What DRTV Buyers Like/Don't Like Posted: 29 Apr 2012 06:49 PM PDT Below are some more findings from my first DRTV Experiences survey. Before I get into that, however, I want to thank everyone who responded to my last post with thoughtful comments and suggestions. Thanks to one reader in particular (HT: Mark S.), I now know that the margin of error for my survey was 8.73% at a standard 95% confidence level, something to keep in mind as I reveal the results. Many people wrote me to say that they weren't convinced an opinion survey could yield accurate data about price preferences. Some examples:
These readers are right, of course. While asking DRTV buyers for their opinions is much better than believing in 'rules of thumb' or so-called logical arguments, it is not nearly as good as running actual sales tests to measure what people do instead of what they say they do. Perhaps that will be my next step in this learning process. There are many small variables that never get tested because of the cost and their limited impact on a CPO. For example, no one would ever air an A/B split to determine if $10 is better than $9.99. However, thanks to modern Web-testing platforms like Permission Interactive's Predict-A-Hit, such 'micro-testing' is now cheaper and easier then ever, so it's quite possible I'll be able to validate my findings with sales testing in the near future. Returning to the DRTV Experiences survey: One of the first things we asked people is what DRTV product(s) they had purchased and what they liked most and least about the experience. Here are the findings: LIKED MOST
Incidentally, here is a smattering of the most common products respondents purchased: Telebrands' Aluma Wallet, Allstar's Eggies, Allstar's EZ Moves, TriStar's Genie Bra, Telebrands' Lint Lizard, Telebrands' Orgreenic and Allstar's Perfect Meatloaf. LIKED LEAST
So there you have it. Any DRTV marketer with experience and the ability to be honest already knows people don't like the tactics we use to get our average sale up. This survey just confirms it. However, these problems may not be solvable. As long as media costs continue to rise, and DRTV buyers remain much more willing to buy products at $10 than $20, these issues will remain. On the bright side, these numbers imply that no one issue is overwhelming. For example, even if we apply the margin of error in an unfavorable way to the least liked aspect of DRTV buying (high S&H costs), we're still talking about less than one-quarter of DRTV buyers. Indeed, a much larger percentage of DRTV buyers (24% vs.13%) said they could think of nothing they disliked about their experience. |