WORD OF MOUTH is 5000X as powerful as Conventional Marketing. Why?

In my speech at WOMMA, I outlined why WOM is 5000 times as powerful as Conventional Marketing. The abbreviated proof goes like this: we are exposed to about 3000 commercial communications a week. We act on about one a week (“act” may only mean investigate, not buy). That’s one in 15,000. When a friend calls and recommends a movie, book or other product to you specifically, you are likely to act on about one in three, often buying without investigating. So, just looking at the probability of acting, not whether it results in a purchase, you have a ratio of 15,000 to 3, or about 5000 times the power. Measurements are starting to come in, confirming this figure.

Why the power? Aside from the obvious credibility engendered by an independent source, word of mouth is an experience delivery system, as I explain in my book, “The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth.” It saves people the time, effort, discomfort, uncertainty of making decisions. We all like to take the path of least resistance in areas we are not expert, or areas that don’t turn us on. So, we rely on other people. Experience delivery: That’s mainly where word of mouth gets most of its power, even more than its independence.

Once they realize how powerful WOM is, it is going to attract a lot of sleezballs, just like telemarketing, email, advertising, etc. There is one difference. When people are manipulated by WOM, such as phony experts, shills, etc., they will feel much more violated than the ever did with conventional marketing, where they expect advocacy, with its inevitable spin, hype, omission, distortion  (SHOD [you heard it here first!]) SHODdy marketing annoys people, but they expect it and mostly forgive it. But if you put an industry expert or a colleague up to -- even inadvertently misrepresenting a product -- you will see a backlash like you have never seen before. It will probably destroy the product and maybe even the company.

Actually, this may be what protects us. People play with firecrackers, sometimes even dynamite, but never nuclear materials that are 5000X as powerful as conventional materials.

George Silverman,
President, Market Navigation, Inc.
www.mnav.com

Comments

[Jon Capriola]

Awsome and agree 100%