Products

EMARKETER delivers leading-edge research to clients in a variety of forms, including full-length reports and data visualizations to equip you with actionable takeaways for better business decisions.
PRO+
New data sets, deeper insights, and flexible data visualizations.
Learn More
Reports
In-depth analysis, benchmarks and shorter spotlights on digital trends.
Learn More
Forecasts
Interactive projections with 10k+ metrics on market trends, & consumer behavior.
Learn More
Charts
Proprietary data and over 3,000 third-party sources about the most important topics.
Learn More
Industry KPIs
Industry benchmarks for the most important KPIs in digital marketing, advertising, retail and ecommerce.
Learn More
Briefings
Client-only email newsletters with analysis and takeaways from the daily news.
Learn More
Analyst Access Program
Exclusive time with the thought leaders who craft our research.
Learn More

About EMARKETER

Our goal is to unlock digital opportunities for our clients with the world’s most trusted forecasts, analysis, and benchmarks. Spanning five core coverage areas and dozens of industries, our research on digital transformation is exhaustive.
Our Story
Learn more about our mission and how EMARKETER came to be.
Learn More
Methodology
Rigorous proprietary data vetting strips biases and produces superior insights.
Learn More
Our People
Take a look into our corporate culture and view our open roles.
Join the Team
Contact Us
Speak to a member of our team to learn more about EMARKETER.
Contact Us
Newsroom
See our latest press releases, news articles or download our press kit.
Learn More
Advertising & Sponsorship Opportunities
Reach an engaged audience of decision-makers.
Learn More
Events
Browse our upcoming and past events, recent podcasts, and other featured resources.
Learn More
Podcasts
Tune in to EMARKETER's daily, weekly, and monthly podcasts.
Learn More

Intuit’s settlement over misleading TurboTax ads reflects a growing consumer distrust in brands—and an opening for word-of-mouth marketing

The news: Intuit, the creator of TurboTax software, has agreed to a $141 million settlement to address charges that it deceived taxpayers and directed them away from free tax-filing services toward its premium products.

More on this: TurboTax sold one program that enabled taxpayers to submit “basic” returns but heavily promoted "freemium" services as an upsell.

  • Intuit also hid its IRS Free File program landing page from search engines for approximately five months during the height of tax season, state attorneys general alleged.
  • According to preliminary estimates, Texas had the greatest number of tax filers who were misled by Intuit and charged unfairly, with 460,000.

Zoom out: Misleading advertising has been in the news quite a bit as of late:

  • Amazon’s search results don’t distinguish well between paid ads and search results and may be ‘unlawfully deceiving’ consumers, according to a December FTC complaint.
  • A class-action lawsuit filed in Florida last month said fast-fashion retailer Fashion Nova intentionally suppressed thousands of negative customer reviews to inflate prices and encourage purchases.
  • The District of Columbia recently sued Grubhub for fraudulent marketing during the pandemic in order to raise revenues.

Trust deficit: 37% of consumers trust social media influencers over brands, with Gen Z and millennials twice as likely to trust influencers as boomers, per newly released Oracle data.

  • Consumers don’t trust brands—but they want to: 70% say trusting a brand is more important today than in the past, per Edelman 2020 data.
  • Another Edelman study found 88% of worldwide adults rate trust in a brand as critical or important when deciding which brands to purchase. That outstrips every other consideration besides value and quality (90% apiece).

An opening for word of mouth: The lack of trust is making product recommendations and word of mouth more impactful.

  • TV/radio advertising influenced 37% of UK and US consumers to purchase a product, per Takumi; the same study found recommendations from trusted contacts (52%) and even social media influencers (46%) to be far more influential.
  • 23% of consumers find out about new brands/products via social media recommendations, per GWI data from Q3 2021; 16% rely on posts/reviews from expert bloggers for discovery.
  • Internet users in Canada are most likely to discover new TV and video content from friends (57%), per Media Technology Monitor—far above the 41% who rely on personalized suggestions or the 23% who get recommendations from commercials.
  • Word of mouth (47%) was used far more often by US holiday shoppers last year to make purchase decisions, more than online ads (43%) and traditional ads (42%), per Coresight/January Digital.

The big takeaway: Deceptive advertising has been a part of marketing forever, but besides being unethical, the lawsuits and bad PR that can result mean it’s almost always not worth it.

  • That said, the erosion of trust between brands and modern consumers make word-of-mouth strategies more critical than ever. Brands would be wise to take note and invest accordingly.