© DataTalk Research Ltd January 2015 Page 1

Trust First, Price Second, when it comes to Purchase Decisions.

The latest league table of what influences peoples’ choice of brand or retailer shows that Past Experience of the brand or store has become the thing that influences more peoples’ choice than any other factor.

While movements up and down the table indicate the trend it is still clear that ‘trust’ is the dominant influencer. Trust in a consumers own experience or in the advice of people they trust. Price is the second consideration with ‘point of sale’ remaining the most important in terms of location.

Interestingly, or even surprisingly considering the amount of marketing effort deployed, vouchers and offers seem to be declining in influence. The exception being Internet offers like Groupon etc which had improved its position at the expense of sales person advice but even that shows a fall in terms of the number of people influenced.

2012 2014

Ranking Ranking

Past_Experience 2 1

Advice_Friends_Family 1 2

In_Store_Sales_Discounts 3 3

Offers_Vouchers_through_Door 4 4

Price_Comparison_Websites 5 5

On_Line_Customer_Reviews 8 6

Email_Offers_Vouchers 7 7

Seen_on_TV 6 8

Magazine_Newspaper_Reviews 9 9

Internet_Offers_Groupon_etc 11 10

Sales_Person_Advice 10 11

On_Pack_Promotions 12 12

Newspaper_Offers_Vouchers 13 13

Profesional_Advisor 14 14

Offers_by_Post 15 15

Leaflets_while_Shopping 16 16

Recommendations_on_Social_Networks 18 17

Brands_on_Facebook_Twitter_etc 19 18

Competitions 17 19

Prize_Draws 22 20

Mobile_Phone_Offers 21 21

Celebrity_Endorsement 20 22

Ranking

Change

© DataTalk Research Ltd January 2015 Page 2

The chart (left) illustrated the actual numbers in terms of percentage of the population influenced by each factor in 2014 compared to 2012.

There is a great deal of consistency in the figures with the ‘big two’ being clearly ahead and In Store Discounts a clear third.

What is significant is that the newer digital influences are not showing any significant growth. Social Media has shown some growth but it, together with Mobile seem not to be really registering with consumers.

Further analysis of the data can identify which influences are most prevalent in different sections of the population and different consumer groups. This can also be linked to their purchase intentions and communication channel preferences.

Data is available either in a pre-packaged module (most recent 12 months data) with basic demographics and 7 different geodemographic segmentations (Acorn, Cameo, Censation, Mosaic, Personicx, P2 and OAC) or as a custom data set combining ‘Influence’ with any other British Consumer Index data.

Other ‘modules available cover; Communication Channels, Sectors and Financial Optimism. See www.bcindex.co.uk/focus-data-sets for details.

For more details contact; Steve Abbott; E- stevea@thebps.co.uk T- 0203 286 1981

Notes: Figures are collected by The British Population Survey by face to face in home interviews with a population representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 15+ per month (total 2014 sample size = 11,859).

Modules are priced at £350 per module (per 12 months data) and are fully analysable in Excel pivot table format from www.bcindex.co.uk/focus-data-sets