Our very own digital divide

The link below takes you to a chart gleaned from the TGI. It shows you the proportion of the users of most of our brands that don't have access to the internet.

Download no_internet_at_home_or_work.doc 

You'll see that the proportion is quite high for some of our brands. In the case of Febreeze for instance, it's nearly 60%. (Of course the data will be a little out of date by now.)

I raise the issue as a warning, perhaps most of all for me. As we've become more and more dependent on the internet as a tool - we need to remember that what we see, read and hear on the net isn't representative.

As we used to say; Some people think the internet is a bad thing. What do you think?

Comments

[John Dodds]

Moreover, many of the people who use the internet do so in a very advertising-averse manner.

[TMR]

These numbers contradict everything that I have seen from sources that are far more reliable on such things than TGI.

Sure, I work for an internet company (until Monday...), but even the older demographic segments are now pushing close to 60% internet access.

As I have often said, a panel of people who are willing to fill in a 200 page questionnaire with an HB pencil for £50 are not exactly likely to be indicative of the actual population in technology terms.

Are you sure you do not just have a filter on the TGI run for the North or Wales...?

Suggest you check with someone useful (and reliable) like Enders or OFCOM.

[john]

Thanks TMR.

I will check with a more reliable source, even if OFCOM doesn't give me much guidance with respect to with Febreeze usage.

In the meantime, perhaps you should just check on the meaning of the word 'contradict'.

Oh, and one more thing... if you remember from way back when, the TGI isn't a panel.

Toodle pip.

[TMR]

Fair cop about TGI not being a panel - please forgive my methodological misattribution, but I am not too sure about your suggestion of my seeking out the definition of 'contradict' (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/contradict if you really want to know, dear reader).

The real guts of your point, and the general thrust of the argument that you have been carrying about the insidious nature of blogging on planning, is reinforced by the point you make about OFCOM not being terribly helpful on the subject of Febreeze usage.

You substantiate my point, that TGI is not necessarily a reliable source for data on internet or technology usage, by offering the counterpoint of OFCOM's inadequacies as a source of data for FMCG product usage.

As you have said often and elsewhere (somewhat infamously now) in the blogosphere, the problem with data is that one single source is never enough to build a full picture of what the real world actually holds. In fact, the greatest art that a good planner brings is in pulling together any number of seemingly disparate and unconnected sources of data and generating relevant and real insights from the resulting numeric bricolage.

This is the coal (or sometimes diamonds) that is mined and brought to the surface by great planners and is that which separates them from the ranks of those planners (or even account men and creatives) who simply see fit to craft 'insight' out of what has been heard from the lips of a single focus group participant or the frantic keystrokes of some random blogger.

Internet usage, or indeed non-usage, is not the issue here - my point was simply one about never relying too strongly on a single data source to provide robust insight. Something I seem to remember you once teaching me many years ago...

[john]

TMR,

Sorry it's taken me a little while to respond, but I've been out and about.

Anyways up, as we say in the North when we're not filling in TGI questionnaires, I have, as suggested, got hold of the latest Ofcom figure for penetration of the Internet in the UK. It's 61%.

Given that the TGI data I presented showed the UK penetration to be 62.5%, in what sense is that a contradiction, as in 'the contrary or opposite of'?