Information AboutWord Of Mouth |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT WORD OF MOUTH | |
| consumer behaviour | |
| viral marketing | |
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''Word of mouth'', is a reference to the passing of Information by verbal means, especially recommendations, but also general information, in an informal, person-to-person manner. Word of mouth is typically considered a face-to-face spoken communication, although phone conversations, text messages sent via SMS and web dialogue, such as online profile pages, blog posts, message board threads, instant messages and emails are often now included in the definition of word of mouth.''' There is some overlap in meaning between word of mouth and the following: Rumour , Gossip , Innuendo , and Hearsay ; however word of mouth is more commonly used to describe positive information being spread rather than negative, although this is not always the case. COMPARISON TO WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING (WOMM) See Also: Word of mouth marketing Word of mouth Promotion , also known as buzz marketing and viral advertising, is an attempt by marketers to make use of the word-of-mouth "channel" in promoting certain products or services. It is felt that this form of communication has valuable source credibility, as people are generally inclined to trust someone's opinion if they feel that it is offered freely and without prompting, compulsion, or personal interest in communicating the information. People are more inclined to believe word of mouth promotion than more formal forms of promotion (i.e. Advertising ) because it is assumed that the communicator was satisfied by the goods or services provided and is unlikely to have an ulterior motive (i.e. they are not out to sell you something). Also, people tend to believe people whom they know. While any marketers places extreme value on word-of-mouth, this has historically been achieved by creating products or services that generate such "buzz" naturally. The relatively new method of WOMM bypasses the need to create satisfied customers, and instead attempts to inject positive "buzz" into conversations directly. While marketers have always hoped to achieve word-of-mouth, many suggest there are serious Ethical Concerns in trying to generate word of mouth directly. Word-of-mouth effects in the life cycle of cultural goods have been mathematically modelled.César A. Hidalgo, A. Castro and Carlos Rodriguez-Sickert, 'The effect of social interactions in the primary life cycle of motion pictures,' New Journal of Physics, April, 2006. For evidence as to the conditions under which word-of-mouth communication is effective, see Grewal et al. 2003. With the increasing use of the Internet as a research and communications platform, word of mouth has become an even more powerful and useful resource for consumers and marketers. Tracking this online 'buzz' has led to the rise of a range of services and tools known as Buzz Monitoring within the sphere of Online Public Relations . SEE ALSO
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