April 2007
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Pharmaceutical marketers aren't informing their marketing decisions with their own online behaviors, according to research released last month from Digitas Health and CBI Research Inc. The research found a distinct relevance gap between what pharma marketers practice in their own lives and their online marketing investments. While the study shows that most of the pharma marketers surveyed use social media, two-way communication, personalized content, and product comparisons, fewer than half are offering those same options to their customers.
Other findings:
* 72% of pharma marketers use personalized content while only 42% incorporate it into their marketing plans.
* 82% use interactive tools, while only 20% offer them to their customers.
Learn more (Digitas Health)
Learn more (eMarketer)
MySpace still dominates the online social network scene, with 80.74% of the market share, and overall, visits to the top 20 social networking sites increased 11.5% from January 2007 to February 2007, according to a March press release from Hitwise. Compared to a year earlier (February 2006), traffic to this category was up 87%.
The study named Buzznet (up 148.4%) and iMeem (up 145.7%) as the two sites in the top 20 that demonstrated the most growth from January 2007 to February 2007. Hitwise also reports that the 19 leading social networks on their top-20 list receive 25.8% of their upstream visits from MySpace, demonstrating that MySpace is able to influence the growth of these niche social networks even as they creep into its market share.
Learn more (Hitwise)
Learn more (Hitwise Blog)
Banks get twice as much buzz as any other financial services category, according to a Keller Fay Group TalkTrack survey released last month. Findings from the survey indicate that on a typical day 35% of Americans have conversations about financial services products or brands. Banks account for 44% of financial brand-specific conversations, while financial conglomerates make up 18%, investment firms 14%, general "stock talk" 10%, and credit cards 8%. Of the bank-related conversations, however, 36% contained no recommendation and only 26% contained a strong use or purchase recommendation.
Other findings:
* Word of mouth about banks is 56% more likely to be positive and only 10% more likely to be negative.
* 70% of word of mouth about financial services happens face-to-face and 23% takes place over the phone.
* Six in 10 of those who receive bank recommendations rate them as highly credible and approximately half are highly likely to pass the information along and make a buying decision based on the recommendation.
Learn more (PR Newswire)
Advertising and personal selling are not the only ways to get product information to consumers, ways Robert C. Brooks Jr. in his October 1957 Journal of Marketing article, titled "'Word of Mouth' Advertising in Selling New Products." Brooks -- then a member of the Marketing Department at the University of Georgia -- suggests that powerful "networks of interpersonal relations" that exist in the consumer market often are used to spread product information.
The research, which is taken from new product data, shows a correlation between interpersonal networks and product acquisition. For instance, though the use of air conditioning units might average 10-per-block, clusters are common and the pattern of the clusters follows the friendship patters of children and spouses of early adopters. A similar pattern in a study of new drug adoption suggests that doctors who are integrated into the medical community adopt new medications more rapidly than doctors who are more isolated.
Learn more
Next week, WOMMA is packing up and heading to the Big Easy for two days of intense word of mouth learning at our annual Word of Mouth Basic Training event. It's taking place April 17-18, and we're sure we'll see most of you there -- either in the sessions, where some of the best word of mouth case studies and how-to's are going to be presented; at one of the networking breaks, schmoozing up your word of mouth marketing peers; or at the traditional, down home New Orleans-style dinner that we're hosting Tuesday night, where good food and good word of mouth conversation will converge.
For those of you who haven't signed up yet, you've still got a few days left to register. Hurry, though, as spots are going fast.
We hope to see you there!
Register for WOMBAT today!
When it comes to making purchase decisions, 93% of baby boomers name their friends as trusted sources of information, according to a March study from WOMMA member company Weber Shandwick. The study, which was conducted by KRC Research, also found that 57% of boomers say they are asked for their opinions about products and services approximately twice a week. Of those who say they are asked to make recommendations, 89% of boomers indicate they give their sage advice to fellow boomers, creating a boomer-to-boomer word of mouth chain that marketers will want to pay attention to.
When it comes to spreading word of mouth, the Weber Shandwick survey found:
* 84% of boomers say they make recommendations face-to-face
* 82% say they make recommendations by phone
* 45% say they make recommendations online
Learn more
More than 92% of physicians say they are swayed by opinion leaders and social networks, according to a December 2006 research report released by Harikesh Nair, assistant professor of marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; WOMMA Advisory Board member Puneet Manchanda, associate professor of marketing at the University of Chicago; and Tulikaa Bhatia, assistant professor of marketing at Rutgers University. The report, titled "Asymmetric Peer Effects in Physician Prescription Behavior: The Role of Opinion Leaders," indicates that marketing to these physician opinion leaders can boost revenues by an average of 18%.
Other findings:
* 95% of physicians say they find out what opinion leaders think about a drug from personal contact, 79% by interacting via conferences, 67% by meeting in clinical settings, and 32% by scientific articles published by the opinion leaders.
* The 15 largest pharmaceutical manufacturers spend approximately 32% of their marketing on opinion-leader activities.
* The industry as a whole is estimated to spend approximately 24% of its marketing budget on opinion-leader activities.
Learn more (Stanford News)
Learn more (PDF)
When taking action on a viral email, a recipient's relationship with the email's sender influences his or her decision to open, read, click links, etc., according to a January 2003 research paper, titled "Will They Listen Anyway? Viral Marketing and the Effectiveness of Online Word of Mouth Referrals." Written by Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business Administration doctoral student Arnaud De Bruyn, the paper asserts that the closeness, perceptual homophily (a person's similarity of values and experience with another person), demographic homophily, and social overlap between a sender and receiver influence a receiver's response, but that each factor affects the receiver at a different stage in the viral process.
Survey findings:
* The closeness of the sender and receiver influences the likelihood that a viral email will be opened and read, but nothing else.
* Perceptual homophily influences whether a recipient will click on a link to a website referenced in a viral email.
* High social overlap between sender and receiver increases the likelihood that the recipient will open a viral email, but decreases the likelihood a recipient will click on a link to a website referenced in a viral email.
Learn more
JIMC is inviting industry professionals and academics to share their knowledge and contribute to the marketing communications profession by submitting an abstract for consideration in the 2008 edition. The deadline is Friday, April 20 -- so you have to move fast if you want to contribute!
Read the press release from JIMC (below) for submission details, or visit the JIMC website.
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Northwestern University’s Journal Of Integrated Marketing Communications Announces Call for Abstracts Student-Managed Annual Publication Launches Author Search for 2008 Edition
EVANSTON, Ill. (April 2, 2007) – For more than 16 years, the Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications (JIMC) has been highlighting best practices in marketing communications and presenting thought-provoking articles from leading academics and practitioners. This spring, the JIMC staff invites industry professionals and academics to share their knowledge and contribute to the marketing communications profession by submitting an abstract for consideration in the 2008 edition.
The JIMC is a completely student-managed and directed project produced by Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate students at the Medill School at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Each year, a staff of approximately 20 students publishes one issue of this academic journal that contains articles, case studies and academic research on topics relevant to the IMC community.
Call for Abstracts:
Abstract submissions will be evaluated based on four main considerations including: potential impact on marketing communications practices or an individual industry; identification of an emerging trend; ability to provoke thought and discussion; and timeliness and relevancy to professional and/or academic community.
The JIMC staff is interested in articles relating to the following topics:
• Industry IMC trends (IMC in action)
• International perspectives on IMC
• Agency/client point/counterpoint
• IMC and crisis management, acquisitions, and mergers
• Emerging media and message delivery technology
• ROI measurement practices and quantification of success measures
• Customer-centric planning, segmenting and aggregation
Abstract Submission Process and Deadline:
All abstracts are due by April 20, 2007 and will be chosen through a blind review by a national board of advisors. When drafting an abstract, authors must present a concise overview of the article’s main points in 250 to 500 words and discuss any new research findings and/or methodologies used to arrive at the conclusion. All abstracts must be double-spaced on 8 1/2” x 11” white paper and authors are required to include a separate introduction page including the contributor’s name, title, organization/school affiliation, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
Abstracts may be submitted via e-mail with “2007 Abstract” in the subject line to jimc@northwestern.edu. Abstracts may also be submitted by mail (postmarked by April 20, 2007) to:
Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications
Attn: Editor-in-Chief – 2007 Abstract
1870 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208-2175.
If you're planning to contribute to the third volume in WOMMA's growing research collection -- the only collection dedicated to word of mouth marketing research -- now is the time to submit your topic proposal. Monday, April 9 is the deadline to get your topic proposal in, and the clock is ticking.
Suggestions for the kind of papers we're looking for:
* Follow-ups to papers that appeared in Vol. 1 or Vol. 2 with updated results and data
* How-to case studies that demonstrate how word of mouth was measured and how metrics were used
* Reviews and applications of existing word of mouth tools and metrics -- addressing challenges as well as opportunities
* Papers that report results of research projects having to do with word of mouth measurement
* Summaries of findings from academic research that detail practical implications for measuring word of mouth
Email topic proposals to WOMMA's Research Editor, Shannon Stairhime, at shannon@womma.org. Proposals are due April 9, 2007. Don't miss your chance to be part of this remarkable research collection!
Learn more
Forty-two percent of Americans say they will get more pre-election information from the internet in 2008 than they did in 2004, according to a February survey conducted by WOMMA member company DoubleClick's Performics division. The survey indicates that while television news and local and national newspapers will remain voters' primary source of election information, 42% of Americans say the internet, too, will inform their decision.
Other findings:
* 67% of Americans "always," "often," or "sometimes" use the internet to search for more information about a candidate prior to voting.
* Of Americans who use the internet to find election information, 48% also use family and friends as a source.
Learn more (Performics)
Learn more (MediaPost)
When seeking advice, consumers are more likely to turn to other consumers who love the same things they love, not those who hate the same things they hate, according to Andrew D. Gershoff, Ashesh Mukherjee, and Anirban Mukhopadhyay's article, "Few Ways to Love, But Many Ways to Hate: Attribute Ambiguity and the Positivity Effect in Agent Evaluation," which appeared in the March 2007 Journal of Consumer Research.
The researchers explain that while there are relatively few ways that products are loved, there are many ways that they are hated. For instance, when a person loves a product, they generally love all aspects of the product. On the other hand, when a person hates a product, they can hate everything about it, hate certain aspects of it and like others, or like all of the individual aspects of the product but hate the way they go together. This "attribute ambiguity," the researchers contend, influences trust and makes people more likely to seek the opinions of those who have product "likes" similar to their own.
Learn more
When consumers become aware of corporate complaint websites -- websites that are formed with the specific intent of fostering negative communication about a company -- they are likely to seek them out, according to Ainsworth Anthony Bailey's Journal of Marketing Communications article, titled "Thiscompanysucks.com: The Use of the Internet in Negative Consumer-to-Consumer Articulations." In September 2004, when the article was published, Bailey wrote that survey respondents were only moderately aware of the existence of corporate complaint websites -- which may or may not be the case today.
The article also notes that social influence plays a role in consumers' likelihood of awareness, as well as whether or not they are likely to visit the sites. Another influential factor is an individual's attitude towards complaining in general.
Learn more
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