Two-Thirds of all Brand Related Word-of-Mouth is Positive - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

By now most marketers recognize the central role that word of mouth and social media play in consumer decision making and strategies to tap the power of word of mouth amp8211 both online via social media channels and offline amp8211 is becoming a more important priorityHowever there remains a lingering concern for many marketers How can they be certain that they won39t say negative things if they facilitate consumer conversation And isn39t the power of negative WOM far greater than positiveThe first question amp8211 quothow can we be certain that consumers won39t say negative things about usquot amp8211 demands two answers The first answer is that as marketers we can39t be certain that consumers will always have nice things to say There is clearly less control on the part of marketers when the consumer voices rise to the top of your marketing strategy When compared to the certainty that comes from a message that the marketer crafts and places WOM is a scary thing But as McKinsey reminded us recently quotThe rewards of pursuing excellence in wordofmouth are huge and it can deliver a significant competitive edge few other marketing approaches can matchquotThe second answer should be more comforting The overwhelming amount of brandrelated word of mouth is positive not negative According to Keller Fay research twothirds of all brandrelated conversations are positive toward the brand less than ten percent of the time is it negative The rest is either quotmixedquot or quotneutralquotThis is an aggregate across hundreds of thousands of conversations that we measure each year about every different type of brand Some are more positive than the average others are more negative than the average Categories that skew well above average in terms of positive word of mouth include children39s products personal care products fooddining and beverages Categories that are above average in terms of negative word of mouth include telecommunications financial services and health care But even in these lower scoring categories the preponderance of word of mouth remains positiveA very similar picture emerges when one looks at word of mouth through a different prism amp8211 the average ratings for brands on rating and review sites According to Bazaarvoice a technology provider that powers rating and review sites for leading retailers and brands there is a quotJcurvequot when it comes to consumer reviews In the US 80 of product ratings are four or five stars in the UK the figure is even higher amp8211 88 Disclosure I am on the Board of Directors of Bazaarvoice Yelp finds something quite similar amp8211 the volume of positive reviews outweighs the negative by 61So while it39s theoretically possible that consumers could use word of mouth channels to quotdissquot brands and spout off about negative experiences this is not in fact what they do most of the time And why not Because the quotaskquot in word of mouth is for advice and recommendations about smart choices What brands do you recommend would be good choices for me Nobody approaches someone else and says quotPlease tell me about your most recent bad experiencequot They say quotI am looking to make a car purchase or looking for a restaurant recommendation or thinking about where to get the best deals on items I need to buy for my household what recommendations to you havequotWhen presented with quotthe factsquot about the preponderance of positive word of mouth relative to negative there remains a belief on the part of many that somehow the negative word of mouth carries a lot more weight This attitude is captured in the title of my friend Pete Blackshaw39s 2008 book quotSatisfied Customers Tell Three Friends Angry Customers Tell 3000quotBut the statistics tell a different story While there are some high profile instances in which a major gaff by a brand gets spread like wild fire on social media these are the exceptions and not the rule Not only is there far far more positive word of mouth than negative but our research is clear that positive word of mouth has more impact than negative There is considerably more credibilitybelievability when someone hears positive things about a brand rather than negative Based on tens of thousands of brand conversations studied each year we find that when they are on the receiving end of advice and recommendations 66 of consumers attach high levels of credibility to WOM conversations that are positive in nature versus 43 to those that are negative Similarly they are far more likely to pass along what they learn to others when the conversation is positive rather than negative amp8211 in other words the viral nature of positive WOM is greater than when it39s negativeIt has been more than a half century since Norman Vincent Peale first popularized the concept quotthe power of positive thinkingquot It is now time for marketers to embrace the power of positive conversationEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot Ed can be contacted at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Ed Keller MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Two-Thirds of all Brand Related Word-of-Mouth is Positive - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

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