Advice from friends, family and experts is consistently cited as an important factor in consumer-purchase decisions. And the Internet has made it easier to spread word of mouth quickly.
Yet fewer than one-quarter of marketers surveyed in September and October 2007 by Ketchum and the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center for their "Media, Myths & Realities" report said they had a word-of-mouth program in place.
"Communications professionals need to vigorously reassess their communication priorities to meet consumers' needs in this multimedia channel world," said Nicholas Scibetta,
senior vice president at Ketchum.
Influencers in the Ketchum-USC study often asked for advice themselves, making word of mouth a good tactic for reaching influencers in particular.
The number of people who have influence—because of their expertise, their passion and their connections—is likely to grow, as the Web offers more user-generated content opportunities and as more
companies make word-of-mouth a priority.
eMarketer projects that, in 2007, 66 million adults will have shared advice about products and services and 27 million will exert influence online.
"Both populations will grow in size—and importance—over the next five years as more people become comfortable with sharing their opinions online," said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. "Winning them over is likely to be on every marketer's to-do list."
In a 2007 study from Accenture that looked specifically at how consumers learn about new products, 20% cited WOM as a leading source,
trailing only TV (34%).
