e-Readers, consumer values and the love of new gadgets
Alice Dunn, marketing executive at Kantar Media, looks at the boom of the eBook and asks how we can better understand the market.
eBooks are reshaping the publishing industry as millions of Britons choose e-Readers over traditional paperback books. Earlier this year Amazon UK even reported that they now sell more eBooks than printed books.
Marketers would do well to understand exactly who these eBook consumers are and what motivates them, as they are, by and large, the ‘early adopters’ who are keen to stay ahead of the curve and therefore a prime consumer target.
Latest insight from Kantar Media’s TGI survey reveals 6.2 million Britons aged 15 and over now own an e-Reader and come from families with an typical income of £37,000 – 25% higher than the UK average.
e-Reader owners are, unsurprisingly, are a tech-savvy bunch – a presumption backed up by data from TGI. They are 49% more likely than the average British adult to love buying new gadgets and appliances and they are 47% more likely to buy products before most of their friends.
As well as keeping up with the latest developments in technology, they are also a group that do not mind splashing their cash – and are more likely to do so without thinking. They also enjoy eating out and are prepared to pay more for good quality wine and environmentally friendly products.
This goes some way to explain what is driving these consumers, but TGI’s newly released WHY Code data goes further to reveal the underlying values of consumers as well as their conscious motivations.
The ‘Social DNA’ component of The WHY Code indicates an individual’s levels of ‘cultural and economic capital’. Based upon well-established academic thinking, ‘cultural capital’ is determined by knowledge and cultural activities while ‘economic capital’ is determined by income and savings. Combinations of cultural and economic capital can vary significantly.
e-Reader owners are 84% more likely than the average British adult to have high amounts of balanced cultural and economic capital. This is perhaps to be expected given the cost of an e-Reader and the coupled interest in literature.
However, WHY Code data also reveals that one-third of e-Reader owners have ‘economic dominating capital’. This suggests that for a sizeable portion, interest in literature is not always the most important factor when it comes to purchasing. Having an e-Reader for this group could, therefore, be more about status and is in keeping with their love for gadgets and having products before their friends.
Another third of e-Reader owners have ‘cultural dominating capital’, suggesting that there is a significant group of consumers for which interest in literature does play an important part in purchasing behaviour – thereby highlighting the different factors influencing e-Reader owners and their purchase decisions.
The WHY Code data also reveals that e-Reader owners are almost three times as likely as the average British adult to cite ‘innovation’ as the most important factor when buying a new electronic item. This again hints at their desire to be equipped with the latest technology.
This all suggests that a love for literature is not necessarily all that is driving consumers to purchase e-Readers. Therefore, rather than just converting paperback book-lovers, e-Readers could be reaching a whole new audience who may not have previously picked up a book.
e-Reader owners already consume an array of media – they are more likely to be in the heaviest quintiles of internet and cinema consumers, to be heavy readers of quality newspapers and listen to up to ten hours of radio a week. This is good news for marketers because with their increasingly sophisticated connectivity, e-Readers are likely to become a key way of consuming media in years to come.
Given their propensity to spend and their openness to media and new technology, e-Reader owners are a valuable target for the canny marketer.