Nielsen research confirms Edelman and Forrester

Posted Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 7:47am in PR General  | 

eMarketer’s reporting on a recent piece of research on word of mouth marketing carried out by research firm, Nielson. In short, the conclusion echos both Edelman’s and Forrester’s individual pieces of research on the types of marketing consumers trust. The report says: “There are more marketing channels aimed at consumers than ever. Yet more than three-quarters of consumers surveyed worldwide find that consumer opinions are the most effective form of advertising, according to a Nielsen study.”

Consumer recommendations are a powerful thing as Edelman found with the Trust Barometer where “a person like me is now the most credible spokesperson for companies” and Forrester with “recommendations from consumers” being the most believable form of advertising. (Note: I wouldn’t call a ‘recommendation from a consumer’ a form of advertising - it’s more like PR IMHO. But still, you get the gist.)

It makes perfect sense though. Personally, I look online for recommendations and reviews all the time. I reckon today alone I did it at least thrice. And now with the likes of Facebook you can pose a question to each of your 768 trusted ‘friends’ (depending on how popular you are) all at once.

Again keeping in with the word of mouth theme, eMarketer’s carried another study carried out by Yahoo! and MediaVest stating the obvious I reckon: “Consumers who are passionate about their interests spend a lot of time online keeping up to date.” They’ve also given these people a name: “Passionistas”. **Sigh**

Don’t think there’s anything mind blowingly new in there. However, it’s interesting to see which activities these **sigh** passionistas do online relating to their passions with the largest percentage using a search engine. I assume this means they use a search engine to find content relating to their passions.

The old PR/SEO chestnut issue arises once again. How many times have you used a search engine today?

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9 Comments

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Melanie Seasons

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 1:16pm

Passionistas. Ugh. At least it’s better than the contrived Johns and Janes of traditional pitches. Nothing makes me vomit more than “Sally is a mid-30s stay-at-home mom who’s interested in keeping he home organised and her kids healthy!” I hate PR exclamation points with an absolute passion.

Not sure I agree with the idea that consumer opinions are not advertising. If I come across a product that I really like and want to share with others, I’m often baffled at how much I sound like a commercial when hawking it. And if we give a product to a blogger to review on their blogs and they like it, all-too-often it does sound like an advert. (Not saying that’s a good thing though).

Oh, and I’m 99% sure I’ll be in New York mid-November. I’ve been checking out airfares and am holding out just a little longer to see if the price goes down a touch :-)

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Stephen

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 1:33pm

Mmm, it’s more like PR to me because you’ve actually been persuaded and not paid to say it.

Exhibit A. Take a look at this blog post on the differences between marketing, PR, advertising and branding. Your personal example seems to fit in the PR ‘Trust me he’s a great lover.’ category more than any other. You think?

Great news about NYC. Let me know for definite as soon as you do. :)

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Melanie Seasons

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 2:03pm

I agree with the not being paid part, I just meant that I sound like an advert. Perhaps it lies somewhere in between? As in:

‘Trust me he’s a great lover’
‘Trust me he’s a great lover’
‘Trust me he’s a great lover’

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Stephen

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 3:40pm

Okay not fully convinced but I’ll meet you half way. If you had been **incentivised** to say…

‘Trust me he’s a great lover’
‘Trust me he’s a great lover’
‘Trust me he’s a great lover’

… then I would say that’s advertising.

A new term: PRadvertising. A mish mash of PR and advertising … which is almost as worse as passionista.

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Edwin Wong

Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 7:08am

I understand where you are all going with your comments. Although, I do wish you would all do a little more digging before the comments. I spent 6 months on this research :).

Passionistas identifies a new way for marketers to create a framework for holistic marketing. People who are passionate about something will obviously keep up to date on TV stories, news headlines. They take those sparks and chase them through search and feeds. Most importantly, the likelihood of them creating user generated content around their passion is much greater than around a product of some sort. That is the key because many of my customers are constantly asking the question of what intrinsically drives people to create content. How many brands are thinking about consumers this way?

So the AHA is that brands have an opportunity to sponsor a passion through content. Aside from the time spent online, these passionate people have a higher propensity to try a new brand that is closely aligned with what they love. Essentially stating that “I love those who love me (or love what i love).”

Everybody that reads this thinks its about hawking products. We are all in the business to help brands “hawk products.” But for the message is about delivering value to the consumer authentically. If you think consumer first, they will pay you back in return.

Also, we carefully “named” these people from segmentation analysis. I’ve had many people tell me they either hate it or love it. I guess this crowd just hates it.

I’m all for discourse over the work. And while a bit saddened by the harshness of the comments still love the feedback. Thanks for letting me participate :).

Cheers!

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Edwin Wong

Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 7:11am

By the way, fantastic blog. Must start subscribing!

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Stephen

Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 8:51am

Hey Edwin,

Thanks for the comment. Glad you like the blog also.

Please don’t be saddened by my comment on the term passionista. Melanie or I didn’t mean to offend anyone about it. We just agreed that we both personally thought it’s not a good name to label someone. I don’t think I’d be comfortable being called one. But, yes, I understand that you will have had to use a term throughout the research process.

“Most importantly, the likelihood of them creating user generated content around their passion is much greater than around a product of some sort.”

That’s a good point you’re making. In other words, if people don’t get excited about your product, create the product around their passions. Of course it’s not as black and white as that as some people don’t want brands interfering in their interests.

Anyway, apologies again,

Stephen

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David Brain

Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 11:59am

Stephen you are right about the rise of “someone like me” in the edelman Trust data, but remember that our trust study is of opinion formers rather than just consumers (over 35, University edcuated etc etc). In some ways, I think this is an even bigger testament to the power of this phenomena as you might have expected opinion formers to base jusgements on the more tradititonal institutions and forms of media.

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Melanie Seasons

Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 1:06pm

Hi Edwin.

Yes, definitely no offense intended. “Hate is such a strong word… I don’t hate it, it just (to me) rings of the PRspeak that I’ve never particularly cared for. To each his own, I guess.

That said, I understand the term and agree that it “fits.” I’m willing to bet that every digital PR team out there has a word for it, I guess passionistas brings out a bit more controversy than the old fall back term of enthusiasts. I do agree that It is very important to engage these people as they are, without a doubt, the best catalysts for brand messaging.

If it helps, I don’t like the term fashionistas either ;-)

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