Women say: no time for ads, it's time for CROPing!

The Wise Marketer is covering a survey by public relations firm Ketchum about what influences women's purchase decisions. There were four trends that came out of the results, which focused on women aged 25-54, with the most interesting (perhaps) being the advent of CROPing (looking for CRedible OPinions) before shopping. By getting the opinions of trusted friends, experts and information sources (like trusted web sites and magazines), women can cut down on the amount of "actual" shopping for a target item by eliminating universally panned choices and focusing on highly selected ones. According to Ketchum's synopsis, other key findings include:

• Consumer-Electronics Shopping Is Easy, But … - Three of four women say that consumer-electronics shopping is “very” or “somewhat” easy, but some aspects frustrate them. Forty percent get frustrated when talked down to while shopping for consumer electronics and a quarter of women voice confusion over whether to buy a warranty (28%), product complexity (27%) and too many choices (26%).
• Product Research Rules, But Impulse Buying Is Still Popular - Seven in ten women do research before making big purchases (72%), but only 35% “rarely” buy on impulse. A quarter of women say they are the first to try new products and services.
• Health is Part of the Definition of Success - Eighty percent of women surveyed feel that being healthy and having healthy children (82% and 81%, respectively) are the top qualities that define success. Other leading factors include having well-adjusted children (79%), living in a nice, safe community (77%), not having debt (77%) and having a strong marriage (77%)

Of course, all of this research and CROPing seems to indicate that women are making more buying decisions (or bigger parts of the decisions) before they enter retail stores, which could be a problem for in-store advertisers hoping to influence buying decision with retail media like POP displays and digital signage systems.

Here's a podcast of the synopsis.

Tags: retail media, store marketing, retail marketing, digital signage, CROPing, purchase decisions, in-store advertising, out-of-home media