Depend on the Kindness of Strangers

At the point in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” when the character Blanche DuBois says, “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” the character is portrayed as mentally ill. Results of a “Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising” survey indicate that it is the retailers who fail to depend on the good will of strangers who might be considered crazy.
     The survey polled more than 28,000 consumers in 56 countries. The results were statistically weighted to be representative of consumers who use the internet in each country.
     One major finding is that shoppers are more likely to trust the advice of strangers than ads sponsored by retailers or manufacturers. About 70% of respondents said they trust online consumer reviews posted by people they may not know personally. Four years previously, the percentage was about 55%, and the 70% figure is second only to the 92% who said they trust recommendations from friends and family.
     Only 47% said they trust paid ads, a decline from about 67% a few years previously. There is still some trust in online ads, but it’s declining and it’s notably less than the trust placed in the opinions of strangers.
     There were differences in results among areas of the world. For example, half the survey respondents in Africa, Pakistan, and the Middle East find TV ads to be personally relevant during product information searches, but only a third of European respondents had this trust in TV ads.
     Continue to inspire your satisfied customers to tell family and friends about their experiences. And don’t give up on advertising in traditional and newer media. However, also continue to encourage your customers to post and talk about your store to people they don’t know well.
     Aiming for referrals to weak connections spreads the good news about your store more widely. Weak links don’t substitute for strong ones; they augment them. It can be the difference between saying to customers, “Please recommend us to your friends,” and, “Please recommend us to your friends, and recommend those friends talk about us to their friends.”
     Encourage reviews which include both positives and negatives. These develop in prospective shoppers trust and curiosity which leads to the prospects wanting to check things out for themselves. Research at Rutgers University concluded that direct experience with the retailer affects how any negative information is interpreted.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more:
Inspire Customers to Post Repeatedly
Grab On with Weak Connections
Encourage Balanced Customer Reviews