New Research: Consumers rate newspaper advertising as primary shopping information source

Arlington, Va. – Newspaper advertising is the leading advertising medium cited by consumers in planning, shopping and making purchasing decisions, according to data from a Frank N. Magid Associates survey of 2,500 adults. The findings paint a strong picture of the unmatched value newspaper advertising continues to deliver in today’s media landscape. “This important new research reaffirms the power of newspaper advertising to engage consumers and drive them to take action,” said NAA President and CEO John Sturm. “More than all other media, adults continue to turn to newspapers to inform shopping decisions that lead to purchases. They are an opt-in media in an opt-out world, making newspaper advertising an ideal and effective choice for advertisers who want to reach consumers ready to shop and spend.”

This study, titled “How America Shops and Spends 2011,” is the latest in an ongoing series of NAA research investigating consumer shopping habits and the influence media has on shopping today. Highlights include:

Four-in-five adults (79 percent) of those surveyed said they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising in the past month, including:

• Clipping a coupon (54 percent)
• Buying something (46 percent)
• Visiting Web sites to learn more (37 percent)
• Trying something for the first time (20 percent)

More than half of all adults (52 percent) identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions

Almost three-fourths (72 percent) of all adults regularly or occasionally read newspaper preprints; For Sunday inserts, this figure increases to 90 percent of all adults. Over the course of 30 days, 8 in 10 adults (79 percent) acted on newspaper preprint advertising.

Nearly four-in-10 (38 percent) adults who identify themselves as newspaper “non-readers” recalled other forms of engagement in the past week, including checking sales in local stores, clipping coupons, comparing prices, checking movie or TV listings and classified, and also various forms of editorial content. Altogether, this unofficial exposure overall adds another 13 percentage points to the newspapers’ weekly reach among all adults and so may be considered as a bonus beyond the “normal” audience.

Advertising on local newspaper websites ranked second (behind only e-mailed store or product information) among online options for advertising sources, beating general interest websites, or portals, paid ads that appear on the right side of the search engine screens, ads on social network pages, and ads on mobile devices.

Source: NAA

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How can your product or service be positioned towards a new target audience to increase your sales?  You can’t always create a new product, it’s too expensive.  So try to figure out how to marketing your existing product to a new audience.  Sometimes a clever message and some fresh new graphic design is all you need!

Stay tuned to www.TCR-Marketing.com for more advertising and marketing reviews!

What do you think of the Benefiber commercials? Leave a comment!