answer to such a question.
Statista is platform that markets itself as the number one global business data platform. The statistics-based research firm conducts multiple studies regarding trends and developments in the world of social and entrepreneurial commerce. The study of theirs that we are addressing, entitled Sources of Shopping Inspiration, gathers and presents information regarding all the different ways that consumers find interesting products that they consider buying later on. The methodology was as such: 5,400 individuals from the U.S., aged 16 to 64 and all possessing some form of online presence, were asked to participate in the survey. The individuals were then presented with the question “how do you usually find out about new interesting products”? The answers, when complied together, presented us with the insights that we are going to be looking at right now.
42% of all individuals that participated in the study agreed upon their reliance on search engines to find valuable, interesting products. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone, considering how important search engines are to people across the board, being a major and reliable source of information. 40%of the sample population stated that their source of news regarding useful products came from friends and family. This amount of reliance on word-of-mouth should send out a clear message to brands: before one starts marketing a product, they should build something effective and useful in the first place. However, advertisements aren’t fully out of the game yet.
37% of the sample population answered that social media was a source of interesting products to them. This evokes a mixture of well-placed advertisements, as well as simply encountering the natural usage of such products in images and videos. This is where the line between advertisements and normal posts starts to blur. Since much of the content utilizing products is often sponsored by brands, it becomes difficult to gauge what is an ad and what is not. This has even led to a general counterculture against ad culture, with memes and entire forums dedicated to mocking and ridiculing their online presence.
33% of the survey’s participants listed advertisements as a source of product information, scoring second last of all the major answers. Customer reviews were firmly in last place, with only 24% of the population relying on them for information.
Read next: These Social Media Trends Can Indicate the Future of the Industry
