Search is overrated. Brands putting a large chunk of budget into search could be missing a large proportion of female consumers, according to new research from Bauer Media.
The research follows on from the investigation the publisher did into the way women relate to their friends, with this new study finding that the path to purchase is not only disrupted, it's also difficult to influence.
At the publisher's 2015 upfronts that were held last week, Justin Stone, research director at Bauer Media said: “Forty percent of purchases were made without an evaluation phase, in other words if you're putting all of your budget into search 40% of your customers won't see it, no search, no research, no opportunity to influence once the trigger has been seen.”
Stone said this pointed to the fact that in many cases women simply wanted it and or needed it so they bought it, which puts a lot more pressure on brands to be front of mind.
“Given we now have a cyclical and disrupted path to purchase, not to mention a proliferation of media choices, marketers must find new ways to get into the initial consideration set at the beginning of the decision journey,” he said.
The study, which includes 10,000 individual case studies of every demographic across 13 different categories from household goods to luxury items, discovered three key learnings.
The first is in relation to purchases made in lower priced categories. In this area people found it hard to recall what actually triggered their purchases.
Stone said: “Typical responses range from, “I just have it I guess,” to “I don't even think I thought about it.” Such purchases are,“often unplanned, unconsidered and often go unnoticed.”
The second leaning was that triggers for purchasing are basically infinite.
“As with the start of the decision making process, the trigger is often difficult to predict,” he said.
Finally the last key learning was that friends are key when it comes to influencing a purchase.
“The number one driver for Australian women on their retail journey is friendship, consumers prefer to pull information rather than have it pushed at them,” he said.
“They see the reaction of others as social proof for what they should prefer. Brands need to gain entry and acceptance into the friendship circle, brands then need to contribute to the group and maintain trust and then build on that relationship.”
This research comes as Bauer revealed further information about it's much awaited digital network, that will group content from across its magazine brands into lifestyle-themed verticals.
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