The sixth study from the Direct Marketing Association and Fast.MAP has been published. It is reported in Marketing Week Magazine 4th Novemebr 2010.
It shows a BIG disparity between what marketers think of these new ways of communication and how consumers wished to be talked to.
The research which measures what consumers think in comparison to what marketers believe consumers think, shows that direct mail and email are consumers’ preferred methods of contact above phone calls and being sent a text or messages or Twitter.
The sample consisted of more than 1,400 consumers who were asked their opinions of direct marketing and 200 marketers were asked to predict how consumers would answer.
New questions were asked about Twitter and social media for this study in addition to the questions in the study which have remained the same since 2005 when the study started.
(The report of the survey is not on the fast.MAP site yet, nor on the Marketing Week site yet but I have put links to their home sites at the end of this post where you might be able to track down more information)
The 5 disparities between what consumers think and what marketers think consumers think!
1. A quarter of marketers think people are happy to receive texts
from financial services companies but only 1% of consumers agree?
2. Only 2% of consumers want to hear about DVD releases via social media but
marketers are far more hopeful with 22% thinking people want to be contacted
this way.
3. In 16 out of the 26 categories assessed (including banking,
DIY, and supermarkets direct paper mail edged out email for top spot. A
surprising finding when two years previously had preferred email.
4. 65% of consumers would prefer no contact at all from the brands they don’t know,
but only 15% of marketers think this is the case.
5. The design of a piece of mail is cited by 35% of marketers as important in affecting whether people open it, but only 7% agree with this view.
David Cole MD of Fast.MAP said to Marketing Week magazine that email and direct mail are tried and tested methods of communication. Marketers need to understand new media properly and invest resources in testing before they jump on the latest fad.
Brands that don’t have a relationship with a consumer should be especially wary of using text messages, Twitter or other social media to contact them direct. Only 1% of consumers cite any of these forms of communication as preferable whereas 10% of marketers think people would be happy to receive text messages for example.
The Buyers Views survey of Salespeople 2010 would suggest that it is not so different in B2B markets.
Click for free summary of the TACK Buyers' Views Research 2010 research.
Click for Direct Marketing Association home site.
Click for fast.MAP home site.
Click for Marketing Week Magazine home site.
No comments:
Post a Comment