SURVEY ON WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING

We are conducting a survey on opinions and practices focused on word-of-mouth marketing.  We invite you to complete this survey, which we estimate will take approximately 5-7 minutes to complete.  The data that we gather in this survey will be presented at the upcoming January 2006 WOMMA Conference.

We will send you a copy of the research findings once we have completed this survey.
     
Thank you for considering our request to complete this survey.  If you have any questions, please contact us at (253) 630-5839 or at info@ostermanresearch.com.

Please provide the following contact information; it will be used only to identify who has responded to this survey.

Name
Title

Organization

Email Address

For this survey, we’ll define word of mouth marketing as a formalized marketing effort designed to stimulate individuals to talk about your brand, products or services.

  1. Which of the following best describes your organization's use of word-of-mouth marketing?

We have no plans
 We’re not using it, but may do so
 We’re not using it, but will do so
 We are currently using it
 Don't know / not sure

  1. When you’re deciding how best to market your brand, product or service, how often do you include word-of-mouth marketing as part of your overall marketing plan?

All the time
 Most of the time
 Some of the time
 Never
 Don't know / not sure

  1. If you were planning a marketing campaign today, how important would word-of-mouth marketing be in your overall plan?

Extremely important
 Very important
 Somewhat important
 Of little importance
 Not important at all
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Do you have an established word-of-mouth marketing plan?

Yes
 No
 No, but we're in the process of creating one
 Don't know / not sure

IF YES, PLEASE CONTINUE; IF OTHER THAN YES, PLEASE SKIP TO QUESTION 16.

  1. How formalized would you say your word-of-mouth marketing plan is?

Very formalized
 Somewhat formalized
 Not very formalized
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Do you currently have an active word-of-mouth marketing campaign that is in-market now?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Which of the following problems has your organization experienced regarding your word-of-mouth marketing?  Please check all that apply.

Scaling our efforts
Criticism from customers about campaigns
Getting customers to participate in new campaigns
 Unable to track performance
 Lack of employee understanding or skill sets to manage efforts
 Allocation of funds to run campaigns
 Don't know / not sure
 Other - please specify:

  1. How many word-of-mouth marketing campaigns has your organization launched in the past year?

None
 1 to 3
 4 to 6
 7 to 9
 10 or more
 Don't know / not sure

  1. What is an example, from one of your campaigns, of a product, service or brand that was marketed using word-of-mouth marketing?

  1. For this campaign, to which of the following groups did you reach out?  Please check all that apply.

Current customers only
Potential new prospects only
Both current customers and potential prospects
 Certain bloggers only
 Certain journalists only
 We just created a blog for the campaign
 We did paid search
 We told our employees to talk about the campaign
 Don't know / not sure

  1. How will the number of word-of-mouth marketing campaigns that you launch in 2006 compare to the number you launched in 2005?

We'll launch more in 2006
 We launch fewer in 2006
 We'll launch the same number in 2006
 Don't know / not sure

  1. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is “not at all” and 5 is “extensively involved”, to what extent are the following functions involved in developing your word of mouth marketing campaigns?

 1 2 3 4 5
President/CEO/General Manager
Marketing VP or Director of Marketing
VP or Director of Sales or Business Development
VP or Director of Customer Service
Our customers
Our agency or consultant

  1. Do you measure word-of-mouth marketing performance?  If so, what metric(s) do you use to do so?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

Metrics

  1. Is the data that you gather valuable or meaningful?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. How often do you use an agency or consultant to run word-of-mouth marketing campaigns?

All the time
 For most of our campaigns
 For some of our campaigns
 Once in a while
 Never
 Don't know / not sure

  1. What is preventing your company from creating a word-of-mouth marketing plan?  Please check all that apply.

It's not a priority for our company
 We don't have metrics in place to evaluate its effectiveness
We're not certain how to integrate word-of-mouth marketing into existing marketing efforts
 Budget constraints
 Potential negative customer comments
 No staff experience or skill sets
 Don't know / not sure
 Other - please specify:

  1. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is “not at all important” and 5 is “extremely important”, how important is it to stimulate word-of-mouth marketing using the following tactics?

 1 2 3 4 5
Face-to-face communications
Radio, Television, Newspaper or magazine ads
Articles, TV or radio interviews about our company
Pay-per-click search engine marketing
Special landing pages on our company web site
Free offers or sampling
Emailing all of our customers
Email only our best customers
Contacting bloggers that cover our industry
Using public relations firms
Sending out press releases
Hiring a word-of-mouth marketing agency or consultant
Direct mail and or flyers
Phone calls to customers

  1. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is “not at all effective” and 5 is “extremely effective”, how do you rate the effectiveness of the following tactics to generate word-of-mouth?

 1 2 3 4 5
Face-to-face communications
Radio, Television, Newspaper or magazine ads
Articles, TV or radio interviews about our company
Pay-per-click search engine marketing
Special landing pages on our company web site
Free offers or sampling
Emailing all of our customers
Email only our best customers
Contacting bloggers that cover our industry
Using public relations firms
Sending out press releases
Hiring a word-of-mouth marketing agency or consultant
Direct mail and or flyers
Phone calls to customers

  1. Do you believe that the 'buzz' from a word-of-mouth campaign happens:

Quickly
 Slowly
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Do you believe that a word-of-mouth marketing campaign is most effective if the 'buzz' is created:

Quickly
 Slowly
 Don't know / not sure

  1. What would be your organization's expectation in terms of the timing for generating results from a word-of-mouth campaign?

In a few hours
 In a few days
 In a few weeks
 In a few months
 In about six months
 In about one year
 In about two years
 In more than two years
 Don't know / not sure

  1. What is the single most important thing you need to do as a business to generate word-of-mouth?

Have satisfied customers
 Have great products or services
 Have a great brand
 Have the lowest price
 Have an advertising agency or public relations firm
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Do you believe that you need a website to have a successful word-of-mouth campaign?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Should you respond to negative word-of-mouth stories, comments, or experiences about your business?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Do you believe that word-of-mouth marketing is ethical?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Which of the following word-of-mouth marketing practices are unethical in your opinion?  Please check all that apply.

Hiring incentivized agents from a third party to post reviews about our products or services on blogs or message boards
Using incentives to get people who are not using our products but who are on our mail lists to talk about our products and services
Creating a character blog
Creating a company blog to promote our services
Using paid-search engine marketing
Sending unsolicited emails to our customers

  1. Have you ever hired an agency or consultant to generate word-of-mouth for your business using agents that received an incentive?

Yes
 No
 No, but we're considering doing so
 Don't know / not sure

  1. If yes, do you believe that doing so was effective?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Do you believe that word-of-mouth marketing is ethical when you hire agents to speak about your organization’s product or service?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Would you agree to incent people to be agents who are not your customers to go out and talk about your brand, products or services?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Regardless of whether you have or have not launched a word-of-mouth marketing campaign for your business, is there something that you believe gets people to talk about a your brand, products or services?  Please check all that apply.

Type of service that customers received
How a product or service works
The price of the product or service
 Something that is entertaining
 Things that are newsworthy
 Advertising they’ve seen
 Something a friend told someone else

  1. Have you ever shared your thoughts about a product or service with another person or group?

Yes
 No
 Don't know / not sure

  1. Is there a word-of-mouth marketing campaign that stands out for you that you found to be very effective, regardless of the product or service that was advertised?  If so, what was this campaign and why did you find it to be effective?

 

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