Every exchange or transaction we make has some level of trust involved. The conversations we have with people is rooted in a trust of truth-telling. The transactions we make involve levels of trust with cash (In God We Trust) and credit (trust money is left to borrow!). The recommendations we make to each other are rooted in trust as well; the greater the depth of trust of the source, the more likely we’ll follow through on that recommendation.
Andy Beal, the Marketing Pilgrim, shared a couple of interesting studies about trust in advertising mediums. Here are two charts published:
90% of Consumers Trust Opinions of Friends; Brand Trust Shows Improvement Too!
Only 33% of Us Trust Our “Online” Friends; Barely More Than Trust in Banner Ads!
One thing to keep in mind is that you can make stats tell you anything you want depending on how you ask questions. However, what seems to be a contradiction in these charts doesn’t need to be so.
Chart 1 tells us that in the last 2 years, in general, people’s trust in personal recommendations has increased to 90%. Also note that the next 2 greatest level of trust, according to Nielsen, are branded websites and online reviews of products. The takeaway from this is that the best trust levels involve online reviews and brand websites, but still pale compared to a personal recommendation from someone they know. (And where are they getting these recommendations from people they know? Yes, many are online. See: Facebook)
Now Chart 2 tells us something a little different. Razorfish tells us that people trust their freiend’s recommendations when they are offline — way more than they trust anything online. One could say that it’s the offline conversations that are trustworthy, not online.
I won’t argue that offline is better than online. Most recommendations do happen offline than online. But remember how I said stats can tell you anything? What they didn’t tell us is how they define a friend. In the online world where Facebook rules, the definition of friend has been loosened up a lot. That’s why you have to look at these charts, find the relevancy, then back up and think about it a bit. When I did, here’s what I discovered:
The greater the relationship with another person, the deeper the trust. When that person makes a recommendation to me (regardless of the medium) I’m more likely to trust it over brands and commercials.
That could be the longest way to say, yes, Word of Mouth is still the most effective marketing strategy ever.
