New research highlights comparisons in growing UK and US consumer demand for more relevant brand engagement

-Janrain research indicates consumers are increasingly motivated to use their social media profiles to increase relevancy of brands? interaction-

New industry research commissioned by Janrain, provider of User Management solutions for the social web, highlights the growing disenfranchisement of both UK & US consumers with the way in which brands still present them with irrelevant information and / or promotions. In addition, the research indicates that consumers are increasingly motivated to share personal information in order to increase the relevance and personalisation of interaction.

Consumers? considerable disenfranchisement with the way in which brands present them with irrelevant information and / or promotions is particularly relevant to US consumers, as 74% of consumers said they have received conflicting messages across different channels, compared to just 48% in the UK. Although, this does not mean the UK is better at targeted marketing campaigns, as 5% more consumers in the UK than the US said they had received irrelevant information or promotions from a brand.
 
The research also highlights that, despite the desire for closer and more relevant engagement with brands, most consumers still provide inaccurate information to organisations when registering for a web site due to the onerous registration process and security concerns. A staggering 88% of US consumers admit to having given incorrect information compared to the 78% of UK consumers, while 86% and 82% respectively have admitted to leaving websites when the process became too lengthy or complex.

It is therefore of little surprise that a significant 85% of UK consumers would prefer Social Login - the ability for consumers to use their social media identity to register and log in to a brand?s website - to be made available over traditional online registration as a means of simplifying the registration process. 77% of US consumers responded with affirmation to the same question.

Russell Loarridge, European Sales Director, Janrain comments, ?There is a major lesson that brands internationally need to take on board: consumers want closer, more relevant engagement with the brands they choose to interact with. However, it is also very clear that the way in which brands are currently trying to extrapolate this personal information ? the traditional website registration process ? is turning customers away.?

He continues, ?Social media is key to closer engagement. Brands need to embrace social login as the route that facilitates and simplifies this registration process. And, once the consumer is engaged on the corporate website, (s)he can permit the brand access to relevant aspects of their social profile data which will enable more relevant and personalised interaction.?

This is given further relevance as the research highlights that when consumers are more engaged with a brand, they are more likely to share those positive experiences with friends and family. This brand advocacy through social influence becomes a powerful influencer as 83% of US consumers and 92% of UK consumers have indicated that they have visited websites after their friends shared them or mentioned them online.

?Brands that successfully engage on this level are far more likely to benefit from the relationship than those that don?t effectively use digital and social marketing,? Loarridge concludes.

Methodology:

Custom designed online survey completed by 604 respondents in the UK and 600 in the US. All respondents were carefully screened to ensure each is social media active and has purchased a product or service online in the past 30 days and/or read articles or watched videos online from major media outlets in the past 30 days. Respondents were recruited via email, given a one-time password protected access to the survey. The questionnaire was composed primarily of close-ended questions; median time to complete the survey was approximately 10 minutes. Quality controls were put in place to remove ?speedsters? and ?flat-liners? from data analysis; 33 were eliminated for a final sample size of 571 UK consumers. The research was commissioned by Janrain, with design, programming, data collection, analysis and report by Blue Research.

About Janrain

Janrain helps organisations succeed on the social web with the use of their user management platform, a solution to improve user acquisition and engagement.

With Janrain, organisations have the ability to learn more about their users by allowing them to log in via an already existing social network such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. The business is then able to store the information gained from these platforms enabling more targeted campaigns. Additional components for sharing, inviting friends and gamification also bring more users to the corporate website and reward brand advocates. Janrain?s customers include leading brands such as Universal Music Group, MTV, The BBC, Kodak and News International.

For more information please contact:
Russell Loarridge ? Janrain                                            
russell@janrain.com                                                      
+44 (0)208 973 2561                                                    

http://www.janrain.com                                                   
Josephine Timmins ? Neo PR
Josephine@neopr.co.uk
+44 (0)1296 733 867
http://www.neopr.co.uk