March 2005   

Beauty Category Most Persuasive Among FMCG Online Advertising

New research from Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms® database shows how persuasive impact can vary among different types of FMCG online advertising.

Based on an analysis of 351 different FMCG campaigns and a sample of 396,544 respondents, MarketNorms (Q3/04) data breaks out sub-categories of FMCG online advertising and compares their tendency to increase important persuasion metrics such as Brand Favourability and Purchase Intent.

The chart shows the average increases (or deltas) for respondents who were exposed to the ads over those who were not (control group). Among the FMCG campaigns measured, the Beauty category is the top persuasion performer on average, with high delta scores of +4.0 on Brand Favourability and +3.7 on Purchase Intent. The Health/OTC category is less persuasive on average with comparable delta scores of +1.1 on Brand Favourability and +2.1 on Purchase Intent.

Other FMCG categories such as Consumables, Personal Care Items, and Household Goods, all show persuasive impact that is higher than MarketNorms overall averages. Except in new product launches where a brand is being established, many FMCG products have high levels of awareness and therefore focus their advertising efforts on competitive set positioning and persuasion metrics.

The persuasive effectiveness of online FMCG advertising overall, and specifically the difference in average impact between Beauty and Health/OTC, may be based on the following factors:

1. Application of product: Consumers may be more open-minded to experimenting with beauty products rather than with health products.
2. Visuals: Beauty ads are often highly produced and very visual including attractive models, which may make the creative more appealing.
3. Low-consideration products: Compared to other industries such as Automotive, consumer goods are relatively low-consideration products and have lower price-points on average, which may allow consumers to more willingly express interest in trying them.

Note: These findings are aggregate in nature, reflect past results and are not a guarantee of future results for individual campaigns. The average deltas over many campaigns are useful to judge topline overall impact. A multivariate analysis of factors such as frequency, demographics, ad size, websites, advertiser industry and others may contribute to impact deltas.