Core, Ireland’s largest marketing communications company, has launched a digital insights report which provides up to date and discerning analysis into the behavior of Irish consumer’s online.
Entitled the Connected Behaviour Map, the research, which was unveiled at an event held in Core this week, analyses Irish consumers’ digital habits according to three criteria – technology access, behaviours and activities and attitudes towards growth. The bespoke research will help businesses and brands to understand today’s digital and technology behaviours, as well as the attitudes and predictions of growth surrounding technology in the future.
In all, 54 consumer behaviours were identified with the ‘day in the life’ of a consumer in mind, with activity ranging from shopping online, listening to live radio, and connecting with family and friends, to finding directions, searching for a home or researching holidays.
One key learning for Irish brands is that businesses need to prioritise getting the basics right as 32% of those surveyed reported that many Irish websites are really difficult to navigate and only 74% say it is easy to contact a company online.
The research, which was carried out in November 2018, shows that Irish consumers are overwhelmingly online with 95% of those surveyed stating they owned a smartphone, 92% saying they have access to broadband / Wifi and 85% saying they had access to a laptop or MacBook. Before Christmas, an estimated 15% of households have a ‘voice’ device such as Amazon Alexa (10%), Google Home (8%) and Microsoft Cortana (5%), so 2019 looks like it could be the year for businesses to start considering optimising for Voice Assistants.
From a brands perspective, the Connected Behaviour Map provides significant insights into how consumers engage with advertising and media. The research shows that one in five consumers are currently dissatisfied with brands’ ads or experiences on offer.
Some 31% of those surveyed said they would pay to turn off all online advertising, however over half (56%) say online advertising can be useful to find something new. 48% say they don’t mind ads on websites or mobile apps, as long as the ads don’t cause a distraction. These statistics reinforce that brands who focus on the experience they provide customers, create relevant messages, delivering them in a helpful and non-intrusive way are set to benefit most in the future.
The survey’s findings reinforce that digital wins when consumers know what they want – 79% reported that if they know what they are looking for, they search for it online and almost two thirds (65%) say they have discovered a brand online that they would not have otherwise found.
When it comes to some of our daily behaviours, there are changing habits emerging. 80% of those surveyed claim to shop for groceries on a monthly basis, with 41% of them using technology / digital to do this activity. 82% say they pay bills on a monthly basis, with 84% of those choosing to do so online. 94% of those who research medical symptoms say they go online to do so.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for Ireland, 94% of those who check the weather regularly do so online. Although only 12% of the surveyed respondents reported they were looking for a date, 83% of those who did use digital platforms to do so.
According to Emer Lawn, Director at Core: “The Connected Behaviour Map was created to help test the many assumptions that are made about the Irish population and their habits. If brands continue to do the same thing today, as they have been doing in the past – wastage will start to set in, given that 1 in 5 consumers are currently dissatisfied. It’s with this research that we hope to start a discussion around creating better digital messages, media choices and brand experiences. One thing in all of this remains very clear – Irish consumers are connected, and brands need to continuously assess their role within this ever-changing environment.”
