A new post from eMarketer, Americans Want Brands that Inform, highlights the results of a recent Lightspeed Research study, The Global Web Index.
Some great nuggets in this data. None of this info is Earth-shattering, but it should come as great encouragement for marketers that are pushing for consumer engagement through social media, quality content development and authentic consumer relationship building.
A few salient take-aways:
- People want brands to enrich them with knowledge, not just provide a product or service.
- People want (and expect) brands to be present in places other than the place of purchase.
- Social media engagement fosters trust. When it comes to making purchasing decisions we trust bloggers we read regularly and contacts within our social networks more than we trust mainstream media sources.
For your additional reference, I've embedded a presentation from Anita Caras, Head of Research EMEA from Microsoft, that uses the GWI data.
Future Web, Global Web Index 23rd September 2009. The New Role For Brands