media
Millennials are tech-savvy. Millennials live in their social networks through mobile devices. But, guess what? They share most of their conversations offline in person!
According to Keller Fay Group’s TalkTrack® May 2013 – April 2014,Despite their tech savvy, 84% of [Millennials’] WOM (word-of-mouth) impressions are as a result of offline conversations, primarily face-to-face.”
This is quite shocking considering that Millennials are a communicative generation, accounting for 689 million WOM impressions about brands per day. And, I always thought they had their thumbs buried in Facebook pages. Who knew?
So, what are they discussing?
It doesn’t matter whether you work for a business, nonprofit, or government agency, you’re likely to have LGBT customers (unless you live in Russia). It’s important to use their preferred terms when you refer, and market to, these communities.
Community Marketing Inc. has recently released the results of its 7th Annual LGBT Community Survey USA Report that demonstrates how gay men, lesbians, and transgendered favor certain terms over others when it comes to use by corporations. Take note of these results as reported by MarketingCharts:
- Asked how they feel about a list of terms when they see them used by a corporation, a leading 77% of gay men and 87% of lesbians indicated a favorable attitude towards the use of the term “LGBT.”
- “Gay & Lesbian” was deemed favorable by an equal percentage of gay men, though by slightly fewer lesbian (71%) respondents. In fact, lesbians were slightly more favorable towards the term “Lesbian & Gay” (72%), with 6 in 10 gay men agreeing.
- Only 28% of gay men and 38% of lesbians are favorable to corporate use of the word “Rainbow,” while even fewer (16% and 23%, respectively) feel the same way about the term “Queer.”
- Bisexual men (52%), bisexual women (39%) and transgender (33%) respondents had lower favorable ratings for the term “Gay & Lesbian.” Transgender respondents also welcome corporate use of the term “LGBTQ,” with 72% favorable to its use.
- To describe relationships in the LGBT community in the media or advertising, 73% of respondents overall have a positive attitude towards the term “Spouse,” with “Partners” (67%) and “Same-sex couple” (63%) gaining the next-most positive ratings.
Do these results surprise you? Have you been using the “correct” terms or do you need to make some changes? Please share.
It’s not like this is a new topic. Vendors, manufacturers, consumer product goods suppliers, consultant companies, and associations have conducted marketing research for years in an attempt to influence our purchasing decisions.
The dairy boards and councils told us their studies demonstrate that butter was better for us than margarine, even when healthcare professionals told us that it wasn’t. The cattlemen’s associations and beef publications tell us that eating beef is a healthy part of our diets. Ask the heart associations and stroke nonprofits if that’s the case.
How many TV spots and ad campaigns have been built around statistics? Four out of five dentists recommend Crest to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Four in ten Americans choose Tide.
Now, with the rise of digital marketing comes a flurry of survey results that demonstrate the value proposition for companies’ products and services. Some recent examples include:
- Ifbyphone’s “State of Marketing Measurement: Survey Report” ranked inbound phone calls the highest marketing tool for effectiveness in generating sales leads. Ifbyphone is a voice-based marketing automation supplier.
- BrightEdge’s “2013 Search Marketer Survey” demonstrates that 6 in 10 search marketers believe that it will be either much more (27%) or more (36%) important to rank in global search engines this year compared to last. BrightEdge “is the first SEO platform to deliver proven ROI - enabling marketers to increase revenue from organic search in a measurable and predictable way.”
- The Newspaper Association of America hired Nielsen to conduct a study that reveals newspapers (in print and on the Internet) as the most effective advertising source among various media.
What can we believe? Where do self interests take over?
I’ve blogged many times referring to similar studies. When I think the respondent pool was limited or too homogeneous, I’ll say so. If I think the results may be skewed because of the way the questions were posed, I’ll say so.
Let’s face it. Anyone can use survey software to create a bunch of questions, but there’s an actual science to it. Without posing options the correct way, answers are likelier to be inaccurate.
Hey, I’m just as guilty as the next blogger who uses surveys to support a point or influence readers. That’s the nature of blogging, isn’t it? That’s why bloggers are not journalists. We share our opinions, sometimes based on our experiences and sometimes based on statistics or ‘facts.’
So, my friends, why am I writing about this? Because, we should all take vendor and supplier surveys and studies in stride. Some can be biased and not based on sound marketing research techniques.
Look, we all have an agenda, from individuals to large corporations. Let’s acknowledge it and use our filters accordingly.
What do YOU think? What has been your experience with these types of surveys?
Resources:
Six Reasons Why I Eat Meat Every Day — Mondays, Too (Beef Daily)
