CIC, leading Chinese Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) research and consulting agency, released a new IWOM whitepaper called “Making Sense of IWOM” – the Role of Internet Word of Mouth in Purchase Decisions on June 18th.

Here is the highlight from the official press release:

Do consumers pay attention to IWOM?

• Over 81% of BBS/blog users search IWOM when making purchase decisions.
• IWOM is most influential within the mobile phone, consumer electronics, cosmetics and baby care categories with over 50% of respondents referencing IWOM during the purchase process.
• In addition to paying attention to IWOM during the purchase process, 89.8% of respondents showed interest in reading IWOM outside of the purchase process including IWOM related to their favorite brands, industries or products, as well as promotion activities hosted by brands or major negative buzz surrounding brands.

Why do consumers pay attention to IWOM?

• 71.5% of all respondents mentioned the primary motivation for paying attention to IWOM is to reduce risk during the purchase decision process; Checking other netizens’ comments online is becoming a basic habit of consumers before purchasing.
• For active online consumers, building a community around shared interests in particular brands and categories, such as mobile phone or automobile, is a major driver for paying attention to IWOM.

How does IWOM influence consumers’ attitude towards brands?

• Positive IWOM has a 50% chance of changing consumers’ negative perceptions or attitudes towards brands.
• Reading negative IWOM about a brand on a regular basis has over 40% chance of impacting consumers’ decision during the purchase process.

How does IWOM affect purchase decisions?

• According to netizens, the most common ranking of importance of different purchase influences are: recommendations from a friend, checking IWOM, Ads & mass media campaigns, salespersons’ introduction
• Based on the research findings, CIC found that IWOM has a notable affect on “brand awareness” and “purchase decision” with 56.3% of respondents learning about brands through IWOM and 58.7% of respondents basing purchase decisions on IWOM. What’s more, post-purchase, consumers remain interested in IWOM, with 47.5% of respondents looking to IWOM to share their user experiences and express their opinions.

Below is the full report via Slideshare: