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For the Jaco Pastorius album, see Word of Mouth (Jaco Pastorius album). Word of mouth (WOM) , aka Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM), is the passing of information by verbal means, especially recommendations, but also general information, in an informal, person-to-person manner, rather than by mass media, advertising, organized publication, or traditional marketing. Word of mouth is typically considered a spoken communication, although web dialogue, such as blogs, message boards and emails are often now included in the definition. There is some overlap in meaning between word of mouth and the following: rumour, gossip, innuendo, and hearsay; however the negative connotations of these words are not included in the meaning of word of mouth.
Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) Word of mouth promotion, also known as buzz marketing, is highly valued by marketers. It is felt that this form of communication has valuable source credibility. People are more inclined to believe word of mouth promotion than more formal forms of promotion because the communicator was satisfied by the goods or services provided and is unlikely to have an ulterior motive (ie.: they are not out to sell you something) (for evidence as to the conditions under which word-of-mouth communication is effective, see Grewal et al. 2003). Also people tend to believe people that they know. In order to manufacture word of mouth communications, marketers use publicity techniques. Word-of-mouth effects in the life cycle of cultural goods have been mathematically modelled (Hidalgo, Castro & Rodriguez-Sickert 2006). See also | ||||||||
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