Word of Mouth Activity Affected by Recession
According to COLLOQUY, the recession has tightened consumers' purse strings AND their lips.
COLLOQUY reports that only 
58% of consumers today said they have discussions with friends, family and colleagues about their favorite brands, down from 73% in 2008- a 20% drop.
Why such a dramatic decrease? It looks like Word of Mouth activity correlates with consumers' individual financial situations. In fact, 74% of the consumers who see their own financial outlook brightening report having conversations about products and services. However, only 55% of the consumers who say their economic outlook is getting worse report having similar conversations.
So what does it mean?
As the economy gets stronger, more people will be in market for new products and services and Word of Mouth recommendations will continue to grow as a dominant influencer of purchasing behavior.
Direct Marketing News quoted COLLOQUY's Jim Sullivan as saying: "“I believe there's a new era coming,” he said, adding that people will rely “more and more on friends and family” for opinions. Sullivan added that economic improvement should result in an improvement in positive word-of-mouth opinion sharing." (Direct Marketing News).
If Sullivan is right (and we at uRefer believe he is!), what is your company doing to encourage your Advocates to talk about you, or motivate Advocates to refer even when the economy is down?
Sources:
http://www.dmnews.com/consumer-word-of-mouth-activity-down-since-start-of-recession-colloquy/article/203209/
http://www.colloquy.com/press_release_view.asp?uid=96