What is the Hottest Category for Holiday-Season WOM? You'll be Surprised. - Ed Keller

Think of what's hot for the holidays and chances are you will think about some new technology product, or the latest toy, or maybe a hot video game. You would be correct in thinking all these categories get more buzz around the holidays than they do during the rest of the year.

But the brands that get the biggest word of mouth spike? It's the consumer electronics retailers themselves, far more than the products they sell.

With an eye on what might be hot during the holidays this year, we at Keller Fay looked at word of mouth during the 2011 holiday season and compared it to the other eleven months of 2011. The largest increase was seen for the electronics stores, which saw their word of mouth double in the month of December – an increase of 108%, to be precise.

Toy products saw the next largest increase, with a 94% gain. These two categories are far and away the biggest WOM gainers.

Rounding out the top five are three additional types of retailers: e-commerce sites (think Amazon), department stores (think Kohls) and discount stores (think Walmart or Target).

The remainder of the top ten is where we see products such as consumer electronics, video game consoles and games, and alcoholic beverage products such as liquor, wine or champagne, all of which saw gains of between 20% and 30% during the 2011 holidays.

Happy holidays to all and all the best for a peaceful New Year in 2013.

Ed Keller, CEO of the Keller Fay Group, has been called "one of the most recognized names in word of mouth." His new book, The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace, was recently published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster. You can follow Ed Keller on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, or contact him directly at ekeller@kellerfay.com.

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