Feature: Breaking In To Business Market
The latest British Business Survey 2003 into the media consumption habits of business professionals makes invaluable reading for advertisers and planners seeking to connect with this elusive and wealthy group.
Business professionals are categorised as those with an average income of just under £50,000 and an average age of 42. Around 75% of within this group are male and almost half are located in London and the South East.
A variety of advertisers have sought to tap into the lucrative business market, but this is no easy task and the study confirms that more than half of senior professionals work more than 45 hours a week. Business also people watch less television, listen to more radio, use the internet more and read more newspapers and magazines than the average individual.
Media consumption habits of these business professionals are extremely defined in comparison with the rest of the population. The study shows that 47% of business professionals read a national quality daily, compared to just 12% of the general population. They are also much more likely to read national quality Sunday papers, with almost half (48%) of business professionals reading them, compared to just 13% of the general population.
Analysis of the newspapers read by business professionals may well throw up some surprises for advertisers. Sunday papers dominate the reading materials of business professionals. The Sunday Times is read by 31.2% of respondents, while the Mail On Sundayis read by just over 28% of business professionals.
Surprisingly, tabloid newspapers fair reasonably well in the research and disgruntled shareholders will take little solace that more senior managers and business professionals read New Of The World (13.8%) than the Financial Times (13.4%).
Analysis of the top ten monthly magazines read by business professionals reveal that photography and wildlife stalwart National Geographic is most popular with business professionals.
Golf magazines also featured highly in the survey, providing support to the cliché that the chef executive is always on the golf course, with both Golf Monthly (5.3%) and Today’s Golfer (3.4%) featuring in the top 10 titles. British Airway’s business orientated in-flight magazines, High Life and Business Life also proved a popular method of connecting with business professionals.
Unsurprisingly The Economist is the most popular weekly magazine amongst business professionals, with 8.9% reading the traditional financially focused magazine. Specialist magazines, such as Accountancy Age and Computer Weekly.
Traditional brands also dominated the most popular websites among business professionals. The Financial Times’ website, which successfully adopted the subscription model, is the most popular site among business professionals, with 11.6% of respondents visiting the site in the past week. The London-centric nature of the business community was also reflected by the popularity of the Evening Standard’s website This Is London, which was visited by 4.2% of respondents over a four week period.
The survey also reveals the business community has very distinct listening habits. The respondents have a strong BBC-bias, with 84% of them listening to a BBC station in the past week, in comparison just 60% of the general population will have listened to a BBC station in the corresponding period.
However, 67% of business respondents admitted listening to a commercial station in the past week so radio is a key vehicle for advertisers to reach business people on the move. Classic FM (19%) and Capital FM (13%) are the most popular commercial stations in this group.
The research, although confirming certain stereotypes of the predominately male, golf loving professional will doubtless provide advertisers with food for thought. Magazines like the National Geographic and radio stations like Capital FM would not necessarily be on the top of any media planners list when trying to target business professionals. It is also important to remember that 25% of these business professionals are women, but when was the last time you saw a cosmetics ad in the Economist? Perhaps its time for media planners to start thinking outside the box.
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