Straight From The Horses Mouth
I often write about the significance of advertising, specifically social media advertising and networking in my Blue Traffic Blog posts. I discovered an interesting company site this week that gets back to the most basic, influential, successful and all the while cheapest form of advertising; word of mouth. The Keller Fay Group is a marketing organization specializing in what they deem “the most positive and highly credible form” of advertising. Word of mouth.
The group recently completed a study with these interesting results:
- Word of mouth expressed face to face and by phone is viewed as highly “credible” more often than online talk (59% vs. 49%).
- Offline communication has more purely positive content than online discussion (65% vs. 59%) and is less likely to contain negative or “mixed” content (235 vs. 30%).
- A comparison between face to face communication and content via online blogs and chatrooms reveals an ever wider gap, with 66% of face to face communication “mostly positive” compared to 57% for blogs/chatrooms.
- Offline WOM is more likely than its online counterpart to lead to strong purchase intent (50% vs. 43%).
This market research company claims to be the “first full service” company dedicated to word of mouth marketing exclusively. The firm’s services include techniques to measure word of mouth trends, test concepts, seminars, ads, and messages to maximize word of mouth potential. Additionally, they specialize in campaign evaluation and a variety of other custom consulting services related to word of mouth marketing. The basis of their business debunks the perception that online is key or that because online is trendy all of the action is taking place there. The company focuses heavily on positive advertising and utilizing online in ways outside the current trends. The company doesn’t perceive all online advertising to be negative, but focuses only on the areas with positive messages even if they are few in their opinion.
Being that the trends and market researchers are continually emphasizing the utilization of the fast paced, constantly evolving, world of online marketing and social media; it’s refreshing to be reminded of the importance and success of a grass roots campaign. Word of mouth advertising allows one happy customer to easily steer 10 new ones your way with a trusted opinion. In the midst of this online frenzy I’d like to remind business owners and markers alike to this important message from our friends at Keller Fay Group and others like them.
