Consumers Are Quick to Take Action against Brands that Spam them, with Nearly Two-Thirds Saying They Will Unsubscribe Immediately from all Email Communication from a Company

NEW YORK – September 30, 2015 – Emarsys, the B2C Marketing Cloud, today announced the results of its 2015 Advertising Week Survey, examining Americans’ perspectives on marketing and advertising campaigns from retailers and e-commerce companies. The research findings showed that a vast majority (81 percent) of Americans want to receive advertisements from retailers and e-commerce companies, with more than half (57 percent) saying they want to hear from them when there is a sale or promotion. The survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Emarsys from Sept. 9-11, 2015 among 2,120 U.S. adults.

“This latest round of research confirms what we’ve known for years: that the vast majority of Americans want to receive advertisements from retailers and e-commerce companies – they just want the right message at the right time, personalized specifically to them with a creative touch.”

Nearly half (47 percent) of consumers said they want to hear from retailers and e-commerce companies when something they’ve been looking at becomes cheaper. Other top times
Americans want to hear from retailers and e-commerce companies include:

  • When something they’ve been looking at is close to selling out (26 percent)
  • When a holiday is coming up (25 percent)
  • After visiting a company’s website/social media page/store (23 percent)
  • When they’re at home (17 percent)
  • When they’re shopping in or close to their store (16 percent)
  • When a loved one’s birthday is coming up (12 percent)
  • After visiting a competitor’s store/website (10 percent)
  • When at work (3 percent)

While Americans overwhelmingly would welcome advertisements from retailers and e-commerce companies at times that are important to them, Emarsys’ research revealed that they are also quick to take action against brands that are spamming them. 81 percent of Americans said they would likely take steps to prevent unwanted email from retailers and e-commerce companies, with nearly two-thirds (65 percent) saying they would unsubscribe immediately from all email communication from the company.

Other popular actions taken by consumers who receive unwanted email include:

  • Roll their eyes (19 percent)
  • Contact customer service (18 percent)
  • Shop at a competitor instead (14 percent)
  • Complain to their family and friends (13 percent)
  • Blacklist the brand and never shop there again (11 percent)
  • Rant on social media to their followers (6 percent)
  • Post/Tweet directly to the retailer complaining (6 percent)

Emarsys’ study confirmed that channel of advertisement can be as important as content for consumers. Nearly half of all Americans (48 percent) said that TV advertisements are the most effective in persuading them to buy a company’s products. Print advertisements ranked second (38 percent), followed by email (35 percent), social media (22 percent), radio (15 percent), mobile (12 percent), internet banner ads (9 percent), and SMS/Text message (7 percent).

In addition to examining Americans’ perspectives on marketing and advertising campaigns from retailers and e-commerce companies, Emarsys’ Advertising Week survey also identified which presidential candidate Americans think is doing the best marketing job. The research revealed that Americans think Donald Trump (37 percent) is the presidential candidate conducting the best marketing campaign, with Bernie Sanders (21 percent) and Hillary Clinton (20 percent) lagging far behind. Nearly one-fifth (18 percent) of Americans think that Ben Carson is conducting the best marketing campaign, and more than 1 in 10 (11 percent) say Ted Cruz is the top candidate when it comes to marketing themselves. Other presidential candidates appearing in the top 10 list of candidates include Carly Fiorina (10 percent), Jeb Bush (9 percent), Marco Rubio (5 percent) and Chris Christie (5 percent).

Emarsys unveiled the new research as it announced that it is a Gold-level partner of Advertising Week in New York (September 28-October 2) and a sponsor of the Retail Innovation track. At the conference, Emarsys will be showcasing its newly announced B2C Marketing Cloud, the flexible solution which combines high-performance, multichannel marketing automation with sophisticated technologies to drive customer engagement at any scale.

“At Emarsys, we pride ourselves at being able to turn big data into intimate moments that engage customers and build long-lasting relationships,” said Tomas Puig, Emarsys CMO. “This latest round of research confirms what we’ve known for years: that the vast majority of Americans want to receive advertisements from retailers and e-commerce companies – they just want the right message at the right time, personalized specifically to them with a creative touch.”

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Emarsys from Sept. 9-11, 2015, among 2,120 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact pr@emarsys.com.