The Role of the Internet for Consumers in Germany, France and the UK

Posted by Gino Cosme

June 19, 2008

Fleishman-Hillard (via) together with Harris Interactive released a Digital Influence Index Study. The study was conducted in Europe (France, the United Kingdom and Germany) using 5000 people and examines the role that the Internet plays in the lives of European consumers (although the findings are probably accurate across the US, South Africa and Asia).

Some interesting findings include:

Proving the need for companies to reexamine their communications strategies, the study proved that the Internet is more influential than any other type of media across all three countries. It is eight times more influential than traditional print media and almost as influential as television.
Consumer behaviour falls into one of five categories: research, commerce, communication, mobility and publishing. Some behavioural findings include 80% of online consumers use the Net to comparison shop and 30% post comments onto online newsgroups or websites every week.
When consumers are faced with purchasing decisions for personal products or services (e.g. healthcare or major electronic products), they turn to social media and product-rating sites.
Although European consumers realise the benefits of the Internet, they still have concerns about Internet safety and the trustworthiness of some of the information they find online.
In France, 3/4 of Internet users use instant messaging services, more than 30% read blogs, and 80% use the Internet to find addresses and services. Also, of the three countries, the French are more influenced by the Web than the English or Germans.
On the other hand, Germany leads in Web research and UK consumers are the most likely to create profiles on a social networking page.

As I see it, companies have one viable option when it comes to using studies like this one. They need to start engaging in an ongoing strategic conversation, starting immediately, about their state of their business communications and marketing strategies, including examining whether the right questions have been asked about the online components. With online being eight times as influential as print media, perhaps it’s time to get this done sooner than later.

Be sure to download the key findings and the whitepaper for the study.