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The Role of Content In Consumer Decision Making
by Jack Loechner, Tuesday, July 8, 2014 8:15 AM
Some valuable insights from a study from Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study on the lift impact of product reviews by users, experts and brands. The Research Brief is reported here in the context of
the study design in order to support (and not over simplify) the conclusions. According to the study report, since the proliferation of digital and social media, including mobile, has made
information more readily accessible to prospective consumers, consumers report an increase in usage across all sources of information in the past five years, including sources such as brand websites,
user reviews, and third party expert content, when learning more about new products and services. This ability to easily access information from a variety of sources has fundamentally changed the way
consumers research products and, ultimately, make purchase decisions. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to understand how consumers use different sources of information and how the
sources impact them across a variety of product categories at each stage of the purchase process. The results of the in-lab study show that expert content— credible, third-party articles and
reviews—is the most effective source of information in impacting consumers along all stages of the purchase process across product categories. Information Source Usage In The Consumer Decision Process Source of InformationLess UseMore Use
Social media 10% 54% User reviews 11 52 Online
advertising 11 51 Expert reviews
11 46 Word of mouth 10 45 Official brand websites 13 44 TV advertising 15
40 Radio advertising 24 29 Source: Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study, 2014
Impact Of Content Types Across Purchase Process User ReviewsBranded Content
Expert ContentExpert Content Effectiveness Purchase consideration 6% 8% 11% + 83% Vs. User reviews +38% Vs. Branded Content
Affinity 10% 8% 12% +20% Vs. User Reviews
+50% Vs. Branded Content Familiarity
10% 8% 15% +50% Vs. User Reviews +88% Vs. Branded Content Source: Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study, 2014
To evaluate the impact of expert content and branded (or owned) content online and its role in the purchase process, an experimental design was used to expose consumers
to content and then measure the impact of that content in creating product awareness/familiarity, influencing perceptions (i.e. likeability) and increasing purchase consideration. Content was
classified as one of three content types: expert content, user reviews, and branded content. Expert content includes reviews and articles selected from third-party websites and blogs dedicated to the
relevant product category. User reviews were selected from the reviews portion of major online retailers or forums. Branded content was content taken directly from the official websites for each
product. Each online source was measured with three survey metrics aligned with the three main stages of influence in the consumer purchase process. This provided a consistent measurement in
order to fairly assess source influence at each stage. Stage 1: Familiarity with a new
product Stage 2: Affinity toward a brand or product
Stage 3: Purchase consideration of a brand or product Respondents viewed content
providing information on nine products in different categories, ensuring a broad scope and the ability to assess if the observed effects varied across different types of purchases. Products that were
included cover a wide variety of categories, including:
- Auto insurance
- New car
- High-end HDTV set
- Smartphone
- Dryer (i.e. major home
appliance)
- Child seat
- Digital camera
- Video game
- Electric toothbrush
A controlled-lab setting was critical in this experiment as the amount of
information to be digested by the respondent was such that it introduced the possibility that respondents would not fully read the content or information provided if exposed in an unsupervised testing
environment. A proctored setting ensured that respondents exposed to the different information sources had adequate time to read and digest the content presented to them. The Nielsen MediaLabs
facility also draws from a nationally-representative population and is the only lab facility to offer in-lab testing without relying only on locally recruited respondents. These advantages were
conducive to increasing the reliability and projectability of the research findings. An at-a-glance summary of the experiment results. While each content type had some success at increasing
product familiarity, affinity, and purchase intent, content written by credible experts performed best overall. Expert content was the only content type to exhibit a strong lift in all 3 areas of the
purchase cycle. It provided the most familiarity lift for 7 out of the 9 products, the most affinity lift for 5 of the 9 products, and the most purchase intent lift for 6 of the 9 products. On
average, expert content lifted familiarity 88% more than branded content and 50% more than user reviews; they lifted affinity 50% more than branded content and 20% more than user reviews; finally,
they lifted purchase consideration 38% more than branded content and 83% more than user reviews.
Impact Of Content Types on Positive Lift Across Purchase Process User ReviewsBranded Content Expert ContentExpert Content Effectiveness Purchase consideration 6% 8% 11%
+ 83% Vs. User reviews +38% Vs. Branded Content
Affinity 10% 8% 12% +20% Vs. User Reviews +50% Vs. Branded Content Familiarity 10% 8% 15% +50% Vs. User
Reviews +88% Vs. Branded Content
Source: Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study, 2014 There
appear to be two key differentiators that help to explain why expert content was the only type that exhibited this strong lift across all three areas of the purchase funnel, says the
report. The perceived partiality of the source was especially critical in setting expert content and branded content apart. The third-party element was important to consumers:
50% indicated that they wouldn’t trust a product’s branded website for an unbiased assessment of a product, and 61% were less likely to trust product reviews paid for by the
company selling the product. Expert content can provide an unbiased and honest assessment of a product, particularly important during the final stage of purchase consideration. The
other key differentiator was how informative the respondents perceived the content to be. Consumers perceived expert content to be 10% and 8% more informative than both user content and
branded content respectively. Thus, expert content’s ability to provide the greatest breadth and variety of information compared to branded and user content, combined with a
perspective that it was perceived as unbiased, appears to be driving its consistently high performance in all areas of the purchase process, concludes the report. While user reviews
and branded content did not exhibit the same pattern of consistency in performance across all categories and phases of the purchase cycle that was observed with expert content, there
were instances where their impact was strongest, says the report. With branded content, for example, lift was strongest with categories where product specs were a critical part
of the part of the decision making process. Attributed, in part, to the importance of specs in the final decision making process for this product and the perceived trust that brands know
their own product specs best
Expert Content (Percent of Lift)
Familiarity Affinity Purchase Smartphone 22% 13 % 16 %
Smart TV 8 6 7
Video Game 30 22 11 Car Seat 28 19 14 Electric Toothbrush 3 12 9 Dryer 18 10 16 New Automobile 6 4 15 Auto Insurance 3 6 5 Camera
19 12 6
Source: Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study, 2014 User Reviews (Percent of Lift) Familiarity Affinity Purchase Smartphone 9% 6% 2% Smart TV 1 9 4 Video Game
25 28 20 Car
Seat 11 16 19 Electric Toothbrush 2 16 0
Dryer 21 9 0 New Automobile 4 0 8 Auto Insurance 0 1 2 Camera 11 6 6
Source: Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study,
2014 Branded Content (Percent of
Lift) FamiliarityAffinity Purchase Smartphone 7% 10% 13% Smart TV 0 7 0 Video Game 17
3 12 Car Seat 19 15 16 Electric Toothbrush
11 10 7 Dryer
10 12 9 New
Automobile 6 2 4 Auto Insurance 0 4 1
Camera 16 12 12
Source: Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study, 2014 User reviews were found to
be successful in categories where users tend to have a higher degree of product expertise. For example, video game affinity and purchase intent were lifted the most by user
review content—possibly because video game consumers see other gamers as knowledgeable enough to provide reliable, trustworthy reviews. Expert content was also effective at
lifting these measures and was most effective at creating initial product awareness or familiarity. For car seats, for example, user content provided the strongest lift to purchase intent.
Perhaps a product category, says the report, where the consumer themselves are highly regarded as expert users—and mothers perceive other mothers as “experts.” The report
concludes by noting that, overall, the research suggests that there is a higher degree of trust from consumers when they are reading content from credible, third party experts. This trust is
demonstrated by the higher lift scores with regard to product familiarity, affinity and purchase intent and its perception of being highly informative and unbiased.
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