FORUM - Word of mouse - An assessment of electronic word-of-mouth research

Michael Breazeale

Word-of-mouth (WOM) communication has received a great deal of attention from marketing academics and practitioners alike.

FORUM – Word of mouse – An assessment of electronic word-of-mouth research

Michael BreazealeMississippi State University

INTRODUCTION

Word-of-mouth (WOM) communication has been defined as 'oral, person-to-person communication between a receiver and a communicator whom the receiver perceives as non-commercial, regarding a brand, product, or service' (Arndt 1967). Additionally, its nature has been described as fleeting because it 'vanishes as soon as it is uttered, for it occurs in a spontaneous manner and then disappears' (Stern 1994).In the age of the internet, however, that caveat no longer applies. WOM no longer vanishes instantly and it is not necessarily...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands