Three times a year we listen to what over 600 Irish consumers have to say
We ask them about the direct mail they receive as part of our ongoing Direct Mail Consumer tracking activities. The insights below represent key findings from the research carried out by Ipsos mrbi in Feb/April 2010 and Millward Brown Lansdowne in 2010 on behalf of An Post
General consumer sentiment
Consumer Spending plans for next 12 months (April 10+)
It is important to understand general consumer sentiment at the time we carry out our research to provide context for consumer responses: as sentiment changes, we see shifts in the media attitudes and behaviors of Irish consumers. This quarter we continue to see people cutting back, with most areas down from the last survey in Sept 09. The only areas to show any significant improvement are Household Groceries and Holidays Abroad. The worst hit areas are Cigerettes/Tabacco and Cosmetics with approx 10% of people planning to spend less on them in the next 12 months.
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Despite this conservative trend in spend, consumers continue to show more positive attitudes to Direct Mail as detailed in the results shared in the following sections.
Check out the latest Spending Plans Monitor Report from Ipsos MRBI (693KB PDF)
Consumer attitudes to Mail
Did you know:
Consumers are still very much engaged with physical media and specifically take time to read through their mail. All age groups consider receiving mail a pleasure and we continue to see concerns about the security of confidential information being shared online.
How individual age groups feel about their mail:
Channel Preference for Irish Consumers
We asked consumers about their contact preferences for companies that they already have a relationship with, specificaly if they prefer to be contacted by Mail or by Email. Of those who expressed a preference (68%) the overwhelming majority preferred Mail (74% of those who stated a preference). A similar picture emerged for communications from companies that consumers do not do business with. Of the 58% who expressed a preference, 76% preferred Mail.
If we look at other forms of advertising we can still see a preference for Mail. Mail is seen as highly relevant by consumers, even more than Radio, Press and Online Advertising.
How consumers like to hear about new products
We also asked consumers how they prefer to receive information about new products/services and the answer was relatively consistent across segments: Almost four fifths of consumers prefer to receive information printed separately to their bills/statements (40% prefer with separate mailing and 39% on a separate sheet, but included with bill/statement mailing)
How much Direct Mail they receive
The average number of addressed items being received per week in Ireland has dropped to 4.66, down almost 1 pt from the same time last year. Of this approximately 29% contained some form of advertising/promotional material (11%) and relationship direct mail from business to consumers (18%). A further 14% of the addressed mail received contained additional advertising material included with a bill or statement.
The proportion of households receiving addressed advertising as main content has remained stable at 33%
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Unaddressed or Door Drop Direct Mail has the highest household penetration in Ireland with 75% receiving this type of Direct Mail. Dublin has both a higher penetration rate (90%) and a significantly higher average number of items received on a weekly basis then its regional counterparts (approx 2.3 times the number of items). Larger households (3+ people) in Terraced/Apartment type dwellings are most likely to receive unaddressed advertising. There is a bias towards the start of the week for delivery of items, with Monday and Tuesday the most popular day for delivery. We are seeing a small but steady growth in Saturday deliveries, at 9%, which is almost double that of the same period three years ago in 2007.
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How relevant is the Direct Mail they receive
All forms of direct mail have shown an increase in relevance over the last couple of test periods as businesses have gotten better at targeting consumers.
Most consumers (72%) find addressed advertising (Direct Mail) to be relevant. Interestingly this figure rises to 91% for letters from businesses (not bill or statements), indicating that people really do appreciate receiving personally addressed mail from businesses.
64% of consumers find addressed additional advertising (Transactional DM) relevant, with C2DEs (61%) and 1 person households(64%) showing higher than average relevance. Urban households tend to find this type of direct mail slightly more relevant than rural households.
The relevance of unaddressed advertising continues to show a seasonality trend with the summer months showing higher levels of relevance than other seasons. In Sept/Nov 09 relevance dropped back to 36%, but rose slightly to 37% in Feb/Apr 2010, a more normal level for this time of year. Highest levels of relevance are seen for larger households (47% relevance for households containing 3 people) and for rural households (50%). When looking at the types of unaddressed direct mail received, it appears that the Charity (29%) sector stil has some work to do to improve the relevance of their unaddressed mail for Irish consumers. However consumers find the advertising they receive from Retailers (55%) and Financial Services companies far more relevant (42%).
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What they do with their Direct Mail
When we ask consumers how they interact with direct mail we continue to see higher involvement levels with addressed direct mail (93%) and transactional mail (95%). However even for Unaddressed direct mail 84% of consumers read or take positive action based upon the material received. In fact 1 in 5 consumers take immediate action, based on the addressed advertising material received by either visiting the advertiser, using coupons/samples provided or buying the product/service advertised. It is even higher for 18-34's where 2 in 5 will go online to find out more about the products and services advertised.
Men are more likely to followup online whilst women are more likely to visit the premises of the business advertised. For unaddressed direct mail, rural households show the highest levels of involvement (86%).
How does Direct Mail compare to email
Younger age groups are receiving far more advertising emails than their older counterparts; in fact three quarters of 18 to 34 yr olds receive advertising emails on a daily basis whilst over half of 35+ yr olds do not. Based upon our research 47% of 18-34 yr olds are receiving up to 35 advertising emails a week, with slightly more being received by males than females in this age group.
When asked how relevant these emails were, most people indicated low levels of relevance. For 88% of people, less than 20% of the emails they received were relevant to them. This is far below the relevancy reported for Direct Mail (Addressed DM: 72% and Unaddressed DM: 37%)
We also asked consumers about their channel preference for receiving their bank statements and the over whelming majority of Irish Consumers still prefer to receive bank statements by post than via email or online. Given that they have also told us that paper versions help them organise their household this is not surprising. In fact 75% of households would like to continue receiving their bank statements by post. Even younger segments still prefer to receive bank statements by post: 68% of 18-34 year olds.
For additional insights on consumer attitudes to Direct Mail, read our Direct Mail Attitudinal Research report