Word of mouth rules for Europeans' grocery purchase decisions

KEY INSIGHTS
• In spite of an abundance of online information, good old-fashioned word of mouth is the key source when making grocery purchase decisions. More western European consumers turn to family and friends than any other source. Spain is the exception, where the internet (53%) narrowly edges out family and friends (52%).
• In the UK and France, word of mouth has the greatest dominance over other sources of information.
• Consumers are perhaps not as cynical as marketers think—at least one type of advertising appears in the top three for all countries, outranking sources like articles and reviews.
• The internet may be a go-to source for information, but internet advertisements lag in the influence stakes, outranked by TV advertisements in all countries and print advertisements in all countries except Spain.


WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
• Despite the ever-increasing availability of grocery product information, consumers are still relying most on word of mouth. The key to being heard by consumers isn't more information, but instead more trust