Courtesy: Intersection Consulting
No global marketer will rely on word of mouth alone, but the reality is that word-of-mouth-marketing still sells the most worldwide. A 2007 Nielsen Company global Internet survey showed that consumers around the world still trust other consumers the most. The survey of more than 25,000 Internet users in 47 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East revealed that 78 percent still trust recommendations from consumers when making buying decisions, underscoring the value of word of mouth marketing worldwide.
Here’s what fuels good word of mouth no matter where products or services are marketed:
• A quality product
• Topnotch customer service
• A unique customer experience that people want to talk about
• Better product selection than anyone else
• Product representatives that know more than the competition’s
• Good relationships with key influencers
• An advisory board that includes customers
Unfortunately for some marketers, the explosion of consumer-generated media makes bad word of mouth much easier to generate than good word of mouth. Studies show that an unhappy customer will talk directly to twice as many people about the experience as a satisfied customer will. Many of the customers who are dissatisfied are doing their complaining online, reaching far more people with their message than they could when communicating directly. Whether it is on a blog, in a forum, on a product review or sale site, or in direct feedback on the manufacturer’s Web site, customers are not shy about sharing their product experiences and opinions.
Savvy global marketers are using this unsolicited feedback to make product improvements and to establish relationships with the customers sharing their experiences, often turning them into product evangelists. Monitoring social networking services such as Twitter (and using the same services and tools to respond to complaints) helps marketers stay current from afar on everything from what’s wrong with the products to what’s right. Monitoring consumer generated media also helps them identify new or unexpected product uses in different parts of the world and leverage that knowledge in individual global markets. Reviewing consumer generated media for comments in specific international markets before introducing products or services there can help marketers shape marketing messages and hone brand positioning in that region.
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