Majority of buyers say Internet is their primary source of product information.

More than half (57.1%) of respondents to a recent Burst Media survey of more than 3,700 web users 18 years and older, say the Internet is their primary source for information about products or services they might purchase. Use of the Internet to gather product information rises dramatically as household income (HHI) increases – going from one-half (50.6%) of respondents reporting HHI less than $35,000 to fully two-thirds (69.2%) of respondents reporting HHI of $75,000 or more.

While buyers flock to online to research purchases, TV commercials can still make an impression. Respondents were given a list of different forms of media and asked which was the most effective and which was the least effective at capturing their attention. One-half (49.8%) of respondents cited television as the most effective media to capture their attention followed by the Internet (22.3%), magazines (11.6%), newspapers (10.3%) and radio (5.9%).

Women were more likely than men to say television was the most effective media at capturing their attention, 53.9% versus 45.5%. Conversely, fully one-quarter (27.1%) of men identify the Internet as the most effective media to capture their attention, compared to 17.8% of women. Interestingly, nearly one-third (31.4%) of men between 18-34 years say the Internet is the most effective media at capturing their attention.

When asked their opinion of advertising campaigns they recall seeing online for brands they are familiar with, more than one-third (39.5%) of respondents saying that the online campaigns they recall seeing were “recycling” what was being done in other media; and nearly one-quarter (23.0%) said the online campaigns were “worse” than what was being done on television, or in newspapers and magazines.

Respondents who say the Internet is the most effective from of media at capturing their attention do have a significantly better impression of online advertising campaigns than all other respondents. In fact, 57.5% thought the online campaigns they could recall were “cutting edge” or better than what was on television, or in magazines and newspapers.

“In the space of a little over a decade, the Internet has achieved a 70% penetration of American homes a stunning figure when you consider that other forms of broadcast media took decades to achieve such reach,” says Chuck Moran, Manager of Market Research for Burst Media. “As the Internet’s reach has grown so has its’ influence on the way households conduct many daily activities; one being how households gather information on products and services they plan to purchase. This rapid adoption of the Internet affords marketers not only the ability to reach large audiences, but also the opportunity to utilize unique creative and interactive programs to grab consumers’ attention.”

For more information at http://www.burstmedia.com