Lucid Marketing's president writes about key findings from his company's recently released "Word of Mouth Communications Study Report."
Is it possible that people no longer trust advertising? A recent study done by Yankelovich says that more than three-quarters of people believe that companies don't tell the truth in advertising. Do we just not like what we are seeing? More than half of the populace resists being exposed to or even paying attention to marketing and advertising. As many as 60 percent of consumers have a more negative view of advertising than they did only a few years ago. No matter how you slice it, these aren't good trends. And, as a marketing professional, I just don't like the way any of that sounds. But who can blame these people; there's a lot of misleading and manipulative messaging out there. "Free iPod!." "Lose 20 pounds in 20 days." Remember Joe Isuzu? He was the ultimate car salesman that only told lies. Joe Isuzu is a great parody on how we all feel. It was funny stuff, because everyone knew there wasn't the slightest hint of truth in his character.
Running parallel to this distrust is the consumer's unprecedented control over and media and content-- MP3 players, personalized websites, Google alerts, blogs, National Do Not Call Registry, TIVO, commercial-free content, et cetera. Consumers are empowered; they self-select freely and are willing to pay for their control!
The traditional media we've relied on are losing their punch. It's getting easier for marketers to reach and connect with consumers in new and meaningful ways. I'm not saying that traditional mass marketing is ineffective, but that game is changing; there are new players-- it's a wake up call. And these are exciting times. These developments are requiring us to adapt. They are forcing marketers to look at the types of relationships we must have with consumers. We shouldn't be creating potentially adversarial relationships with customers where they feel they are constantly being interrupted, put under attack and manipulated.
Many marketers are looking to word-of-mouth (WOM) campaigns as a new way to cut through the clutter and connect with consumers. Word of mouth is a pre-existing phenomenon that marketers are only now learning how to harness, amplify and improve. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, word-of-mouth marketing is "giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place."
Lucid Marketing conducted an online study earlier this year of U.S. adults on WOM communication. We sought to examine fundamental differences in characteristics such as gender, wealth and employment and if they affected the potential for WOM among consumers.
We found that men make more daily contacts than women, use email more often and are more likely to create a website. On the other hand, women are more likely than men to recommend a business or product. And they are more likely to visit a message board or chat room daily. We suspect that these results are linked to employment status, as more men are employed full-time than women.
Marketers should consider employment status when allocating resources for targeting consumers. Full-time employees make as many daily contacts as part-time employees and stay-at-homers combined! A consumer package goods manufacturer might consider sampling its products in or near their targeted consumers' workplace rather than, or in addition to, traditional in-home and in-store sampling.
Marketers often use household income of $75,000 as a threshold that describes affluence. But, does that affect WOM? In our study, there was no apparent increase in WOM activity for people with incomes from $75,000 to $90,000. But the results did show acceleration in WOM likelihood for households earning $100,000 and above. What does this mean? This may affect the dialog you want to have with an affluent consumer, especially if you want them to carry your message to others.
Word of mouth is greatly influenced by technology advancements, which ties into generational boundaries. Gen X makes the most daily contacts, but by small margins when compared to Gen Y and Boomers. Gen X tends to use email more often, while Gen Y chooses instant and text messaging more than others. As expected, younger generations produce more of online personal media. Blog ownership is nearly equal between men and women in this study. And this expressed comfort level with consumer generated media is a clear barometer for their preferences in communications.
We are only touching on some of the newer discoveries around what affects word of mouth and its promotional value, as a whole. What we do know, without doubt, is that marketing and advertising that foster distrust lead to negative word of mouth. Look no further than the negative word of mouth and low participation that resulted when McDonald's promoted fabricated plastic "Lincoln Fry" and a fake blog as authentic.
Campaigns that seek to connect and build relationships will benefit from positive word of mouth. What impact does this have on you? Think of WOM as its own channel, with its peculiar rights and wrongs. How can I improve effectiveness? Employment status and household income may play a large role in the amount of positive word of mouth you can generate. What is the likelihood for negative impact? How can you make it work for you? And, where might the good and the bad come from?
Every generation of marketers experiences a changing canvass on which to conduct their craft. Ours is an era of consumer control and it is our challenge and opportunity to effectively deliver the right message, to the right person at the right time. These are exciting times.
The report can be downloaded for free at http://womreport.lucidmarketing.com
Kevin Burke is president at Lucid Marketing. Kevin founded lucid marketing in 1998 to lead brand marketers in strategizing and implementing marketing programs that build successful relationships with their customers. He is a recognized leader in WOM and regularly addresses marketing organizations on the topic. He's helped consumer brands build millions of lasting relationships with their customers by putting the customer's needs and emotions first. Today, as the company's president, Kevin directs Lucid's service and marketing solutions to build relationships, relevance and trust with mothers for the worlds' premier brands. Lucid is a marketing and media services company specializing in connecting with moms. Kevin can be reached at kburke@lucidmarketing.com