Commentary

[In]sight: Never Talk to Strangers

[In]sight: Never Talk to Strangers-Graeme HuttonI doubt there is a reader of this column who doesn't typically view word-of-mouth as one of the most powerful external forces affecting the decisions consumers make about a brand. Indeed, our industry sees it as an important and increasingly more pervasive and commanding phenomenon. Although I agree with this, I'm irked by what appears to be a wide disparity of opinion on whether the majority of consumer word-of-mouth is positive or negative. It's easy to grab a headline with the assertion that the majority of word-of-mouth is negative. But is this really true?

Are you a member of a message board or an online group based on one of your passions? For those who don't know me outside of the office, I have a very understanding spouse who accommodates my love for my Celestron CPC 1100, a powerful GPS astronomical telescope with its own onboard computer. You just switch it on, it automatically identifies where in the world it is, what the heavens look like above at that precise moment, and then it asks you: Where in the universe do you want to go today? By the time this article appears, the Orion Nebula should look stunning.

Logging in daily to the Yahoo group dedicated to Celestron CPC users, I can assert without question that the majority of our word-of-mouth is positive. Not only that, everywhere else I go on the Web to converse with like-minded star geeks - and we can be quite loquacious - the picture is consistent. The lion's share of our online dialogue is optimistic, affirmative and useful.

I used to wonder why this was, and I came to the conclusion that WOM is the embodiment of the evocative real world maxim: Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.

Yes, we want advice, and we value others' objective and impartial opinions. But when faced with cyber-whiners - Digital Debbie Downers or Online Negative Nancies - it's not long before we flee with one quick click of the browser.

So with that slice-of-life hypothesis in mind, I was anticipating with alacrity plunging into the results of Universal McCann's global study on word-of-mouth and advocacy, "When Did We Start Trusting Strangers?"

The survey spans 29 countries with a sample of 17,000 online respondents. Top-line findings prove that word-of-mouth and other influence channels - blogs, message boards, user groups, etc. - enjoy a very clear new role. Without question, harnessing what motivates people to talk about brands is crucial in creating today's effective communication plans.

The results showed that having a good personal experience with a brand was the biggest driver in spurring WOM (70 percent of respondents agreed), while the second most significant factor was knowing that someone you trust has had a good personal experience (more than 60 percent of respondents agreed). Independently supporting our study, data from research firm Keller Fay Group also attests that approximately two-thirds of all WOM about brands is positive.

The "Trusting Strangers" study indicates consumers are much more likely to review products online after a positive experience compared to a negative one - at an average ratio of nearly three to one. While these results are telling, some 60 percent of respondents reported having never reviewed a product online. This indicates that a small, active minority of reviewers is disseminating information to a large majority of review readers. On average, 26 percent of people in the United States are looking online for opinions about products, brands or services on a weekly basis. Conversely, only 9 percent of people report actively sharing their opinions online in the same time frame.

Technological advances and burgeoning social media platforms are leading to the democratization of influence. The role of advertising is shifting to include outlets that allow consumers direct interactions with brands. True positive influence flows from consumers who have become advocates. It is precisely because most personal WOM is constructive that it represents such a powerful promise for marketers.
1 comment about "[In]sight: Never Talk to Strangers".
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  1. Tara Hershberger, January 8, 2009 at 11:45 a.m.

    This article is a refreshing reminder about the power and frequency of positive word of mouth. Thanks!

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