The credibility of the printed word

A French study has revealed that print magazines, if used as part of a multimedia campaign, can increase trust in a given brand and brand preference by up to 7 percent. Why? Because print magazines communicate quality, relevance and a feeling of closeness to consumers. This can be especially important in the case of grocery brands, because the food sector has been shaken by several scandals recently.

Three market leader French publishers, Lagardere Publicité, Mondadori Publicité and Prisma Media Solutions launched a project called Food Brand Trust, which analyses the situation and offers solutions to the problems of food brands. A Food Brand Trust research conducted by Ipsos in France has found that print magazines can constitute the only channel where the trust in food brands can be rebuilt. Meanwhile the biggest advertisers have started a major campaign for brand safety and ROI protection.

Ipsos was inspired by the so-called ‘grocery haul’ phenomenon and developed an ‘in vivo’ methodology: shoppers needed to show their baskets and take out the 3 three most important products. Ipsos collected and analysed 280 shopper videos and photos this way and concluded that the taste, price and quality of a product is more important for shoppers than the brand name. 32 percent of shoppers don’t care about the brand when shopping and 29 percent of baskets in photos made by customers consisted of various organic products; what is more, 41 percent of the latter were private label groceries. 60 percent of baskets in shopper photos had private label products in them.

Ipsos’ research in France has also pointed it out that less than a quarter of French consumers make a connection between how well-known a brand is and guaranteed quality. For them the product’s price matters the most, although where it comes from (e.g. local, organic, etc.) is also becoming more and more important. 53 percent of consumers are of the opinion that the quality of food products decreased a lot in the last ten years. Ipsos France has also analysed 4,000 advertising materials and concluded that consumer trust in food products lies on 4 pillars: closeness, relevance, quality and the recommendation of friends and family.

The study has revealed that print magazines are strong in activating all four of these aspects. The influence of newspapers and magazines on buying intention is just as strong as that of television – 65 and 64 percent, respectively. If used in combination with a television or digital campaign, newspapers and magazines can increase buying intention by 5-7 points. All in all, print media can increase trust in grocery brands, which they need badly to win back consumers. Within the framework of the Food Brand Trust project, brands can buy customised content and editorial work in the 33 magazines of the three publishers.

A study published recently by German organisation Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach reported that 69 percent of the population are more willing to believe what they read in print media than what they read in social media if they find contradicting information on the two platforms (Source: Rakuten Marketing). //