Media most powerful influencer over consumer choices

While it may come as little surprise that consumers' purchasing decisions are influenced by journalists, what might raise eyebrows is that in our seemingly social-media dominated world, opinions expressed via traditional media reigns supreme in shaping Canadians' shopping habits.

So suggests the results of a commissioned online study released by the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms (CCPRF). The report finds traditional media sources, including newspapers (86 per cent), TV (83 per cent), radio (78 per cent) and magazines (73 per cent,) continue to outrank other forms of communication as Canadians' go-to source for information.

"What really struck us in the public relations space is that traditional media was as strong as the study indicated. All of us expected a higher degree of influence placed in terms of social networks," admits Carol Levine, chair of the CCPRF in Montreal. "Certainly we need to pay attention as an industry on the trend to increasing influence on the part of social networks in terms of influencing consumer spending and decisions."

"The Impact of Influence" study asked consumers what sources of information they would consider to be the most credible for a particular type of product if they were conducting research in advance of buying a product or service within that category. The results show:

Investing
Newspapers (printed and online) and company websites tied as the top sources of credible information at 19 per cent.

Fashion and beauty products
Magazines (printed or online) are the top ranked source of information (41 per cent), followed by company websites, a distant second at 11 per cent.

Consumer electronics
Company websites are the most credible sources of information for all Canadians (36 per cent) and also for self-identified social media savvy consumers (37 per cent).

Food and beverage
Interestingly, for those who say they write their own blogs, the top choice for information for this category was blogs (23 per cent). Self-identified social media savvy consumers rely on multiple sources of information including newspapers (18 per cent), magazines (16 per cent), TV (15 per cent), company websites (14 per cent) and blogs (10 per cent).

Automobiles
The company website is the leader in this category at 31 per cent, followed by magazines (printed and online) at 19 per cent.

Home décor
Magazines (printed and online) are the clear leaders in this category at 43 per cent followed by company websites at 16 per cent.

"If anyone thought they needed to abandon traditional media in favour of only online, they were wrong," Levine adds. "Eighty-six per cent of people participating in this survey consider the newspaper editorial or a journalist's comment to be a source of influence for them. That's pretty significant."

However, there is also a significant generational gap to be mindful of when considering these results.

"Certainly if you look at the younger population social networks are the preferred source of influence for them," she says. "As the population ages we'll increasingly see more importance placed on social media from a marketing discipline. It's a matter of time."

When older Canadians are ready to purchase a product or service today, the hierarchy of go-to research sources plays out as follows: Facebook trumps Twitter (21 per cent versus 15 per cent), but blogs trump Facebook (29 per cent versus 21 per cent). Company websites, however, trump blogs by more than a 2:1 ratio (68 per cent versus 29 per cent).

But this equation of influence changes dramatically for younger generations as almost four in 10 Canadians (38 per cent) aged 18-34 consider blogs to be one of their top research sources when purchasing a product or service, compared to less than half that (16 per cent) of Canadians aged 55 or older.

YouTube mirrored the same pattern, the report notes, with 27 per cent of Canadians under the age of 34 reporting it as one of their top research sources versus only 15 per cent of the boomer generation (adults over the age of 55).

Moreover, 18-34-year-olds were twice as likely as their older counterparts (aged 35-54) to list social media sources such as Facebook as credible news sources (22 per cent versus 12 per cent). Interestingly, they were also more trusting of company websites as credible news sources than Baby Boomers (23 per cent versus 10 per cent).

"A significant portion of our younger generation sees blogs, YouTube, Facebook and company websites as credible sources of news. This suggests to us, that in their minds, and in contrast to older Canadians, the boundaries of credibility between news, 'circle of trust' conversations and marketing are blurring," Levine says. "Social media is the biggest form of public exposure that one could ever imagine in marketing.

"What a lot of organizations fail to understand, though, is that social media is more than a marketing vehicle. It opens a conversation that they can't control."

In addition to generational differences, there is a wide gap between how all Canadians are influenced today, versus how self-identified socially engaged respondents are influenced on what to purchase.

If a blogger posts a positive product review that is contradictory to a traditional news report (newspaper or magazine), average Canadians are more likely to believe traditional media according to the survey (32 per cent versus 13 per cent). In contrast however, self-identified influencers were almost twice as likely to believe bloggers over media (21 per cent versus 13 per cent).

While one in five Canadians (21 per cent) rely on Facebook to research new product/service information, in advance of a purchase, that figure jumps to 30 per cent among self-identified social media savvy consumers. Interestingly, almost one in three Canadians (31 per cent) admit conducting research simply as a means to justify their purchase.

The online survey was conducted in September 2011 by Angus Reid/Vision Critical from a sample of 1,014 Canadian adults on behalf of the CCPRF. The margin of error is +/- 3.08 per cent, 19 times out of 20.