WOM Research #2.21
- Influential Consumers: Easy to Reach
- Customer-Centric Approach Ups Companies' ROI
- Social Networking Ad Spend: 2007 Predictions
- From the Archives:
Customers Pick Brand Loyalty Over Variety
 Tell a friend: http://www.womma.org/tell/
1> Influential Consumers: Easy to Reach
Social Persuaders and Influencers (or "SPIs") indicate that product reviews, brand and shopping websites, and in-store trial and dialog are tactics likely to inspire them to spread positive word of mouth, according to the January 2007 SPI Report from WOMMA member company StartSampling and McElroy Inc. This finding demonstrates that, compared with average consumers, who are generally immune to these tactics, SPIs are relatively easy to reach and influence. The report also illustrates the four-step word of mouth process -- which leads from awareness to research to personal experience and, finally, to recommendation -- that these influential consumers follow.
Other findings:
SPIs are ...
* 61% more likely to learn about products or services through product reviews
* 88% more likely to share information at a meeting or social event
* 81% more likely to email information to others
* 76% more likely to call others with information
* 76% more likely to seek out information from store employees
* 65% more likely to read offline reviews
* 65% more likely to visit manufacturer or brand websites
Learn more
2> Customer-Centric Approach Ups
Companies' ROI
Marketing organizations that strive to be more customer-oriented can enjoy the benefits of higher returns, claims a December 2006 Aberdeen Group report, titled "The CMO's Strategic Agenda: Creating a Customer-Centric Marketing Organization." Companies that master this approach track customer behavior, use customer profitability modeling, maintain centralized knowledge and data management systems, and possess real time decision support -- all in the name of improving their BtoC efforts.
According to the report, a majority of customer-centric organizations achieved better than 15% annual improvement in ROMI, gross revenues, and customer retention rates. These annual improvements can be attributed to leveraging customer analytics in ways that improve the understanding of the kind of relationships their best customers want.
Learn more
3> Social Networking Ad Spend:
2007 Predictions
It's no surprise that as marketers gain confidence in consumer-generated media, and as consumers continue to flock to social networking websites, ad spending in social networks will continue to grow. In its November 2006 report, "Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending Update," eMarketer predicts that 2007 will see a dramatic increase in this type of spending, which speaks to the confidence marketers are gaining in online word of mouth as a way to drive sales.
eMarketer's 2007 predictions:
* $525 million will be spent in MySpace advertising
* $200 million will be spent in other general social network sites (Facebook, Bebo, Piczo, Friendster, etc.)
* $95 million will go to social network offerings from portals and other sites (MSN Spaces, Yahoo! 360, AIM Pages, Orkut, etc.)
* $45 million will go to vertical social networks and marketer-sponsored social networks
Learn more (eMarketer)
Learn more (BizReport)
4> From the Archives:
Customers Pick Brand Loyalty
Over Variety
Consumers continue to exhibit relational market behavior in spite of the fact that it limits their available market choices, according to the 1995 Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science article "Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets: Antecedents and Consequences." Authors Jagdish N. Sheth and Atul Parvatiyar assert that consumers choose to form amabassador-like relationships with products and services due to personal, social, and institutional influences and because they want to simplify their buying and consuming tasks.
One of the primary influences of relationship marketing behavior is word of mouth, which can either prompt a consumer to favor or reject products, provided the source the WOM comes from is credible and the network through which the communication travels is very connected. The authors suggest that as long as neither consumers nor marketers abuse the cooperation and trust that is implied in this marketing method, marketers can expect greater productivity as a result of this practice.
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