Buying Patterns

I had an interesting discussion today about the various online purchasing matrices:

Research online, buy online
Research online, buy offline
Research offline, buy online
Research offline, buy offline

I had always predicted that research offline, buy online would be the model for the future - people like to kick the tires, but hate dealing with salespeople, or to have to carry heavy goods home (online also usually gives a lower price), but it seems by some distance that research online, buy offline is the model that works best, i.e. find the best buy and go to the store.

This is a direct problem for internet TV advertising, where proving that your ads are building a brand is a much more difficult argument than measuring actually off ad sales. For all its power, have you ever heard anyone say 'I bought this 'cause I liked the TV ad..'

Comments

Anonymous said…
****IJ - I'm submitting this for discourse, not necessarily publication. Feel free to publish the bits OUTSIDE the asterisks, though. Thank you for the reply regarding my 'idea for a TV channel'. Often one must bounce ideas of another to ensure one has covered all the bases. Alas, a wife an 2 children weigh heavily on my determination... more posts on the issue would be welcome... ****

"have you ever heard anyone say 'I bought this 'cause I liked the TV ad..'"

You're overlooking impulse purchases. Some years ago while working at Open.... I noticed that the majority of sales took place after pub closing. I noticed it because we had to ring purchasers who had bought 4 stereos or 3 Playstations at 1am.....

Later a pizza company (Dominos) came onto the service. It was hugely successful (in relative terms, natch).
I submit that this was because the primary driver was instant delivery.
In socio-economic speak there was 'instant gratification' / no 'deferred satisfaction'; a key driver for those who subscribe to such services.

Secondly, you may be overlooking the ability of 'TV ads' to promote a product. The natural limitations of the medium and restricted ability to communicate with the service provider can be overcome on truely interactive systems. (re- look at Audi tv ads, then immerse yourself in the website and 'build your own car'.)

Finally, my bugbear, the actual handheld device (analogue, rubber buttons, no aural reinforcement of actions) limits the potential of current systems.

I suggest that almost NOTHING of the potential has been extracted from the current systems (esp SKY).

yours...