Colloquy released its findings on a study looking at Motivations of Canadian Brand-Specific Social Networking.
A WOM Champion is a customer who is “actively recommending” a brand, in a conversation with a relative, in an email to friends, in a Twitter posting or a Facebook wall message. “The personal nature of the communication by a WOM Champion adds credibility,” says COLLOQUY Partner Kelly Hlavinka. “And a Champion’s endorsement is highly valued by marketers because it cannot be bought; it must be earned.”
When COLLOQUY asked more than 3,500 Canadians why they engage in WOM activity regarding their preferred products, services and brands to people within their networks, the top five motivations of WOM Champions were as follows:
- To be the first to discover new items: 71 percent
- To get free product samples: 66 percent
- To get smart about products/services: 66 percent
- To tell manufacturers what I think: 63 percent
- To share my opinion with others: 58 percent
The COLLOQUY research also revealed significant evidence of a direct correlation between reward program activity and consumers’ positive WOM endorsement activity. Here are some of the key findings:
- Loyalty program members are 127 percent more likely to be WOM Champions than the general population
- 31 percent of loyalty program members are self-described WOM Champions
- Only 15 percent of non-loyalty program members are self-described WOM Champions
- 68 percent of WOM Champions in loyalty programs intend recommend a program sponsor’s brand within a year
- Actively participating loyalty program members are over 3 times more likely than non-active members, and over 7 times more likely than non-members, to be WOM Champions
The research is certainly interesting and gives a good sense as to what motivates people to engage in WOM activities. Also, I like the possibility of using a loyalty database to identify potential tribe leaders. However, I don’t necessarily agree with the main conclusion:
“This research shows that a company’s loyalty marketing database is an under-utilized social network that marketers would do well to exploit in the pursuit of positive, profitable WOM activity,” says COLLOQUY Editorial Director Rick Ferguson. “Marketers should locate the Champions buried within their program memberships, find ways to encourage WOM activity and reward Champions for positive WOM behavior.”
Here are my 2 points of difference:
- The database itself may not be the social network - in other words the members of the database may not necessarily be a network but rather a group of individuals with similar purchase behaviours
- Activating the tribe is a bit more complex then just ‘locating the champions and incentivize them to display WOM behaviour’.
- The real question you must ask is “Why haven’t my ‘best customers’ started to engage in WOM activities already?” There could be some fundamental issues from a marketing, product design/experience, customer service, etc that needs addressing first.
