Cross-Media Study: Web a Dominant Buyer Influence

DoubleClick's annual Touchpoints Survey reveals that the web is the most consistent factor in purchase influence across 10 product categories, according to MediaBuyerPlanner.

The survey examined the 10 categories, looking at how consumers first learn about products, how they further learn about them, and which factor most influenced their purchase decision. The highly readable study looks at how different media affect potential buyers at the different stages in the buying process.
The categories were automotive, consumer electronics, credit cards and banking, home improvement products, investments and mortgages, movies, personal/home care, prescription drugs, telecom services, and travel.

While word of mouth was the most consistently mentioned factor, websites were cited as more important than TV ads in seven of the categories (all but prescription drugs, personal/home care, and movies). Web marketing programs such as webadvertising, search engines, email programs and websites outranked the importance of salespeople, word of mouth, in-store promotions and TV advertising in select product categories (notably travel, banking and automotive).

This was most evident in the travel category. Among those who had bought a travel service in the past six months, 67 percent cited one or another internet vehicle as how they first became aware of the fare or promotion.

Television was found to have the highest impact on consumers in the movie category, while print had the highest impact for personal/home care. Some 75 percent of respondents cited their doctor as the greatest influence in their purchase decision in prescription drugs as published on Marketing Vox.