Online Customer Reviews - Influencers En Masse - or Connectors/Mavens?

It appears that a recent study has confirmed what I would have guessed was an 'almost-insight' around the influence of customer reviews. The study published June 23rd by OpinionResearch.com (ORC) states "83% of respondents polled indicated that online product evaluations and reviews had at least some level of influence on their purchasing decisions."

I would humbly suggest that there are at least two very different kinds of product (or service) reviews online generated by customers. Those offered by the retailer of the product or service and those found in public forums or sites that appear designed to attract those looking for opinions before a purchase. I would argue that the real influencers here are those that post to the retailer's web site.

Of course there are the product reviews by 'experts' or editors from magazines and online sites like cnet. They are actually being paid to be influencers (even when they are hopefully impartial).

There are other bloggers who are less obviously being paid to blog (not me yet - but I could easily be persuaded ;-).

I am simply suggesting that the reviews that are found on shopping sites like Amazon, CircuitCity.com, Orbitz and now even Kmart.com are likely to be the most influential by virtue of both their reach and their position within the purchase decision process.

While the web makes it relatively easy, I am betting that the majority of people will not do much research on their purchases. However, they will be influenced by what others are saying where they are purchasing.

There are consumers that will go to special sites such as epinions.com or visit blogs, or any number of sites such as those listed in the recent BusinessWeek article "Where Customers Go to Praise (or Bash) You." In fact the number of unique visitors to some these sites as suggested in this article is staggering (and perhaps misleading since it is unclear that all of these people are going to these sites for customer reviews). Then there are those customer review sites that purport to signal trends by virtue of their name, such as ThisNext.com.

There are other consumers that will pay to play with sites that potentially combine editorial and customer reviews, such as ConsumerReports.org, AngiesList (forgive me if I should be further separating reviews of national products versus local services - but I'm following the BusinessWeek lead). For specific audiences, these are terrific sites. For instance, Angie's List is a smart and growing business and brand, reportedly with "650,000 paying members, up from around 400,000 at the beginning of 2007" (and now reviewing doctors - I hear on NPR). But sites such as these represent a very small fraction of most markets for national or larger brands. I would speculate that while extremely influential to the subscriber, since the subscriber paid for the opinion, they may not be driving too many broader brand trends or market sales. In fact, in my experience, marketers do not pay very close attention to them (although perhaps they should).

What I would simply argue (albeit in a round-about way), is that there are those that set out to 'tip' opinion and influence through reviews. They will often influence people like themselves or those who make a habit of doing research on the web. They may also pull in those folks who may be making a highly involved or very large purchase decision - who might not otherwise take their time to do research.

The people posting to these opinion sites, as online "connectors" or influencers have the potential to start trends, but I have yet to see any really compelling argument that they do this consistently. Duncan Watts might argue this case well (see Sept. 8th post). But perhaps the fact that none of these sites has a market value anything close to a Google - or even an Amazon - is real proof of their level of influence (follow the money). On the other hand there are those critical 'point-of-purchase' reviews that may in many cases be generated by perhaps a broader group that want to share an experience, versus set out to be an influencer.

Heck, this may simply be the somewhat obvious 'almost-insight' that broader customer experience with a product or service is one of the most compelling factors of a brand success - especially if this experience is shared. I can't find any publicly available research, but I would suggest that online point-of-purchase sharing is likely to reach further and be the more influential than the special opinion sites or blogs. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough. Perhaps ORC has done further research in this area. But perhaps Amazon, Circuit City, travel sites and others have researched and understood this to be an insight.

A while back I was surprised that there were not more customer purchase reviews prominently displayed on more large retail sites. But I've recently noticed that many more large retailers, such as Best Buy, who did not appear to feature for many months after Circuit City did, prominently display this customer service now. Even Kmart prominently features customer reviews around their products now. Perhaps delays in getting here were because it means more work for the retailer (they have to collect, vet and post the reviews). But of course there are programs that once set up, will do most if not all of the work.

So the real influencers in the online space may be less the professional users of the product or service, and more those that have purchased the product from a large volume retailer. Perhaps an underlying 'almost-insight' is that point-of-purchase customer reviews may help to make online purchases feel smarter or safer than those made strictly in a bricks and mortar location.

In the meantime, if you are the type that likes to do more research online for a lot of different purchases (versus at point-of-purchase), you may want to check out and bookmark: Customer Feedback Central: 100 Places to Find Reviews for Every Product.

Cheers, The Spaniard