Numbers on the Nature and Tone of Word of Mouth

Jackie Huba from the Church of the Customer Blog found some interesting numbers on word of mouth in a recent study (PDF) done by the Keller Fay Group:

• 56: The average number of times an American discusses brands in ordinary conversations every week.


• 92%: Percentage of word of mouth conversations that occur offline; 71% of those occur face-to-face, and 21% occur by phone.


• 72%: The percentage of brand-related opinions delivered from a person to a family member or personal friend;


• 13% are delivered to co-workers and 7% are delivered by a professional or expert on the topic. (I suppose that puts us marketing bloggers in the distinct minority.)


• 41%: Number of conversations about brands that reference an item seen or heard in the media or in marketing material;


• 15% refer to an ad, 8% refer to a form of editorial or entertainment content,


• 5% refer to a point of purchase item, and 4% refer to the lowly coupon or other promotion.


• 62%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly positive."


• 9%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly negative."

Especially the last 2 numbers are a little bit surprising to me. The overwhelming majority of marketing-related discussions are positive ? I would have assumed it's the other way around. Since the study has been done in the US only, I am not sure if the numbers are valid for Germany, too. My gut feeling is, they are not...

Comments

[EmmJay]

At first, I tended to agree with you. I thought there may be more negative statements in German conversations. However, on second thought, I like to talk about things I like. I tell my friends about that new drink I like or the new game I'm playing. I might mention some things I don't like, but that doesn't occur as often as the positive connoted brand names sneak into conversation.