Some interesting new stats from WOMMA…

*25% of consumers claim the internet as their primary stop for pre-purchase information

*23% of consumers still look to friends, family, and co-workers as their
first source of information when researching a potential purchase

*11% of consumers turn to magazine reviews as their primary information source.

*10% of consumers speak to someone who already owns the product they’re researching.

That means that 33% of customers are using a word of mouth recommendation as their most trusted form of research before a purchase…in another study published by WOMMA, social networkers spend more time networking online than they do watching TV.

Yet another example of how marketing budgets aren’t caught up to customer trends…

In what is becoming a popular twist on how to market to your consumers, American companines such as M & M’s, Cadillac and Geico have created popular viral platforms where customers become brand evangelists.

On one such site, www.mycadillacstory.com, Cadillac lovers can upload their own pics and videos, thereby become an integrated part of the Cadillac brand.  This is taking marketing to a new level – no longer are consumers satisfied with simple brand to customer messages: it’s much too one-dimensional in the Web 2.0 era.

"So, if a person posts a photo of herself with her Cadillac on the
company website, she doesn’t do it for the company. She does it for
herself.

"Consumers are not creating content in order to pander,
to posture to marketers," says Joseph Jaffe, who wrote "Life After the
30-Second Spot." "There’s a degree of self-actualization.""

It’s long been established that culture in America is often decided by brands.  (Are you a Coke or a Pepsi person?)  Now marketers are finally finding effective ways to maximize that relationship.

Read the LA Times story here…

Google’s purchase of DoubleClick, an online advertising company, set off a flurry of activity this month, in which the digital media boom saw US$10.5 billion in transactions, capped by Microsoft’s $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive.

But more than just the staggering numbers being thrown around, this month might well be looked upon as a historical shift – the internet is simply a more effective way to reach the right people in the right place at the right time.

Traditional advertising companies might preach about print and television as mainstays, but those are mediums that are fast becoming obsolete…

Read the full story from the IHT.

This so true … (but seems to have no relation to Microsoft)

Long gone are the days when a simple newspaper ad or even a well thought through TVC would be enough to market your business.  The development of the internet brought on web 1.0 – simple communication via a series of interconnected browsers.

Now there’s web 2.0 – a movement to utilize the mass brainpower of the internet via open-source widgets and a new level of engagement among users.

One way that marketers are maximizing this movement is the online community.  No longer content with a browser displaying simple superficial messages, online communities, directly related to or paid for by a brand or product, are becoming the norm.

The truth is, instead of just being a statistic or a demographic, consumers are real people that actively identify with certain brands.  Identifying, targeting and rewarding those consumers via an engaging online community is a sure way to make your brand successful.

Read more here.