The Four Things American Consumers Are Discussing

I was reading my preferred industry e-newsletter this afternoon and one article in particular caught my attention. Entitled “Four WOM (Word of Mouth) Stats Every Marketer Must Know”, the piece reveals four key pieces of information about what consumers are really discussing and where they are (and aren’t) having the conversations.

1. The first statistic tells us that average American consumers reference specific brand names 60 times a week. That’s an average of 8.6 times a day! This just goes to show how much marketing and advertising really does impact an audience. As Americans, our consumer-driven minds have been inundated with repetitious content for so long, brand names are invading our day-to-day discussions.
2. Stat #2 tells us that, of these 60 brand mentions per week, 50% of the conversations refer to a company’s marketing initiatives. Proof that people are actually looking, listening to, and possibly even digesting our ads, websites and brochures…woohoo! But do they like them?
3. YES! Well, 65% of the all WOM isn’t half bad. As it turns out, the vast majority of these conversations can be classified as “mostly positive” and only 8% are “mostly negative”. What does this mean for marketers? Whether you’re designing, printing, writing or producing marketing material, you’ll quite likely generate some positive buzz as long as your materials are relate-able, your brand is trustworthy and your products/services are quality.
4. Brace yourselves…this one is a bit shocking. Statistic #4 reveals that less than 10% of these conversations are happening online! Despite the hype about Facebook, Twitter, Digg and the hundreds of other social marketing tools out there, it seems that most consumers are talking about brands, products, marketing and advertising either face-to-face or over the phone. I’m sure if we took the same poll with marketers, we would find this quite the opposite. The takeaway? While it is certainly a great idea to stay ahead of the social media game, be sure you don’t forget to listen to the conversations happening offline as well.

Overall, this was a very intriguing, telling piece about the minds of modern American consumers. Build your brand, support it with quality products and services, get some interesting marketing materials flowing…and they will spread the (positive) word!