October 10, 2012

Real People Are Different From Us

In case you've ever wondered why marketing professionals are so ridiculously obsessed with the digital world, and so out of touch with real people in the real world, a group called the Media Behavior Institute did a very interesting little study.

They are quick to point out that this is not scientifically valid (which is true of most marketing and media research, but very rarely acknowledged.) But it gives us a quick glimpse into exactly how skewed our media wizards' vision of the rest of the world's media habits may be -- especially as it relates to online and mobile media habits.

The Institute compared the media habits of advertising executives to the general population. You can read more details about the study here. Here are some charts that show you the remarkable differences between how media pros and real people use media.



If  you want to understand the marketing industry's obsession with all things digital, look no further.

Thanks to Paul Benjou for alerting me to this.

4 comments:

http://www.davaidavai.com said...

I don't have to mention there might be more than one reason why these statistics look the way they look. Oh wait…it is 9.26pm and I have just come home.

Unknown said...

Self-reported data!!! Therefore meaningless. Right, AdContra?

BOB HOFFMAN said...

"They are quick to point out that this is not scientifically valid (which is true of most marketing and media research, but very rarely acknowledged.)"

Tim Orr said...

To paraphrase the almighty Yogi:

Nobody watches tv on a tv anymore.
Nobody watches tv at the time the program is broadcast anymore.
Nobody watches commercials on time-shifted tv.
Nobody watches tv anymore.
Nobody watches commercials anymore.
Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore – because it's too crowded.