According to a new study from Blogher, bloggers are now the most influential voice for women when it comes to beauty and personal care products. The study consisting of 1,074 women from 18 – 54 aimed to understand what was driving beauty and personal care purchases.
The study showed:
- Women research online and buy offline at 4x the rate.
- Bloggers are 61% more helpful for advice (website 46%, social network 33%, message boards 20%)
- Women still love promotions or free samples, but a recommendation from a friend/blogger is the top motivation over discounted prices and online reviews.
What does a change in purchase influencers in an industry where women spend over $7 Billion annually mean to brands and magazines?
For brands, it may be time to start buying up influential web properties in an effort to cap rising advertising rates. For magazines, leveraging the following and ‘just like me’ appeal of many bloggers is essential to keeping readers interested in their content. Exclusive content, cooperative reviews, and blog community engagement are all ways publishers can leverage bloggers to keep and broaden readership.
Although consumers still head to stores to buy products, many purchase decisions have already been made thanks to online media. This is an important change for the beauty & personal care industry as consumers now must be captured earlier in the path-to-purchase. Brands can no longer rely heavily on in-store marketing and product placement. On the other hand, brands can leverage influential bloggers and reviews to provide ‘preferred’ or ‘partner’ retailers. (ex: Find it at your nearest ULTA).
What challenges do you see brands and bloggers facing in 2011?
