GfK Romania: Romanians rather praise than criticize the products they use

Cristina Blanaru Marketing, Studies

Romanian rather praise than criticize the products they use, according to a marketing research made by GfK Romania to study Romanian consumers opinion regarding the influence of word of mouth.

Personal experience with a certain product or brand is the main factor that generates word of mouth (WOM), no matter if this is a positive or a negative one. 57% of Romanians are satisfied after using a product or a service, while only 42% say they weren’t happy with it.

The second factor that leads to transmit further WOM is the recommendation received from another person. Specialists, commercial advertising or TV shows, newspapers, magazines or info read in social media have a smaller impact over transmitting WOM towards another person.

Over half Romanians had, generally, more positive experiences with products and services available on market. When people are satisfied by a certain product or service, besides that they will continue to buy it, a third of them are sharing their experiences with someone right after it happened, and a third of them are discussing about this experience when a similar situation occurs.

Only 6% are rather unhappy with products and services they have access at, them being likely to generate more positive WOM when they have a pleasant surprise with a product, compared to people that are usually happy with the products they yse.

More than 30% of respondents generated many or a lot of recommendation in the last 3 months for at least one of the 10 analyzed categories of products:  cars, savings or investments, decorations for the house, food and drinks, free time places (restaurants, cinema, concerts, holidays), electronics/computers/technology (TV, computer, mobile phone, photo camera), personal care products, clothes / shoes, health care and education services.

The main brands there is WOM for in Romania are: food and drinks, personal care products, house cleaning products, technology (electronics, computers), clothes/shoes and healt care products. Products categories for which are generated recommendations are, to a smaller extent, cars and money savings / investments.

GfK Romania, founded in 1992, is an integral part of GfK Group. For 10 years, GfK Romania has been the number 1 market research institute in Romania. Its activities are structured into five segments: Custom Research – Ad Hoc qualitative and quantitative research for a wide range of industries (consumer goods, telecommunications and IT, finance, retail, tourism, automotive, industrial goods), Consumer Tracking – continuous research for consumer goods, Retail and Technology – continuous research for durable goods, Media – qualitative and quantitative research on the consumption of media products and Healthcare- qualitative and quantitative research in all medical fields.