What is a Badvocate? – they are the negative counterpart to advocates. Having customers that are advocates is good, having customers that are badvocates is bad.

A recent study undertaken byWeber Shandwick suggested that 45% of consumers are advocates. The global survey, “New Wave of Advocacy,” provides compelling evidence of the shift, and identifies Advocates among consumer groups that actively support and undermine brands, causes and issues.

Where the survey becomes really interesting is when it goes into detail about the survey methodology.

Weber Shandwick surveyed 583 consumers, 21 years and older, in nine countries: Australia, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, U.K. and U.S. Interviewing was conducted online by KRC Research between March 13 – 26, 2007. The margin of error is ±4.1 percentage points.

So they surveyed 583 people in nine countries and this constitutes a global survey??

In the June edition of InterVIEW (the newsletter of the Market Research Society) the call was put out to put the spotlight on fluffy self serving research. Examples would be polled by Market Research association members. I think I have found one here. I’ll update on how it goes.