A third of Christmas shoppers claim festive marketing has no impact on their purchasing decisions

Cherry London, CEO and founder, Tamara Gillan, said: “Although these results are pretty shocking they are not entirely unexpected. These days customers are a very savvy and demanding bunch, and it’s becoming harder for brands to cut through and stand out.

“Enticing and engaging customers isn’t just about being liked, it’s about going above and beyond and creating a relevant and motivating emotional bond at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way, just take the John Lewis’ campaign as great example. There is finally recognition that purchase decisions are driven more by the emotional than the rational. And the results are evident; John Lewis’ Christmas trading figures were up by 25.5 per cent last year.”

For the other two thirds that said marketing does impact their purchasing decisions, 47 per cent said being rewarded for their custom made a difference and 49 per cent said demonstrating that you care about a customer and understand them influences purchasing decisions.

Of reward schemes, Gillan discusses O2’s rewards platform, stating that O2’s Priority Moments offering “gets to the heart of what their customers need and want and creating that emotional bond”.

She adds: “They consistently make their customers feel special, exclusive - the priority, rewarding them with things they love. They then harness the power of technology to always be in the right time in the right place. The results speak for themselves, O2’s churn rate is less than half that of its competitors, and that’s worth millions of pounds to the business.”

Income and age also had an impact on whether or not a customer believed marketing would influence their purchasing decisions at Christmas, with 45 per cent of those earning more than £40k claiming that marketing activity had no effect on their Christmas shopping.