November 10th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
Consumers rely on a variety of mediums and channels to learn about new product launches or updates to existing ones. These range from in-store promotions or brand activations to word-of-mouth recommendations, to online communities to social media or online reviews. A recent YouGov piece asked consumers across 17 international markets about how they typically discover new products. In a previously published piece, we focused on snack foods. Here, we look at electronics and cell phones.
Polling data reveals that consumers are most likely to discover new electronics via online reviews (21%), followed by online ads (14%), social media (13%) and in-store promotions (13%). Corresponding data around the discovery of new cell phones isn’t vastly different.
Two in ten consumers across all markets learn about new cell phones via online reviews (20%), followed by online ads and social media (14% each).
Electronics
When it comes to discovering electronics (that don’t include cell phones) through online reviews, Britons lead (30%), followed by consumers in Singapore (26%) and Hong Kong (23%). Two in ten Americans also rely on online reviews (20%), whereas Germans (16%) are the least likely to.
As for word-of-mouth recommendations, Hong Kong leads (17%), while less than one in ten consumers in Italy, Mexico and UAE (8% each) say they discover new electronics through word-of-mouth recommendations.
Equal proportions of consumers in urban India and Italy (15%) say they learn about new electronics from TV adverts. Consumers in our Nordic markets, Denmark (4%) and Sweden (6%) are the least likely to discover electronics via this channel.
As for in-store promotions, less than a quarter of consumers in France (22%) discover new electronics via this channel. Britons, Americans (8% each) and Indians (9%) are the least likely to discover new electronics at in-store promotions.
Online advertising seems to work best in South America. Mexico accounts for the largest share of consumers across all markets (23%) who discover electronics via online ads, followed by UAE, India and Hong Kong (17% each).
Finally, three in ten consumers in Indonesia (30%) discover new electronic item launches via social media - the largest share of consumers to do so across all our markets. UAE (28%) and India (20%) follow Indonesia.
Cell phones
Moving to cell phones, online reviews come out on top again with consumers across most of our markets relying on them to discover new products.
More than a quarter of consumers in Singapore and urban India (26% each) learn about new cell phone launches via online reviews. Germans (14%), Americans (15%) and Canadians (15%) are among those who are least likely to discover new cell phones through online reviews.
Hong Kong accounts for the largest share of consumers (17%) who learn about new products via word-of-mouth recommendations, while urban India accounts for those (20%) who rely on online ads. Mexico and Hong Kong (19%) each closely follow India when it comes to online ads. Conversely, Americans (10%) are least likely to discover cell phones via online ads.
Similar proportions of consumers in urban India (20%), Mexico (19%) and Hong Kong (19%) say online ads help them discover new cell phones. As for consumers in Italy (15%) and the US (14%), TV adverts are most effective in informing them about new launches.
As for those who say in-store promotions is how they typically discover new products, the French lead (17%), followed by Spain and Italy (15% each).
Finally, a third of consumers in Indonesia (33%) say they learn about new cell phones via social media - so do 29% of consumers in the UAE. Denmark (6%), US (7%), Britain (7%) and Germany (7%) are among markets whose consumers are least likely to agree.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 512 and 2000 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in August 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.