Thelsa-网络消费者与本地企业报告（英文）-2017-11页-4mb

The Digital Consumer: Summary

Core Content

This report explores how U.S. consumers use digital media to find local business information, analyzing data from the Local Search Association (LSA)’s 2016 Local Media Tracking Study (LMTS), which surveyed over 8,000 consumers across 12 cities. The focus is on understanding digital usage patterns and how they vary by city size, with a national average serving as a baseline for comparison.

Main Points

• Digital Media's Role: Digital media has transformed how consumers find and engage with local businesses, with platforms like websites, social media, ratings and reviews, and mobile apps playing a significant role.
• Data Overview: The study looks at 12 cities, grouped into three population tiers: Tier 1 (1 million or more), Tier 2 (200,000–1 million), and Tier 3 (50,000–200,000). Each city's "digital score" is calculated as the average of digital media usage across all outlets.
• National Digital Score: The national average is 48, representing the overall usage of digital media for local business discovery.

Key Findings

Digital Score by City

• Tier 1 Cities:

  • New York City: 53
  • San Diego: 56
  • Phoenix: 53
  • Dallas: 50
  • Nashville: 50
  • Atlanta: 52
  • Average: 51

• Tier 2 Cities:

  • Minneapolis: 48
  • Cleveland: 48
  • Average: 46

• Tier 3 Cities:

  • Grand Rapids, MI: 48
  • West Palm Beach, FL: 52
  • Hartford, CT: 41
  • Harrisburg, PA: 44
  • Average: 44

Trends in Digital Media Usage

• National Trends:

  • Daily Deals: Remained stable at 41%.
  • Social Media: Increased significantly, nearly doubling from 28% in 2014 to 55% in 2016.
  • Online Video and Mobile Apps: Both saw a 4% increase in usage from 2015 to 2016.
  • Population Correlation: Larger cities tend to have higher digital media usage, particularly in online video and ratings/reviews.

• Local Trends:

  • San Diego: Highest digital score in 2016 (56), with strong usage of online videos (45%) and ratings/reviews (56%).
  • West Palm Beach: Highest usage in 2016 for social networks (55%), mobile apps (53%), and daily deals (43%).
  • Cleveland: Increased overall digital media usage by 10 percentage points (from 38% to 48%).
  • Grand Rapids: Ratings and review site usage increased by 20 percentage points (to 30%).
  • Harrisburg: Search engine usage rose to 85%, a 18-point increase from 2015.
  • Hartford and Minneapolis: Tied for the lowest digital scores at 41, indicating less digital engagement compared to other cities.

Conclusion

• Consistency Across Markets: Digital media usage trends are generally consistent across cities of different sizes, though there are notable variations.
• Surprising Insight: Despite the growth of social media, business websites remain the second most widely used resource for local business discovery, likely due to the continued popularity of search engines.
• Future Outlook: As mobile usage continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how digital media strategies evolve, especially in terms of the role of business websites and the impact of mobile on consumer behavior.

Key Takeaways

• Digital Engagement: Larger cities show higher digital engagement, with a clear correlation between population size and digital media usage.
• Channel Preferences: Search engines, social media, and mobile apps are the most used digital channels for local business discovery.
• Variation by City: Some Tier 3 cities, like Harrisburg, show higher usage in specific channels compared to Tier 1 cities, highlighting the complexity of consumer behavior.