Study: 80% Of Aussies Say The Internet Is The Most Useful Media (But Catalogues Still Rate, Too)

Study: 80% Of Aussies Say The Internet Is The Most Useful Media (But Catalogues Still Rate, Too)

Advertising is increasingly moving online which is good news for advertisers as 80 per cent of Aussies say the Internet is the ‘Media Most Useful’ for providing purchase-related information in the year to September 2017 according to new research by Roy Morgan.

However, although the internet may be key to how Australians find purchase-related information today, other medias are still considered by many as the most useful way to find information across a variety of categories – and in some categories remains the most useful medium ahead of the internet.

Media Most Useful for providing Consumer Information (Across any category*)

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Analysing Australians’ internet usage more closely reveals that although 70 per cent of Australians use search to find purchase-related information some 45 per cent of Australians access other non-search websites directly, a figure more in line with that seen for other media channels.

Internet Search leads the way for Travel or accommodation, Restaurants, Cars and Insurance

The internet is the leading source of information for Aussies across most shopping categories these days, and there are some categories in which Internet Search clearly dominates all other media.

The leading category for both internet, and specifically Internet Search, is travel and accommodation – for which 67 per cent of us consider the internet in general and 48 per cent of Australians internet search in particular the most useful medium compared to 22 per cent that use non-search websites.

Other industries which need to focus their marketing on SEO to effectively reach potential customers include restaurants – 45 per cent of Australians regard search as the most useful, used motor vehicles (43 per cent), insurance (43 per cent) and new motor vehicles (42 per cent).

Top 10 product categories for Internet Search

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Catalogues are Media Most Useful for Groceries & Alcoholic beverages

Despite the rise of digital media in recent decades there are certain product categories that consumers prefer more traditional media to find out information when they’re buying. There is none larger than the huge Australian grocery market valued at over $103 billion according to the latest Roy Morgan data.

Nearly four million Australians read either Coles Magazine (3,975,000) or rival Woolworth’s Fresh (3,828,000) according to Roy Morgan magazine readership results. Alongside that wide reach comes recognition by consumers – 45 per cent of Australians regard catalogues as the most useful medium for purchasing groceries compared to 28 per cent for the internet and less than five per cent for each of the other media categories.

Groceries isn’t the only category in which catalogues retain leadership with Australians looking for information to purchase alcohol also favouring catalogues (39 per cent) over the internet (30 per cent), newspapers (foru per cent) and all other types of media.

Top 12 Best Performing Categories for Catalogues

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Catalogues are most useful to Internet websites (excluding Search) in many categories

Although search leads many product categories, it is catalogues that are clearly considered the next best media in many product categories by significant proportions of the population well ahead of other traditional media channels and also ahead of non-search websites on the Internet.

More than a quarter of Australians turn to catalogues as the most useful information media when selecting children’s wear (33 per cent), purchasing toys (32 per cent), selecting clothing and fashion (30 per cent), purchasing cosmetics and toiletries (31 per cent) and purchasing small electrical appliances (29 per cent).




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