consumers` product recommendations insights through social

SOCIAL SOLUTIONS
CONSUMERS’ PRODUCT
RECOMMENDATIONS INSIGHTS THROUGH
SOCIAL NETWORKS IN LATIN AMERICA
What we wanted to know:
What we did:
Where do Latin American consumers go for
products and brand recommendations before
making a big purchase? How about before making a
smaller purchase? What social networks do they use
to ask questions about products or brands?
Our investigation covered 9 Latin American
markets and hundreds of participants who
voluntarily filled out an MSN Survey with specific
questions on how they go about getting products
recommendations, what social networks they use
to get this information and how this shapes their
purchase decision based on more or less expensive
product recommendations.
What we learned:
Despite the rise of social networks and common believe or apparent perception that a great amount of
information we receive from products and brands is through these social networks, ‘In person recommendations’
and ‘Product review websites’ still dominate the product recommendation space in Latin America.
The fact that consumers look for recommendations on a more or less expensive product didn’t make that big
of a difference. Although obviously the more expensive the product the more consumers go for ‘In person
recommendations’ and ‘Products review websites’.
The online service consumers used the most to discuss products recommendations is ‘Email’. ‘MSN Messenger’
comes in second and ‘Facebook’ is a far third.
MSN SURVEY
RECOMMENDATIONS
BEFORE PURCHASING
A PRODUCT
Research Objective
To understand Latin American consumers’ behavior and
conversations about product recommendations and
brands before making a purchase.
Markets Covered &
Survey Timeframe
Markets
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Columbia
Latin America
Mexico
Peru
Venezuela
Base
Data collection period: : 12th Dec11 to 4th Jan 2012.
34
156
4
36
28
51
9
6
Methodology
Web based online interviews were conducted.
The survey was published on MSN Homepages of 9
LATAM markets.
Key Information
Areas
Source of recommendation before purchase of
expensive/moderately expensive/less expensive product.
Online service primarily used to discuss purchase of
expensive/moderately expensive/less expensive product
with friends and family.
MSN SURVEY
RECOMMENDATIONS
BEFORE PURCHASING
A PRODUCT
Source of Product Recommendation Across LATAM
57% ‘IN PERSON’
60
percentage of recommendations
across three product types
50
‘In Person’ recommendations are the first source of
recommendations - across the three product types
(expensive, moderately expensive and less expensive
products) is high. ‘In Person’ is significantly higher
for expensive products compared to the other two
types of products in Brazil.
57%
40
30
31%
31% ‘PRODUCT REVIEW WEBSITES’
20
10
15%
0
12%
‘Product review websites’ is the second main
source of recommendations. ‘Product review
websites’ is significantly higher in Brazil and
Mexico.
15% ‘OVER THE PHONE’
In third place is ‘Over The Phone’.
Types of recommendations
12%* ‘MSN MESSENGER’ & ‘FACEBOOK’
‘MSN Messenger’ & ‘Facebook’ closely following
together at 12%
MSN Messenger
Younger audience (between ’22-35’ years) getting
recommendation from ‘MSN Messenger’ AND
using MSN Messenger as their main online service
to discuss these recommendations for expensive
products is significantly higher than older population
(between 46-55 years) (33% vs 15%).
*Avg 12% before purchasing all three types of products.
LATAM MARKETS JANUARY 2012
Online Service for Discussion of Product Recommendation Across LATAM
‘Email’ is the primarily used online service to
discuss purchase of the three product types
(expensive, moderately expensive and less
expensive products).
21% ‘MSN MESSENGER’
‘MSN Messenger’ is the second main online
service used to discuss purchase of the three
product types (especially in Brazil).
17% FACEBOOK
Facebook comes in third at 17%
percentage of online service to discuss
purchase of three product types
26% ‘EMAIL’
30
20
26%
21%
17%
10
0
Online Service
Mexico is the exception
Mexico is the exception where ‘MSN Messenger’ and
‘Facebook’ are the primary online services used to
discuss purchase of the three product types when
compared to ‘Email’ (Avg 24% each respectively vs
Avg 17% ‘Email’).
24%
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