Media Release

September 29 2009

Face-to-face brand chat still better than online

Despite growth of the Internet and increasing popularity of Facebook, Twitter and other online social networking sites, we still prefer to share views about TV and movies face-to-face.

The latest research at UniSA comparing word-of-mouth discussions about movies and TV shows with the online equivalent, found that more than 85 per cent of information exchange was face-to-face with less than 10 per cent via the Internet.

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is defined as one way, consumer-to-consumer pass-on or exchange of information about brands.

In a recent study conducted by UniSA’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, researchers compared WOM in traditional offline environments (face-to-face or via telephone conversation) with online (Twitter, Facebook and similar sites).

The study surveyed 383 randomly selected people about their WOM behaviours when it comes to discussing movies and TV shows.

Researchers found that the majority of WOM was occurring in face-to-face communication with only a very small portion being conducted online (less than 10 per cent).

“The research is valuable because we now know that marketers should not abandon their traditional marketing techniques to focus on building online communities in the belief that they have taken the place of face-to-face conversations,” says Cathy Nguyen, Research Associate at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and key researcher on the project.

The study also found very little difference between WOM in online and offline environments.

The triggers were the same for both on and offline and there was no difference found when it came to the impact of the WOM.

The study also dispelled another common misconception - that as a mass communication tool, the Internet and the online environment encouraged WOM between total strangers.

“More than 90 per cent of all online WOM conversation still occurs between people who know one another personally,” reports Nguyen.

“These findings go against an increasing pressure for marketers to dramatically shift their attention and resources to online audiences and communities.

“The good news for marketers is that the wealth of insights obtained through decades of research into the value of real-world word-of-mouth still applies and also applies in the online context.”

Another key finding is that WOM tends to occur when people have very strong feelings.

Around half of respondents stated their motivation for WOM was that they were either very satisfied or very dissatisfied with their viewing experience.

In general, negative WOM (both on and offline) was found to be extremely rare.

“This finding indicates that marketers should not be too concerned about negative communication about their brand among consumers,” Nguyen says, “the biggest problem for a brand is not having anyone talk about it at all.”