Is There Any Early Consumer Interest in Snapchat’s Spectacles?

October 17, 2016

This article is included in these additional categories:

African-American | Digital | Hispanic | Household Income | Privacy & Security | Social Media | Technology | Women | Youth & Gen X

yougov-consumer-interest-purchasing-snapchat-spectacles-oct2016Snapchat’s announcement of its Spectacles sunglasses has been met with a lukewarm reception from American adults, a survey from YouGov [pdf] has found. Just 4% of adults surveyed reported being very interested in purchasing Spectacles, though another 9% said they were somewhat interested. Even so, 7 in 10 respondents said they’re not at all interested.

Of course, if Snapchat could reach 13% adoption (combining those very and somewhat interested in this survey), that would exceed usage of 4K TVs, virtual reality glasses, and drones, according to recent tech device study results from PwC.

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Snapchat’s Spectacles are more likely to appeal to some demographic groups than others. The breakdown of responses across segments indicates that purchase likelihood (very or somewhat interested) is higher among:

  • 18-34-year-olds (21% at least somewhat interested, versus the 13% average);
  • Black adults (21% interested);
  • Singles (17% interested);
  • Those with children under the age of 18 (23% interested);
  • Adults with income under $40k (18% interested); and
  • Snapchat users themselves (25% interested).

Privacy fears clearly have a role to play in limiting interest. In fact, adults were 4 times more likely to say they would be uncomfortable (47%) than comfortable (12%) with a stranger wearing Spectacles around them. A profound gap between comfort and discomfort exists across all demographic groups, particularly women (55% uncomfortable and 9% comfortable), though the gap was a narrower factor of 2 for some groups including Blacks, Hispanics and Snapchat users.

Not surprisingly, there’s more comfort with friends wearing Spectacles – although discomfort (35%) again exceeded comfort (20%) with this scenario. That was true across almost all demographic segments that had a sample size exceeding 100 adults, although adults’ comfort with friends wearing Spectacles around them almost equaled discomfort for 18-34-year-olds, Black Americans, Hispanics and Google+ users. The only group who showed more comfort than discomfort with their friends wearing Snapchat’s Spectacles around them? You guessed it – Snapchat users (34% and 27%, respectively).

About the Data: The YouGov survey was fielded from 9/26-9/27/2016, the week after Snapchat announced that it would be releasing its Spectacles in the Fall. The survey was conducted among 1,101 US adults.

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