Is online advertising affecting customer’s behavior in Bulgaria in the consumer durable goods sector?

Nowadays we are living in a world surrounded by advertisements at every step – on the TV, on our way to work, while surfing on the Web. Advertising is the way companies demonstrate their creations using fascinating techniques to capture consumer attention. Whether these techniques would be effective or not depends on various factors influencing buyer behavior.

An online survey has been conducted in Bulgaria in May 2011, among a specified segment of people (n.b. it reflects the consumer behavior of this segment and cannot be generalized for the whole nation or society) where 121 people took part, in order to show whether online advertising is worth, does it work and in what way.
The findings show that Internet advertising so far is becoming slowly influencing type of advertising in Bulgaria. As a whole, most of the opinions toward it are positive or neutral which shows development in this media tool of communication related to advertising. It seems that all those technology innovations are grabbing somehow attention but still not at the necessary level. Online advertisements attract attention in a way but when they do, this rarely leads to a purchase. It looks as some force influencing customers is missing in the process.
41% of all respondents prefer seeing ads on the Internet, followed by 34% who prefer TV ads. This means that people see Internet as a good tool for ads exposition. The reason why they like it could be that it offers convenience in reaching ads, which is missing in TV advertising. Another supposition could be that those people just prefer not to be bothered while they are watching TV and that is why Internet ads are preferred.
On the other hand, 28% of the respondents point out the reason for liking online ads is that they can get information for a product whenever they want, followed by 20% who prefer them because they are not as intrusive as TV ones. Those data shows again customers’ intolerance toward advertisements showed on TV and the fact that they prefer not to be interrupted by them.
According to the survey, most of the people (57.6%) state they are somehow affected by online ads, followed by those that never look at them (30.3%). The least chosen option is that they often pay attention to the advertisements (11.1%). This means that customers are not attracted much by the ads and although they are available, people continue to do their job on the Internet. As most of people are not so affected, it comes the question of is there a sense to place advertisements on the Web?
The reason for the disinterestedness could be that online advertisements do not interfere in users’ work. They are just placed on the websites waiting to be clicked on and do not require attention paying. The cause of that uninfluenced state may be lack of intrusiveness of online ads. As they do not “talk” all the time, as TV ads do, customers may miss to notice them. Another reason could be the lack of video in some ads. TV spots are much more influential mainly because of that – there are actors that perform roles in which convince the buyer to purchase something. The lack of the plot and the scene may be the reason why Internet users do not feel attracted by online ads.
It seems from the survey that most customers have negative attitude towards various kinds of online advertisements. More than half of the respondents (53%) state they do not pay any attention at all to e-mails that are sent to them with advertising aim and to pop-ups (55%). This could be because Internet users do not want their mail boxes jammed with unnecessary messages which users delete even before reading. According to the data interstitial advertisements are also considered as least attention paying. The fact that 32.3% of customers do not pay them any attention may be based on the following: when someone is browsing the Web and is waiting for a page to load, the interstitial ad appears between the two pages. But at that moment someone’s only wish is to go to the next page, skip the ad and proceed working. Technically speaking, at that moment his/her mind is engaged with waiting for the next page to load. That is why we are not capable to assimilate the ad and prefer to go on working.
That is the reason why those types of advertisements are not so effective and stimulating customers’ attention. Regarding banner ads, more respondents claim they pay them some attention (30%) than those who pay none (24%). It means that banners are not as intrusive, interrupting and annoying as pop-up ads. Customers notice them more often which could be due to their static character. Banners and search related ads are the type of ads that most Internet users state they pay a lot of attention and most of attention – more than the other four types. It is so may be because of their animation and visual effects that e-mail ads lack and because of their unobtrusive character as pop-ups and interstitial ads. That combination makes them the preferred kind of online advertising among respondents.
Also the data show what is the percentage of people trying to get more information about a product through search engine? Here 56% states that they are doing it one to two times per month. 23% states they are doing this more than three times per month, followed by 17% who never search for more information and only 4% are looking for information more than twice a week.
Regarding the purchase of a product or service after seeing it on the Web, 56% of the respondents have purchased a product once a year, after seeing an ad online. Second is the group of people that have purchased more than two times per month – 20%, followed by those that have never purchased anything – 19% of all. Least of all people claim that they have made a purchase just once in their lives– 5%.
Last but not least, a question regarding the frequency of the Bulgarians going online has been asked? Almost all of the respondents (97%) state that they go online every day. This shows that they are quite familiar with internet and it is an essential part of their daily life.
Briefly, internet advertising is getting an efficient tool in Bulgaria for the time being. The globalization trends and the future development of IT innovations will foster the commercial application of Internet and the advertising role will become greater and more powerful. It is natural to predict that soon it will affect much strongly the consumer buying decisions in Bulgaria.


Galina DORMISHOVA
g.dormishova@toulouse-business-school.org
ESC Toulouse Business School
Source: (Report: Is online advertising affecting customer’s behavior in Bulgaria in the consumer durable goods sector? June 2011, Toulouse, France)

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