Marketing Solutions
The consumer electronics market remains a bright spot in a lackluster
economy – global spending is expected to exceed $1 trillion in 2012, up
5% from 2011 spending of $993 billion.1 LinkedIn members are at the
cutting edge of consumer electronics trends, and for consumer electronics
marketers, they represent a lucrative target audience. We surveyed more
than 1,600 in the U.S. to discover if:
• Af�uent LinkedIn members are willing to spend on quality products
• They are sophisticated users of CE products
• They in�uence others’ CE purchasing decisions
• They change CE buying habits when they change jobs
• They care more about productivity and ef�ciency, and less about entertainment value
LINKEDIN MEMBERS ARE
AFFLUENT41% will spend more than $1,000 on consumer electronics products in 2012
INFLUENTIALTwo-thirds say that other people solicit their advice about electronics
QUALITY-DRIVEN43% more likely than the average adult to cite quality as a purchase driver
GADGET-SAVVY85% more likely to own or use a tablet PC than the average adult
Reach Consumer Electronics Buyers with LinkedInLinkedIn Consumer Electronics Audience Study, Q4 2011
1
LINKEDIN MEMBERS ARE WILLING TO SPEND
LinkedIn Members General U.S. Online Population
ESTIMATED SPEND ON CE IN 2012
24%
35%
41%
39%
33%
29%
Af�uent LinkedIn members are willing to spend more for qualityTo determine if LinkedIn members are likely to spend more on consumer
electronics and pay more for high quality, we compared their buying
habits to those of the U.S. general online population. Forty-one percent of
LinkedIn members plan to spend $1,000 or more on CE purchases in 2012,
compared to 29% of the general population. For every device
respondents were asked about – including digital cameras, smartphones,
and MP3 players – LinkedIn members ranked higher in ownership and
usage than the average online adult. For example, 77% of LinkedIn
members own or use a smartphone, compared to 51% of the general
online population. Forty percent own or use tablet PCs, compared to 22%
of the general online population.
LESS THAN$500
$500 TO$999
$1000 ORMORE
LINKEDIN MEMBERS ARE 25% MORE LIKELY TO SPEND $500 OR MORE
LINKEDIN MEMBERS ARE SOPHISTICATED ABOUT CE
Members own more devices and are sophisticated users of CE LinkedIn members are eager to use their CE devices in new ways, and
have enthusiastically adopted mobile products such as smartphones and
tablets. They are more likely to use these devices for shopping, social
networking, and research – both at home and at the of�ce. Tablets have
become a popular purchase for LinkedIn members: They are 85% more
likely to own or use a tablet PC than the average online adult. More than
two-thirds of LinkedIn members who own tablets use their tablets for both
business and personal activities, and nearly half take their tablets to
business meetings.
LinkedIn members are also signi�cantly more active on their smartphones
than the average online adult; for instance, they are almost twice as likely
to have made a purchase with their phone, 209% more likely to have
scanned a QR code using their phone, and 208% more likely to have
accessed a document or �le from their smartphones.
2
MORE LIKELY TO BE APPROACHED BY OTHERS FOR ADVICE AND INFORMATION ABOUT CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
MORE LIKELY TO SHOP ON THEIR SMARTPHONE THAN THE AVERAGE ONLINE ADULT
MORE LIKELY THAN THE AVERAGE ONLINE ADULT TO HAVE BLUETOOTH IN THEIR CAR
21%
80%
53%
LINKEDIN MEMBERS USE MULTIPLE DEVICES REGULARLYDEVICES OWNED OR USED MONTHLY
LinkedIn Members
General U.S. Online Population
84%
68% 65%
51%
32% 34%
79% 79% 77%
42%
22%
40% 40%
29%36%
21% 19%
34% 34%
72%
DIGITALCAMERA
HDTV MULTIFUNCTION
PRINTER
SMART-PHONE
BLU-RAY TABLETPC
DIGITALCAM-
CORDER
COLORLASER
PRINTER
DIGITALSLR
CAMERA
EREADER
LinkedIn members also show that quality matters more than price when
they make CE purchases. Compared to the U.S. general online population,
LinkedIn members are 18% less likely to cite price as a factor when buying
smartphones, and 66% more likely to say that rich product features are
important to them.
When jobs change, CE product preferences changeWhen LinkedIn members change jobs – as did 27% of members surveyed –
they rethink their technology purchases and preferences, which means they
may be open to new marketing messages about CE products. Of the
LinkedIn members who changed jobs in the past 12 months, 67% changed
their use of technology to support their career growth and business
responsibilities, and 52% changed their criteria for purchasing technology
and electronics. Almost a third of members who changed jobs also
changed the CE brands they would consider purchasing.
Productivity and ef�ciency are key drivers for CE purchasesWhen it comes to the impact of technology on their daily lives, LinkedIn
members place high value on their CE devices. Ninety-three percent of
LinkedIn members agree that technology helps them keep up with their
busy lives, compared with 81% of the general online population. LinkedIn
members are more likely to cite ef�ciency and productivity as key bene�ts
of their consumer electronics products – and conversely, they are much less
likely that the general online population to name entertainment as a key
bene�t. LinkedIn members are also more than twice as likely as the average
online adult to say a smartphone that enhances productivity would get their
attention when shopping for a new device.
31
16
LinkedIn.com
LINKEDIN MEMBERS CHOOSE EFFICIENCY OVER ENTERTAINMENT
MORE LIKELY TO VALUE PRODUCTIVITY
MORE LIKELY TO VALUE EFFICIENCY
LESS LIKELY TO VALUE ENTERTAINMENT
COMPARED TO THE GENERAL POPULATION, MEMBERS ARE:
65%39%34%
Members in�uence others’ CE purchasing decisionsLinkedIn members actively discuss consumer electronics preferences and
purchases with colleagues – and they themselves are strong in�uencers of
others’ CE buying decisions. Two-thirds of LinkedIn members say that other
people solicit their advice about electronics, compared to slightly more
than half of the general online population. They also seek out advice:
Ninety-two percent of LinkedIn members said they would listen to a
colleague’s recommendations for CE purchases, compared to 83% of the
general online population.
Personal recommendations matter more to LinkedIn members considering
a CE purchase than traditional marketing messages from TV, newspapers,
or magazines: They are 43% less likely than the general online population
to rely on television as an in�uential source of buying information.
Advertise on LinkedInLinkedIn is a powerful vehicle for consumer electronics marketers to reach
their target audience. Our marketing solutions provide advertisers with
the ability to target members based on their pro�le information, including
job title, job function, seniority, company name, company size, industry
and geography.
Copyright © 2012 LinkedIn Corporation, Inc. LinkedIn and the LinkedIn logo are registered trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
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LINKEDIN MEMBER’S CE WISH LIST FOR 2012
For more informationTo learn more about the 2012 LinkedIn Consumer Electronics Report and
how you can tap into LinkedIn’s audience of af�uent, in�uential,
hard-to-reach professionals, contact your LinkedIn Account Executive.
http://marketing.linkedin.com/contact
“Global Consumer Tech Device Spending to Surpass $1 Trillion in 2012,” Consumer Electronics Association press release, January 8, 2012.
1
MethodologyLinkedIn’s 2012 Consumer Electronics Report was an online survey �elded
in December 2011. The 2012 Consumer Electronics Report is based on a
survey of 1,602 U.S. adults, including 801 active U.S. LinkedIn members
and 801 members of the U.S. general online population, recruited via
sample partner Survey Sampling International (SSI). Results were weighted
to re�ect the online U.S. population. All survey respondents own or use at
least one consumer electronics device or plan to purchase at least one such
device in the next year. For the purposes of this survey, “active” is de�ned
as a LinkedIn member who has visited LinkedIn at least once in the last 30
days. The demographics of the survey were representative of the broader
LinkedIn audience at the time the survey was conducted. A total of 801
LinkedIn members completed the survey, however, a number of analyses
focused on subsets of participants (n ~1,000). The margin of error on
reported percentages is +/- 2% for the entire sample and +/- 3% for
subgroup analyses, assuming a 95% con�dence level.
1. TABLET PC
2. IPHONE
3. HDTV
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