New Survey Shows that Blogs are Two Times More Likely to Drive Beauty Product Purchases than Magazines
Survey also indicates that women still prefer a brick and mortar store over a website when it comes to purchasing beauty products
Belmont, CA (Vocus/PRWEB) January 11, 2011
The results of a joint research survey of women’s shopping behaviors and the influence of media when it comes to beauty and personal care products were announced today by BlogHer, Inc., the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online, and DeVries Public Relations, a leading consumer agency representing some of the country’s top beauty and lifestyle brands.
The survey provides insight on the huge $7 billion health and beauty products market in the U. S., more specifically in the areas of online vs. offline purchasing, the relative influence traditional media and blogs have on the products women purchase and brand preference.
Key findings from the study include:
Blogs are more than two times more likely (63%) than magazines (26%) to have inspired a beauty product purchase over the last six months. Women are just as likely to trust the beauty product advice from a Parenting (43%), Health (42%) or Lifestyle (37%) blog, as from a Beauty and Fashion blog (43%). Women turn to and trust “familiar” bloggers more than store websites, social networks or message boards when seeking beauty product recommendations. Women buy beauty products offline at a rate four times greater than online. Women tend to research online and buy offline.
"We've long believed at DeVries that trusted blogs have as much influence on purchase decisions as traditional media outlets, both inside the beauty category and out. We just didn't have data to confirm what we felt intuitively to be true,” said Stephanie Smirnov, President of DeVries Public Relations. “Our research partnership with BlogHer was forged to validate our hypothesis about blogger influence on beauty purchase decisions, and it's been extremely illuminating."
“BlogHer’s 2010 research on women, their social media usage and how it influences purchasing has been eye-opening about just how mainstream social media’s impact has become,” said Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of BlogHer, Inc. “Doing a deeper dive into the beauty product segment, specifically, revealed that even when purchasing ultimately takes place offline, online word-of-mouth maintains its powerful influence.”
About the Survey
“Beauty is in the Eye of the Blog Holder” was conducted using the following samples:
BlogHer Inc. in partnership with DeVries, fielded a 25 question survey across 25 million BlogHer network users, with a sample size of 1,074 total women across the United States. The margin of error is +/- 2.9%. All portions of the study were conducted in October 2010.
The full results of the “Beauty is in the Eye of the Blog Holder” survey can be found here: http://www. blogher. com/beauty-eye-blog-holder-0
About BlogHer
Reaching more than 25 million women each month (Nielsen Site Census, October 2010), BlogHer is the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online. Founded in February 2005 by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. Today BlogHer creates opportunities for members via a community hub (http://www. blogher. com), annual conferences and a publishing network of more than 2,500 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates. BlogHer provides the highest quality content on a range of topics, with all blogs continually edited to meet strict editorial standards, including content quality, category relevance and blog frequency. BlogHer enjoys a strategic partnership with iVillage, part of Women@NBCU. BlogHer’s investors are Venrock, GE/NBC Universal's Peacock Equity Fund, and Azure Capital Partners.
About DeVries
Founded in New York City in 1978, DeVries Public Relations is dedicated to providing consumer PR communications for a diverse roster of blue-chip brands that are a part of consumers’ everyday lives. DeVries provides a thorough spectrum of public relations and communications capabilities across the beauty, fashion, wellness, food/beverage and home categories. DeVries Public Relations is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.
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