The Marketing Gap revealed
October 27, 2011
Marketers have no idea how consumers generally feel about and respond to promotions, according to new research.
The seventh annual Marketing-GAP study, created by research company fast.MAP, reveals that marketers consistently over-estimate how likely consumers are to respond to a wide range of promotional marketing techniques and, when it comes to money off coupons, they think consumers are far less honest than they are.
This year, the Marketing-GAP study is being supported by the IPM and Royal Mail’s Mail Media Centre, and a number of questions about the impact of promotional activities have been added.
Annie Swift, chief executive of the IPM, says: “The fast.MAP /IPM Marketing-GAP Report highlights just how much marketers need to focus on keeping in touch with their consumers and understanding what promotional techniques people actually do respond to. It’s shocking that some marketers can get it so wrong: too many of them are wasting money on things that aren’t working.”
The IPM has already used the results of the survey to identify gaps in its members’ knowledge and tailor research and education programmes to fill those gaps, Swift added.
Just over a quarter (27%) of consumers say they have used a coupon posted through their door or given to them on the street. But 54% of marketers thought they would use one.
Similarly, 18% of consumers say they have used a coupon or deal website like Groupon or LivingSocial, but 53% of marketers think they have.
And when asked if they have ever misused a money-off coupon, 69% of consumers said they regularly use them (only 5% of the marketers polled correctly predicted this figure) while 72% said they have never tried to use a coupon for a product they were not buying – only 7% of marketers got that figure right.
Furthermore, of the 24% of consumer who ‘occasionally’ misuse coupons, 61% only tried to do so because the store was out of stock of the relevant product.
Almost six out of ten consumers used a reward or loyalty scheme this year. Marketers correctly identified that loyalty schemes would be the most-used type of promotion, but overestimated the amount they were used by 25%.
But where marketers are really getting it wrong seems to be in social media, where they overestimated the consumer response by 200%.
| Reward or loyalty schemes (supermarkets, newspapers, collectables such as McDonald’s) | 57
| 72 |
| Coupons printed from the internet i.e. from an e-mail or website | 45
| 63
|
Price discounts
| 44 | 68 |
| Sampling where you are given or send for a sample | 44
| 64 |
| A coupon from a pack that you have bought | 44 | 68 |
| A printed coupon you received through the post addressed to you | 43 | 63 |
| A printed coupon from a magazine or newspaper | 39 | 66 |
| Free prize draws where you enter for a chance to win | 36 | 46
|
| Prize promotions where you enter a competition to win | 30 | 40
|
| A printed coupon dropped through your door or given you in the street or elsewhere | 27 | 54 |
| A coupon website such as Groupon or Living Social | 18 | 53
|
| A gift with purchase or where you send away for a free gift | 16
| 43
|
| Events that you attend and may be given free or discounted product as well | 12 | 36
|
| None of the above | 13 | 4 |
A White Paper detailing the full findings of the Marketing-GAP study is available from the IPM, while a second White Paper, exploring ways in which the gap can be closed and marketing spend targeted at those areas which do deliver cost-effective behaviour change, is being developed by Colin Harper, the IPM’s head of insight.
For details of both publications, contact Annie Swift on 020 7291 7730 email annies@theipm.org.uk or Martin Croft email martinc@theipm.org.uk.