'Digital Waste' Pollutes the Online World as Brands Inundate Consumers and Fail to Customize the Message to Digital Behaviors

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The established rules of communicating with customers are unraveling, especially online. While many companies embrace the potential of delivering messages over different digital platforms, they're failing to realize the complexity of digital consumers and in so doing, are wasting their time and money - this according to findings from a global study launched by today by TNS, a Kantar company and part of WPP (NASDAQ:WPPGY).

The findings were revealed by TNS's Digital Life study, a comprehensive view of how more than 72,000 consumers in 60 countries behave online and why they do what they do. An interactive data visualization of the key findings can be found at www.tnsdigitallife.com.

The race online has seen businesses across the world rush to develop an online voice by developing profiles on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, to speak to customers where they live quickly and cheaply. However, TNS's research reveals that if these efforts are not carefully targeted, messages become interrupted, unwanted and violates the users sense of community, thus counter-productively alienating the recipient from the brand.

The study found that nearly sixty percent (60%) of social network users in the U.S. do not want to engage with brands online. This leads to misguided digital strategies that are generating mountains of digital waste, from friendless Facebook accounts to blogs no one reads. When combined with ever-increasing content produced by consumers – the study shows that forty-seven percent (47%) of digital consumers now comment about brands online. The result is huge volumes of noise, which is polluting the digital world and making it harder for brands to be heard – presenting a major challenge for businesses trying to enter into a real dialogue with consumers.

"Winning and keeping customers is harder than ever," said Cheryl Max, Senior Vice President of Marketing at TNS North America.  "The online world presents massive opportunities for brands given all the channels, tactics and points of time in a day that people are online - according to our data, the average American spends 19 hrs per week is spent online -  it is only through deploying precisely tailored marketing strategies that companies will be able to recognize this potential. Choosing the wrong channel, or simply adding to the cacophony of online noise risks alienating potential customers and impacting business growth."  

Why DO consumers engage with brands?

TNS's Digital Life study asked consumers exactly why they engaged with brands online. Fifty-four percent (54%) of people admit they use social networks to learn more about products, with only a quarter (25%) willing to move forward toward an actual purchase.  Furthermore, nearly forty-six percent (46%) of those who posted comments to a particular brand site did so for the simple desire to impart advice, while eighteen percent (18%) posted comments to praise and another twelve percent (12%) actively posted comments to complain about a negative brand experience. The study went on to reveal that for the most part, motivations for consumers to engage with a brand can be self-serving.  Sixty-one percent (61%) of consumers are driven to engage with brands online only by a promotion or to receive a special offer.

"Many brands have recognized the vast potential of the digital world; however they are failing to understand that the digital consumer is very complex," said Charles White, Senior Vice President, Client Services and North American lead for TNS Digital Life.  "Every digital interaction a company has with a consumer is an opportunity and implementing a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy won't deliver the return you're looking for. Consumers are online for different reasons and they all behave differently.  It's time for marketers to recognize the digital consumer as a unique individual – one that requires their own unique approach."

TNS has made some of the key findings from this study available to the public via an interactive data visualisation that can be found at www.tnsdigitallife.com. The visualisations were developed in partnership with Digit London.

Follow the conversation on Twitter - @TNS_NA and #tnsdl.

About Digital Life
Digital Life provides recommendations on how to use digital channels to grow your business through a precise understanding of human behaviours and attitudes online. Based on in-depth interviews with over 72,000 people in 60 countries, Digital Life's size, scale and detail make it the most comprehensive view of consumer attitudes and behaviour online, on a global and local level.

About TNS
TNS advises clients on specific growth strategies around new market entry, innovation, brand switching and stakeholder management, based on long-established expertise and market-leading solutions. With a presence in over 80 countries, TNS has more conversations with the world's consumers than anyone else and understands individual human behaviours and attitudes across every cultural, economic and political region of the world.

TNS is part of Kantar, one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy groups.

Please visit www.tns-us.com for more information.

About Kantar
Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy groups. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 28,500 employees work across 100 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com.

SOURCE TNS