• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 25, 2006

In the latest BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey of over 15,000 people, Opportunity-Minded and Active Explorers segments topped the list of those who regularly or occasionally offered their opinions on what to buy and where to buy it to family, friends and co-workers.

Joe Pilotta, VP of Research for BIGresearch, said "Word of mouth is the hot topic in marketing and promotion these days. The key to understanding and impacting the word of mouth process is to find out who the 'advice givers' are and target them before the purchase." These clusters are behavior-based and are derived by analyzing media influence, purchase decisions, experiential time and simultaneous usage.

BIGresearch Media Consumption Clusters Ranked By % Who Give Purchase Advice to Others

• Opportunity-minded
• Active Explorer
• Ravenous
• Old School
• Persuadables
• New Mediacs
• Simultaneous Readers
• Independent

The survey revealed that "advice givers" don't always formulate their counsel on personal experience alone. The influence of the media ecosystem, where consumers live, work or take their leisure, also plays a critical role in molding their advice to others. Their most trusted media sources range from word of mouth to articles to the Internet.

In response to which of the following media influences your purchases for electronics and grocery categories, advice givers responded:

"When you look at the numbers, word of mouth is a powerful influence within every consumption group... All in all, affecting the influential media of advice givers is a key to word of mouth ROI," said Pilotta.

Top Line Findings from BIGresearch may be accessed here.