• by March 6, 2003

DoubleClick Inc. this week announced the results of its Touchpoints Survey at the company's Insight 2003 Annual Conference. The survey examines the "touchpoints" that connect consumers with brands and it assesses the factors that impact the purchase process of nine categories of products. Results from the study show that word of mouth, sales personnel and various forms of media have dramatically different effects at specific stages of the purchasing process.

The survey examined nine categories of products: prescription drugs, auto, travel, health and beauty, electronics, mortgage and insurance, movies, telecom and food, and examined the sequence of how consumers first learn about these products, how they further learn about them and which factor most influenced their purchase decision.

"The purchase process that we were taught in Marketing 101 has been radically altered by media consumption shifts of the past decade. While TV remains the great builder of awareness, interactive marketing is shown to have a profound impact on the further learn and purchase decision phases of the purchase process," said Doug Knopper, Vice President and General Manager of Online Advertising at DoubleClick. "The survey results also show that no two product categories are alike, requiring marketers in every industry to develop and tailor the most appropriate and effective marketing sequences for their specific business."

TV's Greatest Influence is in Building Awareness

TV continues to be extremely powerful at driving awareness in categories such as movies (where 51% of respondents first learn about new movies), health and beauty (20%), telecom (18%) and prescription drugs (10%). In both the movies and health and beauty categories, TV remains a powerful influence through the further learning and purchase decision stages. However, in the remaining six categories, TV plays a minimal role at these later stages.

Online Channel Plays a Major Role in Purchase Process

Websites, both company websites and content sites, and online marketing, advertising and email are shown to have a major impact on the purchase process in certain categories. In the travel category, travel websites are the number one driver of awareness (cited by 41% of respondents), followed by online marketing (11%) and online search (9%). Although it is not a primary builder of awareness in other categories, at both the further learning and the crucial purchase decision stages, the interactive channel is a top three influence in almost all categories. Compared to other media, online advertising is highly effective at getting consumers to those crucial company websites.

Word of Mouth and Sales Personnel Are Critical

Word of mouth plays a major role throughout the entire purchasing process in the majority of categories surveyed. Word of mouth is the number one driver of awareness in the auto (cited by 24% of respondents), health and beauty (22%), mortgage and insurance (24%), and telecom (24%). It is also a top three source of further information in all categories except travel, and a top three driver of purchase decisions in all categories except travel and prescription drugs.

Sales personnel are key drivers of awareness in the auto, mortgage and insurance, and telecom categories. They become especially important in providing further learning and driving the purchase decision in certain categories. Sales personnel are the number one source for further information in the auto (cited by 44% of respondents), mortgage and insurance (39%), electronics (32%) and telecom categories (35%), and for each of these categories except electronics, they are also the number one influence on the purchase decision.

Interactive Channel Beginning to Impact Food Decisions

In a separate section of the survey, the primary food shopper of households was questioned about food-related interactive media and whether it impacts their purchase process. The study shows that searching for recipes is the most popular food-related online activity (68% of primary shoppers surveyed here reported doing this). Visiting food company websites is also popular (60% visit them), while half of respondents download grocery coupons from the web (52%) and receive email newsletters from food companies (50%).

Seventy percent of respondents said that downloading coupons online would compel them to try a new food product. Other activities likely to compel new product usage included searching for recipes online (52%), visiting food company websites (46%) and receiving food-related email newsletters (43%).