Marketers are increasingly willing to try non-traditional advertising options, including word-of-mouth, and a new report from BIGresearch, the "Simultaneous Media Study," helps explain why.
The study found that 28.7% of consumers claim they regularly give advice to others about products or services, while another 65.4% say they occasionally do.
That is a large potential sales force — particularly when they are being listened to. While only 16.2% of consumers say they regularly seek product advice from others, 74.6% say they occasionally do.
Most importantly, the advice seekers and advice givers are usually the same people — but with the shoe on the other foot.
"Over 90% of consumers regularly or occasionally give advice or seek advice from others," said Gary Drenik, CEO of BIGresearch. "These two consumer groups are essentially one and the same."
"Marketers should not bifurcate online behavior into convenient dualisms, seekers versus givers," added Joe Pilotta of BIGresearch. "Rather, seeking and giving advice is a process of updating social networks punctuated by purchases."
Today, one of the primary means for gaining product knowledge for advice givers is through Internet searches, and BIGresearch found that for both regular advice givers and advice seekers, the top five search engines were the same: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask.
The similarities for advice givers and advice seekers do not stop at search engine usage, but continue for products eventually purchased.
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