Word of Mouth Marketing

When asked how they make recommendations, 80% of consumers say they make them in-person, followed by 68% who say they make them over the telephone. This phenomenon is even stronger among The Influential Americans®, (the one in ten Americans who tell the other nine how to vote, where to eat and what to buy, according to over 60 years of GfK NOP research) with 90% of this group making in-person recommendations and 79% making recommendations by phone.

Surprisingly, the study found that less than 40% of consumers use e-mail to make recommendations to others, including via personal e-mail (37%), by e-mail forwarding (32%) or through mass e-mails (12%). While slightly higher percentages of Influentials use e-mail (personal e-mail 53%, e-mail forwarding 39% and mass e-mails 18%), face-to-face communication still far outweighs this medium.