Getting the Word (of Mouth) Out

Editor’s Note: Leveraging a recent Yahoo!-comScore study, Search Marketing’s Edwin Wong talks about using social media to develop advocates for your brand.

One recent evening my wife told me that she just spent $250 on a new digital camera. I replied, “Which Canon or Sony did you buy?” She laughed and replied, “I bought a Casio.”

Now, when I think “Casio,” it’s always in relation to college calculus—I still shiver. But I’m sure that many of you tech-savvy readers, like my wife, are saying, “Haven’t you read Ken Rockwell’s camera site? Casio’s picture quality is similar to some expensive DSLR cameras.” This user-generated blog spurred my wife to spend hundreds on a brand that barely registers on most digital camera awareness surveys.

The next morning, I spoke to my co-worker Sebastian about this incident, and it became clear to both of us: This is the inspiration for new research!

The Evolution of Word-of-Mouth
“Word-of-mouth” isn’t a new concept for any consumer. I’m sure we all have our favorite “trusted” friends/family on speed dial, ready to consult with right before that big ticket purchase. However, the Internet is causing word-of-mouth to evolve.

Research released recently by Yahoo! and comScore, titled “Engaging Advocates through Search and Social Media,” is the first study of its kind to look at how consumers use social media, search and communication tools like email, instant messaging and blogs to talk about the brands, products or categories about which they are passionate. The research focused on influencers and “thought leaders”, a population segment that marketers also call “loyalists,” “mavens,” “advocates” and other code names. This small group can usually take your brands to new heights because not only do they make purchases just for themselves, they also influence their social circles to do the same.

The study surveyed consumers who have recently purchased high-priced ticket items: consumer electronics over $300, a new or used auto, a new home loan or a hotel room.

What is an “Advocate?”
Brand advocates are adventurous opinion leaders and social influencers who are slightly younger, more educated and spend more time online than non-advocates. They represent more than 35% of the internet buying population across the four categories mentioned above.

We found that brand advocates start the shopping/research process by leveraging a larger number of resources than a typical consumer. This results in a broadening of the brands they consider for purchase. In fact, advocates are significantly more likely to seriously consider more than one brand for their auto and consumer electronic purchases.

This intensive research process gives marketers the opportunity to connect with advocates at multiple touch-points, and reinforce messaging that can ultimately lead to consideration—especially for higher ticket items.

Semper Fidelis
Despite having a larger consideration set, advocates are much more loyal to the brands they buy. We used two highly respected scales of loyalty to test this theory: Net Promoter and Burke SCI. In both scales, advocates were considered more loyal, which should lead to greater lifetime value for the brands they buy.

Additionally, more than half of all advocates speak to their friends, family and strangers through a variety of online channels post-purchase. Only 20% of other consumers do so. It makes sense, because 60% of advocates believe that good brands are worth talking about, versus 25% of non-advocates. Advocates spend their time promoting a brand more often than negating it, and approximately 90% will write something positive about a purchase they made.

This point may come as a surprise to many marketers. Most believe that if you hand over your brand to consumers, they will tear it apart with negativity. The study found the reverse to be true. Most importantly, advocates appear to be very persuasive influencers. They have at least a 2-to-1 rate of converting an actual friend or family member to make the exact same product or brand purchase. For consumer electronics, 21% of advocates had at least one friend purchase the same exact product, compared to 6% of non-advocates. Of course, some consumers actually influence more than one friend to buy.

A great example of a living, breathing brand advocate is 23-year-old Lynette, whom we met during our research. She’s fits the typical advocate profile perfectly—she’s friendly, connected and outspoken. Recently her mother handed her credit card over and asked Lynette to book ten airline tickets and hotel rooms for their annual family trip. She told us that her mom considers her the “trusted resource” for travel deals, and using her daughter takes all the work out of travel research.

Lynette is also a new 2006 Toyota Corolla owner, and has used a variety of online communications tools to tell friends about her new “ride.” As a result, she’s founded her own little Corolla club, as two of her best friends have recently purchased new Corollas—in different colors, of course.

Where do you find Brand Advocates?
Brand advocates are taking full advantage of social media tools and are also actively leveraging these channels to talk about their purchases. They are 119% more likely to use instant messenger when compared to non-advocates, and 40% more likely to use podcasts.

Brand advocates are also more active searchers, and, on average, conduct 25% more searches in a given month—an average of 48 searches per month, compared to 39 searches per month for non-advocates. In addition, 76% of advocates report that their use of search engines has increased from the previous year, compared to 64% of non-advocates.

Conclusions
This is much is clear from the research:

• Brand advocates are incredibly valuable to marketers because they are better connected consumers with a larger sphere of influence.
• As thought leaders, if you can reach them, they will influence a larger group.
• Advocates are avid researchers who consider more brands, and this makes them more open to dialogue with marketers.
• Post-purchase, they have higher levels of brand commitment, are more likely to recommend brands, and tend to talk about positive experiences.
• Advocates are opinion leaders who influence other people’s purchase decisions, telling at least twice as many people about their purchases than non-advocates.

So how can you engage and influence brand advocates? Search, social media (blogs, message boards, podcasts, etc.) and online communication tools are the paths you should take to capture this extremely valuable audience and amplify the influence of those favorable to your brand.

By the way, did you know that Casio makes a fantastic digital camera? Let me tell you about it…

— Edwin Wong, Senior Manager, Market Research