Path to Persuasion research indicates power of media

With R1.9 billion in advertising spend in the last year, the retail category is one of the highest spending categories in South Africa. Its food and beverages industry generated an income of R3.711 billion in May‚ representing a 9.9% year-on-year (y/y) rise‚ according to data released by Statistics SA in July.

The category is particularly focused on return on media investment and the research has been positively received by major retailers in South Africa.

"The research shows that newspapers play a key role in driving consumers through every stage of the path to persuasion," says Karen Dyke, head of marketing, media intelligence and strategy at Ads24.

"With the latest Food Price Monitor report, showing that the cost of basic foods has increased by up to 56% in just one year, consumers are likely to be looking out for bargains."

The three media types - print, broadcast and online - play different roles when taking the consumer through the path to persuasion and thus "create an optimum media mix to deliver retail messaging to the market."

"From the case study data, it is evident that when combined with television, newspapers add incremental ROI to brands at every stage of the media path to persuasion. In the retail category, the role of newspapers in a newspaper/television mix is particularly effective in the introduction, information, comparison and persuasion phases of the media path to persuasion."

In this category, respondents tend to have a more regular and frequent engagement with their newspapers.

"Most importantly, the conclusions validate the previous finding that print media has a significant role to play in influencing consumer behaviour and is an integral part of the media mix."

The retail category case study comprised a sample of 240 respondents and featured a good mix of males and females across all ethnic groups. The category was filtered, focussing on consumers who shop at retail outlets.

"The Pick n Pay brand was selected for the case study and showed marked differences from results of previous categories covered. The top-of-mind retail brands included Pick n Pay, Shoprite, Checkers, Spar and Woolworths."

She also notes that there was a higher advertising recall for Pick n Pay, Checkers and Spar among newspaper readers, compared to television viewers. The top three channels in terms of recall for advertising were television, newspapers and shopping malls.

Elaborating on a focused study of the food retail category, Dyke reveals that newspapers play a particularly strong role in driving consumers through the 'information' and 'persuasion' stages of the path to persuasion, and are particularly effective in driving consumers through the interest and trial phases of the path to purchase.

The research was conducted in association with Freshly Ground Insights (FGI) with a view to optimising advertisers' return on media investment. The research canvassed 2200 respondents in 11 categories.