I'm writing a book on branding. I need a more current stat on the
impact of WOM in regards to product promotion. I found a McKinnsey
report from 2000, my publisher says that too old.

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Clarification of Question by kp2222-ga on 24 May 2004 04:29 PDT

thank you for that. I was aware of that source (bzzagents), in fact
they are already in my book. My publisher wants a stat or study.

this site has helpful information the the subject...

http://www.bzzagent.com/pages/WordOfMouth.jsp

There is a current poll at FastCompany for the Question: 

"What`s the most important thing to do when working to generate 100% pure buzz?"
( http://www.fastcompany.com/poll/?x=1274 )

The online poll (above) was first compiled on Fri 21st May 2004 and is
maintained by Heath Row.

You could take a look at the following book:

The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential
Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth

( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0814470726/qid=1085651034/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9288435-5079250?v=glance&s=books
)

The author is George Silverman and you can contact him by going to the
following link:
http://www.mnav.com/george.htm
His company address is:
Market Navigation, Inc.
60 Dutch Hill Road
2 Prel Plaza
Orangeburg, NY 10962 
Voice 845 365-0123; Fax 845 365-0122 

It would seem that his company (Market Navigation, Inc.) conducts
Primary Research on this subject.  I suspect that his book may have
something of value, but I have to admit that I have not read it.  The
book was published in April 2001.

He has also wrote the article:
How and Why to Research Word of Mouth
By George Silverman

The article appeared in: Quick's Marketing Research Review, December, 1997
http://www.mnav.com/H2ResWom.htm

At the bottom of the web page it states:
"What you think? We'd be happy to send further information, answer any
questions or respond to comments"

The question you asked is a difficult one, but I hope you find something of use.
Just for the record About.com may have the answer as to why it is
difficult to find stats on the subject:

"Why is viral marketing not researched more? There are two strong
reasons behind this:

Marketers think that when they are researching peoples' attitudes,
beliefs, intentions, tastes, and preferences, they are indirectly
researching word of mouth (since those are the factors which drive
it).
They believe that word of mouth cannot be influenced considerably, so
any attempts to research it would be fruitless."

http://marketing.about.com/cs/viralmarketing/a/viralvalue.htm

Kind Regards,
tomjones-ga

your research works for me. Thank you for finding an answer. Turns out
George and I have the smae publisher.

Looks like a small world after all.  I am happy you found the answer useful.

I have a couple of extra things that may help if you need them.

Firstly, as of 24th May 2004 "WOMMA: the Word Of Mouth Marketing
Association" went public.

( http://womma.com )
There is a button at the bottom of the page that takes you to a form
that you can fill in and ask for information.  Alternatively, you can
contact them directly:

Pete Blackshaw, Intelliseek 
513-608-8913 
pblackshaw@intelliseek.com 

Dave Balter, BzzAgent 
617-308-8377 
dbalter@bzzagent.com

Secondly, Seth Godin wrote a book called: "Unleashing the Ideavirus"
Publisher: Hyperion 
Date: October 10, 2001
( http://www.ideavirus.com )

He may well be worth contacting, I am sure he will have some good
stats/cases that would be useful.

seth@sethgodin.com
http://www.sethgodin.com

Good luck with the book, I hope it is a best seller.