Making Sense of IWOM White Paper Series

Topic 3: How Brands Can Participate in Online Communities

 

November 12, 2009

CIC is pleased to announce the release of its latest white paper “Making Sense of IWOM White Paper Series - Topic Three: How Brands Can Participate in Online Communities.” This white paper is the final installment in a series of three white papers, including two earlier studies released by CIC in 2009, “The Role of Internet Word of Mouth in Purchase Decisions” and “How IWOM is generated and disseminated.”

The findings in this study are based on comprehensive qualitative and quantitative offline research conducted by CIC in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu as well as CIC’s extensive IWOM expertise. Topic Three looks to evaluate consumer online behavior and provide suggestions for how brands can participate in online communities based on these consumer preferences. Below are some top-line findings and highlights from the study.

Do netizens want companies to listen to IWOM and participate in online communities?

The majority of netizens are positive towards companies listening to IWOM and participating in online communities.

• 52.7% of netizens interviewed responded positively to the idea of companies listening to IWOM.
• 47.2% of respondents do want companies to participate in online communities so that they can communicate with the companies directly.

About 40% of respondents are indifferent to companies listening and participation with concerns over the sincerity and motivations of companies’ listening to IWOM and participating in online communities.

How should companies participate in online communities?

Based on the research, netizens’ online communication platform preferences are as follows:

• 68% of respondents prefer to communicate with brands on third-party BBS over other platforms.
• 37.3% of respondents prefer to communicate with brands on company BBS hosted on an official website.
• 24.5% of respondents prefer to communicate with brands on a company blog hosted on an official website.
• 10.8% of respondents prefer to communicate with brands on a company blog hosted on a third-party website.

Based on the findings and CIC’s expertise, CIC recommends that companies abide by the following e-community participation principles: be transparent about their participation, use friendly behavior, avoid interrupting the community dynamic, respect efluencers’ independence and be fair in response to complaints.

What kinds of online campaigns will attract netizens’ participation?

Based on the research, CIC found consumer preferences for campaign activities and rewards.

• Entertainment-driven activities are the most attractive to netizens overall, followed by product experience activities.
• Male respondents had more passion towards communication-driven activities and lottery driven activities; female respondents preferred product experience and event-driven activities.
• Cash or gift items were the most attractive rewards to netizens, followed by opportunities to join offline activities and free product trials.
• Male netizens care more about the emotional satisfaction of being recognized during the activity; female netizens prefer more practical incentives such as financial incentives or experience opportunities.

For more information on this white paper, please click here for free download or click here to view 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 IWOM White Paper

In the past five years, CIC led by our Intelligence Center has continued to share our latest research and findings about IWOM in China with industry clients and friends. Based on our insights and experiences from working in the Chinese IWOM research industry for almost 5 years, our CIC IWOM Whitepapers also incorporate thinking from areas such as marketing communications, IT, sociology and statistics. In publishing these whitepapers we aim to create a resource which monitors and catalogues the developments in the IWOM industry and in doing so helps to move the whole industry forward as a result.

From last year’s IWOM Whitepaper series titled the “Internet is the Community” to this year’s series titled “Making Sense of IWOM,” we have shown how powerful the Internet and IWOM is in reshaping the relationships between brands and consumers and that consumer comments have now become the key factor in influencing purchase decisions.

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 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.