Word-of-mouth marketing: a new mandate?

Jonathan Carson, president and CEO of BuzzMetrics and co-founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, describes the immense impact that WOM (word-of-mouth) is having on media, consumers and markets.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing: A New Mandate?

Jonathan Carson

Mediaedge:cia's in-house think-tank, MediaLab, released a fascinating white paper last year on word of mouth. The report, titled Where's Debbie, is loaded with interesting insight, but it was a quote in the introduction that was especially noteworthy:

'Word of mouth is acknowledged to be one of the strongest drivers of market-place influence, yet it remains an enigma for marketers [because] intuitively accessible theories on how word of mouth works do not connect with research methodologies which allow for accountable planning, implementation and evaluation of word of mouth strategies.'

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