• by Ross Fadner , August 13, 2004

Word of mouth has long been known to be one of--if not the most--effective marketing methods. The digital age has certainly revolutionized this process, and by harnessing the data made available by the Web's discursive resources, market research firms are now beginning to understand how to track the word-of-mouth phenomenon.

BuzzMetrics is one such company. This research and planning firm tries to help more than three dozen Fortune 1,000 companies understand the impact of word of mouth on their brand. Today, BuzzMetrics is releasing its first viral impact study to the public--a report that attempts to demonstrate how online word of mouth turned a controversial trans-fat lawsuit against Kraft into "a major food industry crisis."

Jonathan Carson, CEO, BuzzMetrics, noted how the tipping point in the trans-fat phenomenon was the lawsuit consumer activist group Ban Trans Fats brought against Kraft's Oreo brand. But by studying word of mouth, Carson said "you can understand how the buzz leading up to the tipping point is what actually causes it to tip." Prior to the lawsuit, the "buzz," he said, was locked away in esoteric circles, like the blog and discussion forums of fitness gurus and nutritionists.

For the trans-fat case study, 2.5 million consumer conversations from over 125,000 individuals were monitored. According to the analysis, the Ban Trans Fats legal assault against Oreo increased the total number of online discussions on trans fats more than eightfold, and resulted in linking the issue to 90 percent of the Web discussions involving Oreo. For the Kraft brand, 30 percent of online discussions were linked to the issue following the suit.

Other data shows that Kraft and Oreo were mentioned in 17 and 26 percent of trans-fat discussions, respectively, while Doritos (16 percent), Crisco (16 percent), McDonald's (8 percent), and Skippy (8 percent) were also mentioned.

According to the study, much of the interest surrounding the trans-fat issue has been consumer-generated. On the Google search engine, for example, 40 percent of the top 100 results for "trans fat and oreo" were for blogs, personal home pages, and message boards. Top media sites like NYTimes.com, CNN.com, and MSNBC.com accounted for only 20 percent.

BuzzMetrics' Carson noted that the proliferation of information by consumer-generated sources poses a problem for brands--a potential "PR crisis." He said the danger behind the viral proliferation of consumer-generated information is underscored by the difficulty the peanut butter industry faced with the issue, although peanut butter contains very little trans-fat. With viral communications, he said sometimes "you end up with a giant game of telephone." Carson said that this means companies need to actively engage in the viral process through their PR agencies or product evangelists to ensure that problems like the spread of erroneous information don't get blown out of proportion. "Word of mouth is a much more pressing issue now that there are so many nodes of information," Carson said, especially as online forums and blogs are the gathering place of so many influentials.

Carson said viral communication also presents a challenge for media planners, who need to "not just understand a single message, but develop an understanding of the full range of emotional connections to a brand."

While interest in the topic of trans fat surged after the lawsuit, Carson noted that only 6 percent of consumers thought the activist group's case against Oreo was valid. He said that Kraft did the right thing by taking a public stance toward trans fat and dealing with the issue as a health concern, rather than as something the brand should try to cover up. Carson said the lawsuit was a red herring--a cover for the real issue, which was a health concern, not a scandal.

BuzzMetrics measures word of mouth through a database on the scale of a billion consumer conversations, according to Carson. This includes message boards, chat rooms, blogs, product review sites, and other public sources of consumer information. Comcast, Mazda, JetBlue, and Hewlett-Packard are among their clients.