Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is a powerful way to "spread the word". In a recent article that was posted on the Customer Evangelists Blog. The numbers say it all ....
- 56: The average number of times an American discusses brands in ordinary conversations every week.
- 72%: The percentage of brand-related opinions delivered from a person to a family member or personal friend; 13% are delivered to co-workers and 7% are delivered by a professional or expert on the topic. (I suppose that puts us marketing bloggers in the distinct minority.)
- 41%: Number of conversations about brands that reference an item seen or heard in the media or in marketing material; 15% refer to an ad, 8% refer to a form of editorial or entertainment content, 5% refer to a point of purchase item, and 4% refer to the lowly coupon or other promotion.
- 62%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly positive."
- 9%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly negative."
- 92%: Percentage of word of mouth conversations that occur offline; 71% of those occur face-to-face, and 21% occur by phone.
The numbers are courtesy of a new study (PDF) from the Keller Fay Group.
It's pretty clear that most word of mouth occurs primarily while we're not sitting in front of computer screens.
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Tags: marketing related conversations bloggers word of mouth personal friend entertainment content evangelists family member distinct suppose editorial blog brand reference
Comments
Agreed that the majority of word of mouth occurs...well...by mouth.
Maybe that seems self evident. However, are there weak signals in environmants like "Second life", where "discussions" take on a virtual form? I don't know a lot about it, but as I understand this isn't the same as chat, where you have to be invited or be on a list. In environments like second life you can happen across "conversations" and listen, participate, etc. There are gatherings where people with common interests show up (virtually of course) and "talk". Sounds like a combination of the open environment of forums, message boards, etc and the real time elements of chat, VOIP, web conferencing, and maybe a few more for good measure.
How much will personal interaction in the virtual world impact marketing and branding in the future? I think it will have a large impact.
Posted by: Frank Walsh | May 22, 2006 12:43 PM
I agree. We still look for that personal recommendation to make us comfortable with a purchase. We all have that need for validation.
The question is what is influencing that person's recommendations we trust?
Posted by: Phil McKinney | May 22, 2006 06:26 PM