Heh, Beijing Likes Buzz Too

Word of mouth makes the world go around. That apparently is the case in China too .

Although many  forms of media are controlled centrally in China,  what may be the most troublesome to control for any central government is the "human channel of conversation".

H&K's David Jones gave me a heads up on a study conducted among 1,200 Chinese 20-24 year-olds by i-merge.  Some insights that are generally shared by the Chinese with their Western counterparts:

-  Frequency = influence - people who communicate more frequently about brands not only have the highest communication index they also score the highest influence index.

- Women are prolific/men have opinion leadership - women communicate more than men, but men have a higher influencing power.

- Thirty-somethings are at the intersection of buzz -  those aged in between 30 and 39 have a greater influencing power.

- Education is word of mouth power  = The higher the education level, the higher the communication probability and the influencing power.

Brand experience is king - a satisfying brand experience (or a dissatisfying one) is a lot more
powerful than positive or negative brand reputation.

Live word of mouth dominates - nearly 90% of word of mouth is communicated during conversations, even though instant messages and phone calls are common ways people communicate and panelists declared the internet as being the most important medium in their life

Internet is a great seeding tool -  it's the most important medium for consumers to learn and discover new products for the first time. Male consumers tend to choose the Internet and the newspapers. Women are a bit more TV-minded. Older people are more likely to get the information from the newspapers. The higher the education, the higher the percentage of people using the Internet.

Word of mouth has lifetime value - a vast majority of the respondents also want to stay informed about a brand after they bought it

For more insight into word of mouth, China and harnessing its 1.3 billion+ population, 480 million mobile users and  162 million internet users, check out:
seeisee
Digital Watch - Ogilvy China
Accenture