Economy Outweighs Healthcare on People's Minds, Says New Study - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

By Word-of-Mouth Matters Archives
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If you are a news junkie like me, then you've been following the raging debate about health care. Perhaps, like me, you've also been wondering whether the town hall meetings are really representative of the conversations taking place on Main Street. Is health care a topic that people across the country are talking about, or only a smaller number of activists on both sides that are turning out to express their views?

According to ongoing tracking of word of mouth by the Keller Fay Group, about 1 in 4 Americans 18 to 69 years old (52 million people) were having conversations in July about health insurance and the health care system. This represents a 30% increase from the 40 million (20% of the total adult population) who were talking about the topic back in April, May, and June.

So people are both tuning in more, and speaking up more.

To put this in context, it's also important to know that out of 17 issues that are part of our word of mouth tracking, health care ranks 8th. A few months ago, health ranked 10th, so it is moving up the ladder as the amount of conversation increases. But it's still not the top tier issue for most people. Higher on the list of people's day-to-day conversations are such topics as "concern about your own financial situation," "ways to cut back on your expenses," and "the overall state of the economy," as well as "nutrition, dieting, and healthy eating."

What is the demographic profile of the health care talkers? Relative to their proportion of the population as a whole, it's women more than men; consumers 40+ more than those under 40; and middle income consumers – $30k to $60k.

The group that is most active in talking about health insurance and health care is the Conversation Catalysts™ (a.k.a. word of mouth "influencers"). Among this 10% segment of the population who are almost always more involved in conversation than others (both talking as well as listening), 42% have had a conversation in the past day – well above any demographic segment, and up from 29% in mid-June. But even among this group, health care is not a top tier topic of conversation, placing 10th out of 17 we track.

Perhaps the most interesting word of mouth trend is among the viewers of cable news – CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. The audience for all three news networks is more likely than the average to be talking about health care and has been for some time. And right now, the levels of talk are identical for viewers of all three networks – a dead heat at 36%. But it hasn't been this way for long. Back in mid April, Fox News viewers were the least likely to be talking about health care, while MSNBC viewers were the most likely. All three are talking more since then, but the increase in talk among Fox News viewers has been the sharpest – up from 21% to 36% over the past four months.

While things are a bit quieter now as the summer comes to a close, they are certain to heat up again in Washington when Congress reconvenes in September. We'll be keeping our ears to the ground, listening to the conversations on Main Street as well.

Ed Keller, CEO of the Keller Fay Group, has been called "one of the most recognized names in word of mouth." The publication of Keller's book,The Influentials, has been called the "seminal moment in the development of word of mouth." Ed can be contacted at ekeller@kellerfay.com.

Read all Ed’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers.

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