Tuesday, October 27, 2009

According to a new survey commissioned by 1020 Placecast and conducted by Harris Interactive, American consumers are receptive to opt-in mobile marketing messages from brick-and-mortar businesses. 42% of 18 to 34 year old cell phone owners and 33% of 35 to 44 year olds are at least somewhat interested in receiving alerts about sales on their cell phones from their favorite establishments.Men are more interested than women:

• 51% of men ages 18 to 34, and 34% of women of the same age range who own cell phones, are at least somewhat interested in receiving opt-in shopping alerts on their cell phones.

Only 1% cell phone owners currently receive alerts about sales at their favorite establishments on their phones, yet 26% would be at least somewhat interested in receiving such alerts, assuming they were permission-based. Food, entertainment and consumer products top the list of categories

Of those interested in receiving alerts, 53% would be at least somewhat interested in being notified about restaurant specials around them.In addition, about 2-in-5 of these adults would like to receive alerts about sales for:

• Movie/event tickets (43%)
• Weather information (39%)
• Clearance or liquidation sales (37%)

About another 3-in-10 of these adults would want to be alerted about:

• Pizza (31%) Clothes (30%)
• Fast food (27%)

About one quarter would want to be notified about:

• Electronics (25%)
• Music (24%)
• Happy hour specials or bar and night club offers (21%)

The survey found that about 9-in-10 U.S. adults have made an impulse purchase when they were out shopping in a store based on a sale or a special near where they were.

• 22% of adults owning cell phones make this type of impulse purchase at least once per week or more often
• Among women with cell phones ages 18 to 44, 27% report making at least one impulse purchase a week
• Among men 18 - 34, this number rises to 31%

Among cell phone owners in households with children under 18, 37% are at least somewhat interested in receiving opt-in alerts on their mobile phones. This number rises to 44% in households with children under age 6.

According to Kathryn Koegel of Primary Impact Research, “Many American consumers have their mobile devices with them all day long, including when they are shopping… reaching a receptive audience… presents a big opportunity to influence impulse purchases… ”

For more information about 1020 Placecast and this study, please visit here. Or, to access the PDF file, please go to Placecast here.