Worth talking about: word-of-mouth marketing.

• Position: Marketing News - Brief article

What are consumers saying to ach other about bank brands and products? According to a new study about banking and word-of-mouth marketing, there is both good and bad news.

The good news is the consumers talk a lot about their banks, says the report entitled, "Opportunity Missed? TalkTrack Insights on Word of Mouth About Banks," which was done by Keller Fay Group, a market research company focused exclusively on word-of-mouth marketing. The company is located in New Brunswick, N.J.

On a typical day, 35 percent of Americans have word-of-mouth conversations about financial services products or brands. Further banks accounted for 44 percent of all financial brand-specific word-of-mouth discussion--a much greater share than financial conglomerates (18 percent), investment firms (14 percent), general "stock talk" (10 percent) and credit cards (8 percent).

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Now the bad news: 36 percent of these bank conversations contained no recommendation, and only 26 percent contained a strong recommendation to buy or try the brand--11 points lower than for other consumer categories.

"When you consider the incredibly powerful...