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Word of mouth is paramount
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67% of all consumer purchase decisions are primarily influenced by word of mouth (Source: McKinsey/Thompson Lightstone)
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Word of mouth is prolific
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The average word of mouth influencer will have 182 word of mouth conversations every week and 26% of all of their conversations engaged in word of mouth about a product, service or idea (Keller Fay/Northeastern)
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Word of mouth is governed by the Influencers
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A small percentage of your audience is responsible for a majority of your word of mouth. We call it the The 20-10-1 Influencer Rule. Of your full customer audience, 20% are Referrers, 10% are Advocates and 1% are potential Zealots. Ignore these people or treat them like your mainstream audience at your peril.
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Word of mouth is growing in acceptance
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65% of senior US marketers are planning a specific word of mouth campaign over the next year (up 22 pts vs. last year) (eMarketer)
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Word of mouth is growing in importance
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93% of customers identify word of mouth as the best, most reliable and trustworthy source about ideas and information on products and services - up 26 pts. vs. 25 years ago (NOP World)
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Word of mouth is trusted
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On product recommendations, 90% trust their spouse, 82% trust their friends, 69% trust their work colleagues however only 27% trust manufacturers/retailers, 14% trust advertisers and 8% trust celebrities (Henley Centre)
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Word of mouth is reliable
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Word of mouth was rated the most reliable of 15 possible marketing influences (New York Times)
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Word of mouth is pervasive
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As Canadians, we frequently use word of mouth with many different groups - with our families (89%), with friends (77%), at work (71%), in an online community (55%), in our neighborhood (54%), in hobby/interest groups (46%) and many other less frequent avenues (Agent Wildfire Canadian Research)
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Word of mouth happens for many reasons
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Canadians engage in word of mouth because a brand is something they personally associate with (25%), is innovative (22%), is exciting (13%), solves problems (11%), is new or newsworthy (11%), is easy total about (10%), is exclusive/fashionable (4%) (Agent Wildfire research)
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Word of mouth is generally positive
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Although true that negative word of mouth travels fast - 62% or marketing-relevant word of mouth is mostly positive and only 9% is mostly negative (Keller Fay Group)
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Word of mouth has a variety of methods, but it mainly happens live, defying a singular media approach
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77% of word of mouth is face to face, 17% is by phone and 6% is online (Northeastern University)
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Word of mouth is not currently being produced by marketing efforts
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Only 3.4% of face to face WOM conversations are stimulated by a marketing organization's promotional efforts (Journal of Services Marketing)
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Word of mouth is enjoyable
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The popularity of social media sites are ample proof - My Space is the 2nd most visited website in the world with 30 billion page views/month and 70 million users, there are 1.2 million blog postings daily and 60 million blogs worldwide (various sources)
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Word of mouth is passion-based
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Friends, spouses and parents rank as our 1st, 2nd and 4th most passionately embraced subjects by Canadians (Mood and Mindset)
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Word of mouth drives business
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A 7% jump in word of mouth leads to a 1% rise additional company growth, companies grow 4 times faster with positive word of mouth than those companies with below average word of mouth (London School of Economics)
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Word of mouth is a Canadian thing
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44% of Americans put stock in a mass advertised brand, only 17% of Canadians do; 44% of Canadians claim to avoid buying products that overwhelm them with advertising/56% of Canadians have stopped doing business with a company that doesn't respect them (Environics/Mood & Mindset Study)
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