Business Franchise Australia

National survey reveals surprising consumer buying patterns

Battery World Australia undertook a number of surveys as part of a marketing campaign promoting “Buy one cordless battery – get the second one free”.

The company found disconnecting from wall phones could be costing Australian consumers hundreds of dollars with the research revealing many of us throw away our cordless phone when it stops working instead of replacing the battery.  

Battery World’s environment spokesperson Kerry Hannah said online surveys – both to the Battery World website and Facebook page along with focus groups revealed as many as one in three of us have thrown the phone away thinking it was irreparable when it was most likely the battery no longer could hold the charge even though it had been plugged into main power.

“As an organisation committed to recycling we were quite shocked by the results,” Ms Hannah said.

“While eight out of 10 surveyed had a cordless phone, a quarter of those did not know it had a battery.

“We believe this figure could be significantly higher since our survey was on our Battery World websites which indicates these people are battery savvy anyway. Our focus groups were very revealing with many confessing while they knew the device had a battery that is where their understanding of the cordless phone ended.

“Although they know their mobile phone battery can be replaced – it just didn’t tweak with the cordless. So instead of buying a $25 replacement battery they are spending $80 or more on a new cordless phone. So the battery and the phone were ending up in landfill. All of these components can be recycled and can be dropped at any Battery World store free of charge.”

“Since batteries are a bit of a grudge purchase we need to always be innovative with our campaigns and media push,” Ms Hannah said.

In 2012, Battery World commissioned research into consumer attitudes to receiving gifts requiring batteries and whether or not the present giver always contributed batteries to a gift that needed them.

“The rechargeable battery promotion fits well into our mission statement to reduce our carbon footprint both with energy waste and recycling. And it was interesting to see state-by-state who was the most considerate gift giver by always giving batteries with the present requiring them and who most resented getting a present that would always cost them money in batteries.

“We are quite particular our campaigns are not only media worthy but support the in-store marketing being done by our franchisees on the front line.

“It is all about keeping the brand front of mind and along the way discovering interesting consumer patterns that give us fresh insight to use on our next campaign – so it is certainly win win.”