CRUNCHY NUGGETS: It’s well known that consumers trust online reviews. Doesn’t matter if the person reading the reviews has never met the reviewer. Rather, the reader feels as though “that’s someone like me…” who can share their experience. The results of interesting studies that support this behavior have been shared this morning in Fast Company. And they go a step further to imply that consumers truly care about what others think when they make purchase decisions. Give these nuggets a nibble:
- A study conducted by Opinion Research found that 61% of consumers said they had checked online reviews, blogs and other online customer feedback before buying a new product or service.
- Even though upwards of 25% of reviews are considered “fake” (written by the brand, written by company staffers, consumers — knowing that they may not be completely true – consumers still believe and trust these reviews.
- Best Seller lists amplify, and lead, consumers’ perceptions around what others think and what they ultimately buy…When teenagers were presented with free music to download in a study, the teens who were privy to others’ opinions were more likely to follow the others’ opinions and download what those influencers had downloaded. And where this gets interesting is that when the teens were broken up into smaller groups, when they found out which songs were “most popular” among their specific group, these were the songs they chose to download. And the “most popular”/most downloaded varied by group — although always lead by these “best seller” lists.
The article in Fast Company goes onto conclude that truly, consumers care what others think. And when consumers have a pre-conceived notion of what’s “cool” in their peer group, that’s what they tend to buy. Here’s the article if you’d like to take a peek: http://www.fastcompany.com/1809976/martin-lindstrom-buyologyy-brandwashed-marketing-branding?partner=homepage_newsletter
The article doesn’t take this to the social level, but you could use this as strong support for driving positive buzz, lots of social chit chat, and encouraging consumers to share their opinions for your brand. Because people want to feel like their choices are the “right” choices. Hey, c’mon and read the article…all the cool kids are doing it! TASTY TREND: Reviews Rule
