Search Marketing vital for Brand Building and Driving Offline Sales for CPG companies.

comScore, Inc. released findings from a major research study analyzing the role of online search in generating Web site traffic for a number of consumer packaged goods (“CPG”) categories, including baby care, personal care, home care, and packaged food. The study, entitled “The Digital Shelf: the Opportunity for Search Marketing in Consumer Packaged Goods,” was conducted in partnership with Procter & Gamble, Yahoo!, and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) to help the CPG industry better understand the opportunity to grow sales using search marketing.

“While search marketing has long been recognized as an effective direct response vehicle, it’s been largely overlooked by CPG companies who focus on brand advertising and promotional efforts to drive in-store purchasing,” commented Gord Hotchkiss, Chairman of SEMPO. “This study seeks to demonstrate the potential brand-building impact of search for CPG marketers.”

Millions of Consumers Use Search to Learn About CPG Products

Search appears to represent a significant marketing opportunity for CPG brands. The study found that a majority of U.S. consumers visited Web sites for CPG product categories during the three months ending April 2007, with search driving a significant percentage of visitors in all the categories. Food products represented the largest search marketing opportunity with nearly 44 million category site visitors searching. Baby products attracted 15.7 million searchers, followed by personal care products with 9.8 million and household products with 1.7 million.

The study also found that a substantial percentage of the visitors to category Web sites arrived as a result of a search query. Among visitors to baby products sites, 60 percent arrived via search, followed by 47 percent in food products, 27 percent in personal care products, and 23 percent in household products.

“It’s evident that a significant search marketing opportunity exists for CPG companies,” said James Lamberti, comScore senior vice president of media, “Brand managers should be placing more emphasis on this channel to influence the long term health of their brands.”

CPG Searchers are Researching and Seeking Help with their Purchase Decisions

As part of the study, comScore conducted a survey to determine the attitudes of visitors to CPG Web sites, dividing respondents into two segments: those who use search to find these sites and those who do not. The survey revealed that searchers were significantly more involved in obtaining information and demonstrated higher category engagement than non-searchers. Specifically, 73 percent of searchers were motivated by product research, 64 percent were seeking help with the purchase decision, 47 percent were looking for promotions and just 29 percent were specifically looking for the company website. Conversely, non-searchers’ top motivation was to obtain information on promotions (59 percent), to conduct product research (58 percent) or to obtain help with their purchase decision (44 percent).

“Our deeper understanding of the motivations around search behavior underscores the opportunity to leverage search for more than just direct response marketing,” said Randy Peterson, Search Innovation Manager from Procter & Gamble. “Search may be one of the most effective means of reaching qualified consumers when and where they are most receptive to learning about our brands. Ultimately this drives offline sales.”

CPG Searchers Spend More Than Average

In addition to quantifying the extent of search activity and measuring consumer motivations, the study also profiled consumers across a variety of dimensions, including category purchasing, attitudes, and demographics. On every dimension analyzed, packaged goods category searchers represented a highly attractive target segment. Perhaps most compelling, searchers spent approximately 20 percent more than non-searchers across the four categories studied, further confirming the importance of search as a potential driver of offline purchase behavior.

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