Real-Life Recommendations Still Preferred to Online Ones

Most people rely on the advice or recommendation of others when purchasing a product or a service. A friend's opinion has always been valued and despite our increased dependency on the Internet a study in the US from Mintel shows that most people still rely on real-life referrals rather than on online ones.

Of the people that bought a product or a service after being recommended to them the large majority did so after the referral of people they knew in real life coming from a friend in 34 percent of the cases or from a husband, wife or partner in 25 percent of them. Instead, only 5 percent bought something based on a recommendation from a blog and also 5 percent based on one coming from a chat room.

“It’s interesting to find that as much time as we spend online, we still prefer a personal recommendation from someone we know and trust,” states Chris Haack, senior analyst at Mintel. “Young adults are somewhat more likely to turn to the Internet for advice and referrals, but even they listen to their peers first.”

When asked what they base their recommendations on mostly, the emphasis for most people was price and convenience. More than 64 percent of them have recommended a product based on its price with 55 percent based on quality and 33 percent convenience. An interesting result of the survey was that Asians and Hispanics were easier influenced by a blogger when purchasing with 14 percent and 10 percent respectively. The same groups also tended to recommend a product based on advertisements they had seen.

“The sheer number of people that purchase based on recommendations proves marketers need to pay attention to word of mouth,” states Chris Haack. “It’s becoming easier for businesses to lose control of their marketing messages, so companies need to carefully monitor and respond to consumer conversations about their brands.”