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Ipsos MORI Identifies Today's Influencers
Ipsos MORI has identified a class of 'super consumers', who the firm says have the power to influence their friends on corporate issues, politics and the environment.
Dubbed as the 'New Influencers', Ipsos MORI says this segment is having a significant effect on friends and families. The group comprises 'ordinary' consumers with a wider network of friends than 'average people', and the research shows that they are twice as likely to boycott a company or product and will encourage their friends to do the same. They are also three times more likely to discuss big business at family mealtimes and twice as likely to discuss politics at dinner parties. [Hmm, they sound like a riot - Ed.]
Ipsos MORI Research Director David Racadio suggests: 'In a world where peer-to-peer communications is increasingly important and the trend towards user-generated content is democratising the media, New Influencers are a powerful channel of support that business and political leaders need to win over if they want their products or policies to succeed.'
Corporate responsibility is high on the New Influencer agenda, with 41% believing that the social responsibility of companies is very important to their purchasing decisions, compared with 31% of the general public.
This differs widely across the globe. According to Racadio, people in Latin America are the most likely to consider corporate responsibility as very important when shopping for goods and services: 'Latin American markets are rich in natural resources and are perhaps at the cutting edge of corporate responsibility as their countries try to balance the need for social and economic development with the impact of deforestation and pollution.'
Environmental issues are rated the top or second priority for companies to deal with in all of the 23 countries surveyed. On average, 62% of people felt strongly that companies should be doing more to tackle environmental problems, compared with 71% of New Influencers who strongly agree that companies should pay more attention to the environment.
Ipsos MORI's Global Corporate Responsibility study was conducted online last October among 23,306 adults and 3,131 New Influencers. The firm is on the web at www.ipsos-mori.com.
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