Consumers Turn to Newspapers First for Shopping Information
Tuesday, 07 November 2006
Newspapers continue to serve as a major destination for US consumers seeking advertising and shopping information, according to a new report released today by the Newspaper Association of America.
The report is based on data from the Minneapolis-based MORI Research, which surveyed more than 3,000 consumers to explore how consumers use newspaper advertising and advertising's effect on consumer purchasing habits.
According to the report, “Consumer Usage of Newspaper Advertising 2006,” more than half of adults surveyed (55 percent) cited newspapers as the advertising medium they used most often to check for what to purchase.
Preprints in particular are reaching a strong audience as nearly two-thirds of adults who identify themselves as their household’s primary shopper said they regularly utilize preprint advertising. The report is available at http://www.naa.org/advertiser/Consumer-Usage-Report.pdf, part of NAA’s new advertiser site, www.newspaperaudience.com.
“This report illustrates empirically something advertisers have understood for years. For many consumers, the largest shopping center in the country is not the Mall of America; it’s their newspaper,” said John Kimball, NAA senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “But this study goes beyond numbers. It confirms that today’s consumers are prepared to do their homework before they go to the store. They study newspaper advertising first and, in many cases, take it to the store with them.”
“In fact, if you offered consumers a newspaper without advertising, 90 percent of them wouldn’t take it,” Kimball, said, citing a separate consumer study conducted by Yankelovich Partners Inc. “In a world where consumers are increasingly empowered to avoid advertising messages, newspapers are the one medium where the customer is awaiting the advertising.”
Consumer Loyalty Pays Off for Retailers
Loyal consumers tend to spread the word about bargains they discover, according to the report, with nearly half of those surveyed saying they have recommended a friend or family member check out a preprint in the last 30 days. In addition, almost 75 percent of insert users said they usually check inserts for special savings, and they actively seek inserts for information when in the market for a particular product. Preprint users also say they appreciate the shopping tips these circulars offer; nearly seven in 10 adults who have used an insert (89 percent of adults) believe they make it easy to comparison shop and check the inserts regularly before heading to the store.
Other Forms of Newspaper Advertising Demonstrate Effectiveness
Preprints were not the only area examined in the report. The survey revealed that newspaper readers pay attention to other forms of advertising as well:
Two-thirds (63 percent) of all adults said they normally read or glance at run-of-paper (ROP) ads when paging through newspapers.
Among adults who have received total market coverage (TMC) publications (which usually contain a selection of preprints that are also in the daily newspaper), nearly three-fourths (74 percent) said they look at some or all of the advertising or inserts.
NAA is a nonprofit organization representing the $59 billion newspaper industry and more than 2,000 newspapers in the US and Canada. NAA members include daily newspapers, as well as non-dailies and other publications published throughout the world.