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Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is a powerful way to “spread the word”. In a recent article that was posted on the Customer Evangelists Blog. The numbers say it all …. 56: The average number of times an American discusses brands in ordinary conversations every week. 72%: The percentage of brand-related opinions deliv

Phil McKinney
Phil McKinney
1 min read
Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is a powerful way to “spread the word”. In a recent article that was posted on the Customer Evangelists Blog. The numbers say it all ….

  • 56: The average number of times an American discusses brands in ordinary conversations every week.
  • 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.”
  • 92%: Percentage of word of mouth conversations that occur offline; 71% of those occur face-to-face, and 21% occur by phone.

The numbers are courtesy of a new study (PDF) from the Keller Fay Group.
It's pretty clear that most word of mouth occurs primarily while we're not sitting in front of computer screens.
For more info …

Blogbloggersbranddistincteditorialentertainment contentevangelistsfamily memberpersonal friendreferenceword of mouth

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Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.

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