Family and Friends Most Influential

Think trusted or popular online portals are the most influential for web-savvy consumers? Then you would be wrong. According to a new survey from BIGResearch, the most influential things for most consumers are friends and family.

by Kristina Knight

The results from the Simultaneous Media Usage Study indicate that word of mouth marketing is more influential for today's consumers than television, newspapers and magazines, or the Internet. Take cars for example. More than 30% of survey respondents say, word of mouth messages were more important than any other marketing efforts, when buying a new vehicle. Broadcast television ranked second. The same can be said for electronics. Word of mouth information ranked first at 42.6%. Newspapers and magazines ranked second with 34%.

Another interesting finding is that most consumers take in more than one medium at a time. 68% of consumers say they use other media while reading newspapers and watching television. Nearly 71% watch television or read while browsing the web, but only about 56% of consumers use another type of media while listening to the radio.

Life events are also big influencers for today's consumers.

Joe Pilotta, vice president of research for BIGResearch said, "Life events are transitions which lead to reconfiguring one's environment. Transitions heighten the level of media consumption and disposition to buy for the purpose of stabilizing the change."

In a related study, BIGResearch found that life events - having a baby, finishing school or getting married - can make a huge difference in how consumers react to different ads.