The UK Government and Ofcom have both established a strategic objective to drive widespread deployment of full fibre and other gigabit-capable broadband networks. Low levels of awareness of gigabit-capable services and a poor understanding of the benefits are identified as key barriers to adoption.
In this context consumer confusion could be caused by consumers not knowing whether they genuinely have full fibre and by the terminology used to designate speed in broadband marketing.
WIK-Consult's study "Impact of labeling on full fiber adoption", commissioned by CityFibre, contributes to the need for more research, and provides evidence of the scale of consumers’ confusion as well as evidence on the effectiveness of a labelling scheme in the UK broadband market in addressing this confusion.
In order to consider these questions, WIK-Consult conducted a representative survey among 3000 consumers alongside a conjoint study, to test how consumers react to different marketing terminology and the use of labels.
The results show that there is widespread confusion amongst consumers today, and that this appears to be the result of certain broadband terminology used within marketing. The study also shows that the introduction of a labelling scheme alongside an information campaign, would make a significant contribution to addressing confusion and expand take-up of full fibre in particular, as well as expanding the take-up of other gigabit-capable products.
The study is available for download.
