businesses have to understand and accept that consumers’ decision making processes, which ultimately come down to whether they will buy from you or from someone else, have truly shifted to a new, powerful peer-to-peer arena.
The always excellent Trendwatching, which relies on a network of thousands of watchers, has a special briefing (September) on the triumph of transparency, and in particular, it focuses on the role of the ‘reviewing masses’ creating a powerful p2p ‘arena’ in which brands live and die following positive or negative reviews.
The overview has several dozens of fascinating links.
From the introduction:
“Some telling findings from the latest twice-yearly Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 online consumers from 50 countries:
“Recommendations by personal acquaintances and opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising globally. The Nielsen survey shows that 90% of online consumers worldwide trust recommendations from people they know, while 70% trust consumer opinions posted online.”
There are many more research studies, findings, dissertations, and so on that confirm the same fact: reviewing is the new advertising. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: just as with other trends, what’s unfolding now is a ‘forever need’ among consumers, one that’s now being satisfied in a superior and previously unattainable fashion. In this case, the need is for trusted advice and recommendations—for feeling in control, for knowing the facts, for avoiding mistakes and disappointments—in order to make that perfect purchase. Which has become even more pressing as choice-overload continues: never before was there so much to choose from, in mature consumer societies, and thus such a need for reviews.
It’s a need that is met online by having access to millions of other consumers and their experiences and opinions, from giant review portals to real-time channels such as Twitter.
In short, businesses have to understand and accept that consumers’ decision making processes, which ultimately come down to whether they will buy from you or from someone else, have truly shifted to a new, powerful peer-to-peer arena.”
Some of the interesting conclusions:
* In fact, expect this to be the biggest ‘(R)Evolution’: universal search for products, brands, services and anything else consumers are interested in will turn up aggregated, relevant reviews almost by default, tagged and non-tagged, pulled from review sites (niche and massive), from blogs, from Twitter, from Facebook, from YouTube, and so on.
* the deluge in postings will also unmask, outnumber and thus neutralize fake reviews posted by malicious consumers or desperate brands. Which will lead to an even greater trust of recommendations and reviews. In the near future, consider the discussion on whether to trust reviews to be over.
* Deluge and connectivity will lead to real-time reviewing of products and services
* transparency of everything from production processes to ingredients, to labor conditions, will increasingly influence performance and pricing reviews. The ‘whole’ picture will matter to those consumers who, when looking for the best of the best, take into account not just price or superior quality, but eco, health, social and ethical concerns, too.