Trust First, Price Second, when it comes to Purchase Decisions. The latest league table of what influences peoples’ choice of brand or retailer shows that Past Experience of the brand or store has become the thing that influences more peoples’ choice than any other factor. Trust in a consumers own experience or in the advice of people they trust. Price is the second consideration with ‘point of sale’ remaining the most important in terms of location.

1. © DataTalk Research Ltd January 2015 Page 1
Trust First, Price Second, when it comes to Purchase Decisions.
The latest league table of what influences peoples’ choice of brand or retailer shows that Past Experience of the
brand or store has become the thing that influences more peoples’ choice than any other factor.
While movements up and down the table indicate the trend it is still clear that ‘trust’ is the dominant
influencer. Trust in a consumers own experience or in the advice of people they trust. Price is the second
consideration with ‘point of sale’ remaining the most important in terms of location.
Interestingly, or even surprisingly considering the amount of marketing effort deployed, vouchers and offers
seem to be declining in influence. The exception being Internet offers like Groupon etc which had improved its
position at the expense of sales person advice but even that shows a fall in terms of the number of people
influenced.
2012 2014
Ranking Ranking
Past_Experience 2 1
Advice_Friends_Family 1 2
In_Store_Sales_Discounts 3 3
Offers_Vouchers_through_Door 4 4
Price_Comparison_Websites 5 5
On_Line_Customer_Reviews 8 6
Email_Offers_Vouchers 7 7
Seen_on_TV 6 8
Magazine_Newspaper_Reviews 9 9
Internet_Offers_Groupon_etc 11 10
Sales_Person_Advice 10 11
On_Pack_Promotions 12 12
Newspaper_Offers_Vouchers 13 13
Profesional_Advisor 14 14
Offers_by_Post 15 15
Leaflets_while_Shopping 16 16
Recommendations_on_Social_Networks 18 17
Brands_on_Facebook_Twitter_etc 19 18
Competitions 17 19
Prize_Draws 22 20
Mobile_Phone_Offers 21 21
Celebrity_Endorsement 20 22
Ranking
Change

2. © DataTalk Research Ltd January 2015 Page 2
The chart (left) illustrated the actual
numbers in terms of percentage of the
population influenced by each factor in
2014 compared to 2012.
There is a great deal of consistency in the
figures with the ‘big two’ being clearly
ahead and In Store Discounts a clear third.
What is significant is that the newer digital
influences are not showing any significant
growth. Social Media has shown some
growth but it, together with Mobile seem
not to be really registering with
consumers.
Further analysis of the data can identify which influences are most prevalent in different sections of the
population and different consumer groups. This can also be linked to their purchase intentions and
communication channel preferences.
Data is available either in a pre-packaged module (most recent 12 months data) with basic demographics and 7
different geodemographic segmentations (Acorn, Cameo, Censation, Mosaic, Personicx, P2
and OAC) or as a
custom data set combining ‘Influence’ with any other British Consumer Index data.
Other ‘modules available cover; Communication Channels, Sectors and Financial Optimism. See
www.bcindex.co.uk/focus-data-sets for details.
For more details contact; Steve Abbott; E- stevea@thebps.co.uk T- 0203 286 1981
Notes: Figures are collected by The British Population Survey by face to face in home interviews with a population representative
sample of 1,000 adults aged 15+ per month (total 2014 sample size = 11,859).
Modules are priced at £350 per module (per 12 months data) and are fully analysable in Excel pivot table format from
www.bcindex.co.uk/focus-data-sets