Price comparison versus consumer brand sites - report
- Added:
- Sep 29, 2008
Price comparison sites and consumer brand sites do not attract the same visitors, according to new research.
The findings come from the 17th edition of the NetObserver survey carried out on about 250,000 European internet users, which studied the main differences between the users of these two types of sites.
Globally, whilst the regular internet users of price comparison websites are mainly men between the ages of 25-54, the users of consumer brand sites or blogs are globally more feminine and younger, between the ages of 15-44.
Amongst the main features of the 5 countries studied, Germany comes out as the exception with the audience of consumer brand sites or blogs in this country mainly composed of men (more than 60%).
Furthermore, seniors (over 55) make up around 20% of the regular visitors to price comparison websites in France and the UK.
Concerning their purchases, regular users of price comparison sites and those of consumer brand sites and blogs not
only do not use the Internet in the same proportion, but are not interested in the same categories of products.
With regards to searching for information or to carrying out purchases on the Internet, the users of price comparison
websites are logically more active than the visitors of consumer brand sites or blogs.
Regarding products categories, users of price comparison websites are clearly more interested in multimedia
products than users of consumer brand sites or blogs. The latter are more interested in health and beauty products and clothing.
Regular users of price comparison sites also differentiate themselves from regular users of consumer brand sites or blogs through their behaviour and perception of online marketing, the report found.
Not surprising for price comparison websites, their users are more numerous than users of consumer brand sites or
blogs, not only for using a search engine to find a product or service that they want to buy (between 71% and 84%)
but also for reading the opinions of other internet users about a product or service (between 18% to 59%).
On the other hand, a higher proportion of regular users of consumer brand sites or blogs participate in competitions
organised by brands or businesses (between 54% and 76%), read newsletters of brand or e-commerce sites
(between 34% and 61%) or visit the blogs of brands or businesses (between 19% and 51%).
Furthermore, they are more receptive to online advertising and viral marketing, on the evidence that between 20% and 33% of visitors interacted with online ads and between 16% and 36% sent advertising messages by email or instant messaging in the last 6 months.
Users of consumer brand sites or blogs have a better opinion of online advertising. There are a greater proportion of
users of consumer brand sites or blogs than of users of price comparison sites who believe that advertising on the
Internet creates a positive image for a brand (between 60% and 94%).
Users of consumer brand sites or blogs are also more numerous in thinking that online advertising is creative (between 50% and 74%) and in regularly taking notice of online ads (between 57% and 67%).
Furthermore, users of consumer brand sites or blogs are less irritated by online advertising than users of price comparison sites: except for the Italians, between 37% and 48% of users of consumer brand sites or blogs are not affected by online advertising.
For a full copy of the report, which includes graphs, download the PDF File below.
Source: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/
