"Making Sense of IWOM": IWOM White Paper on the Role of Internet Word of Mouth in Purchase Decisions

 

June 18, 2009

 

Following the launch of IWOM master, CIC's IWOM intelligence platform, on June 1, 2009, CIC is officially releasing its latest white paper, "Making Sense of IWOM - White Paper Series Topic One, the Role of IWOM in Purchase Decisions." The research, conducted by CIC, is the first of its kind in China and is based on comprehensive qualitative and quantitative offline research in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.The study looks to uncover the role and level of importance of netizens' recommendations and opinions in the consumer purchase decision making process. This report is the first in a series of three reports based on the same research set. The following two installments include "How IWOM is generated and disseminated" and "How brands can participate in online communities." This research follows on the heels of CIC's most recent whitepaper series - "The Internet is THE Community" which stressed the importance of IWOM and its influence on reshaping the relationship between brands and consumers.

 

HIGHLIGHTS:

 

Do consumers pay attention to IWOM?

 

• Over 81% of BBS/blog users search IWOM when making purchase decisions.
• IWOM is most influential within the mobile phone, consumer electronics, cosmetics and baby care categories with over 50% of respondents referencing IWOM during the purchase process.
• In addition to paying attention to IWOM during the purchase process, 89.8% of respondents showed interest in reading IWOM outside of the purchase process including IWOM related to their favorite brands, industries or products, as well as promotion activities hosted by brands or major negative buzz surrounding brands.

 

Why do consumers pay attention to IWOM?

 

• The primary motivation for paying attention to IWOM is to reduce risk during the purchase decision process; 71.5% of all respondents mentioned they reference other netizens' comments online regularly before purchasing.
• For active online consumers, building a community around shared interests in particular brands and categories, such as mobile phone or automobile, is a major driver for paying attention to IWOM.

 

How does IWOM influence consumers' attitude towards brands?

 

• Positive IWOM has a 50% chance of changing consumers' negative perceptions or attitudes towards brands.
• Reading negative IWOM about a brand on a regular basis has over 40% chance of impacting consumers' decision during the purchase process.

 

How does IWOM affect purchase decisions?

 

• According to netizens, the following sources have the most impact on their purchase decision: recommendations from a friend, checking IWOM, Ads & mass media campaigns, salespersons' introduction
• Based on the research findings, CIC found that IWOM has a notable affect on "brand awareness" and "purchase decision" with 56.3% of respondents learning about brands through IWOM and 58.7% of respondents basing purchase decisions on IWOM. What's more, post-purchase, consumers remain interested in IWOM, with 47.5% of respondents looking to IWOM to share their user experiences and express their opinions. These findings show the following flow during the purchase decision process: 1. needs arousal 2. brand awareness 3. selection of alternatives 4. evaluation of alternatives 5. purchase decision 6. post-purchase behavior.

 

For more information on the white paper, please click here for free download or click here to check the report on slideshare. You can also visit iwommaster.com or our blog seeisee.com to learn more about our previous White Papers and related Blog articles, for a better understanding of Chinese Internet communities and the rapid development of IWOM in China.

 

 

ABOUT CIC

 

CIC is the thought leader in Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) with over 4 years experience in China working with cutting edge clients across multiple industries on a retainer basis. With a proven case studies, CIC is the first and best option in China to help clients makes sense of the buzz. CIC coined the term IWOM and has pioneered the concept of IWOM, redefining the relationship between brands and consumers. CIC is committed to both providing objective third party strategic advice to clients and promoting the healthy development of the Internet Community in China. CIC's research and discussion of IWOM's impact and best practices can be found on its company blogs, in its IWOM white papers and IWOM watch reports and through its IWOM roundtable events such as IWOM summit and IWOM classroom.

 

CIC offers customized and syndicated reports as well as an industry leading IWOM analytics dashboard which is supported by proprietary Chinese language based text mining technology (patent pending), data processing technology and data visualization technology. CIC's retainer relationships stretch over multiple years with multinational clients from Fortune 500 companies.

 

CIC's continual development and evolution is driven by an unique, powerful and open mindset and learning culture which at its foundation continually seeks to understand how the Internet, and IWOM, is redefining the relationships between brands and consumers.

 

For more information, please visit

• www.iwommaster.com (CIC IWOM master intelligence service platform)
• www.ciccorporate.com (CIC website),
• www.seeisee.com (CIC Company blog in Chinese)
• www.seeisee.com/sam (CEO's company blog in English).

 

Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 86-21-5237 3860/61/62/63 ext.880 to arrange an interview for additional quotes, or for more information on the study.