BOLDMOUTH Word of Mouth Marketing Study

BOLDMOUTH announced the release of their new study "Perceptions, Practices & Ethics In Word of Mouth Marketing".  The 55 page study is available for download and includes the survey results, analysis and synthesis of the meaning of the results and a glossary of terms borrowed from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association - WOMMA.  The research for the study was conducted by Osterman Research.  There were 122 survey respondents to a web-based survey with 33 questions about W-O-M marketing.   In addition, follow-up phone calls were made by BoldMouth to a number of organizations prior to the release of the study.

I'm in the process of reading the full study, but have extracted some findings from an initial review of the study and the supporting press release:

• The term Word of Mouth (W-O-M ) marketing was recognized by respondents, but not fully understood in terms of how to implement W-O-M campaigns
• 64% of respondents said W-O-M was extremly important or very important to their marketing plans
• 49.6% of respondents claimed to already have used W-O-M marketing.
• 62.2% will launch more campaigns in 2006
• Many organizations spend little on W-O-M campaigns and do not have clear cut guidelines or knowledge on how to measure results
• 65% of marketers do not have a formal W-O-M marketing plan
• 58.3% of respondents have not used outside experts to help them with their campaigns

The primary impediments to the implementation of W-O-M plans included the following:

• Lack of metrics
• Lack of staff skills
• Not a priority
• Budget constraints
• Uncertainty of how to integrate W-O-M Marketing into existing efforts

The study provides good information for those of you considering a Word of Mouth Marketing campaign as part of your overall mix. 

Thanks to BOLDMOUTH for commissioning the study and making the results available to marketers and others interested in the whole area of consumer driven marketing.