Word of Mouth is Powerful Marketing: It’s Science!

Social Media : It’s Powerful Because Our Minds Aren’t

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Survey after survey have shown how word-of-mouth is a powerful force in helping people form decisions on what to buy or what to think of brands and products. Fresh Chat has list of some of the latest data on word-of-mouth:

  • “Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchase” (AdAge, April, 2008)
  • Consumers trust friends above experts when it comes to product recommendations (65% trust friends, 27% trust experts, 8% trust celebrities). (Yankelovich)

Such trust among friends and connections only has been the basis of the allure of social media and why it is one of the pivotal forces in shaping a brand. But why? Why are anecdotal evidence – like user reviews – so convincing? It’s apparently hardwired into our brains.

Recently, an article in the Scientific American declared that “These anecdotal associations are so powerful that they cause people to ignore contrary evidence”.

The article goes in further to describe brains as more geared towards “belief engines” rather than scientifically-centric:

The reason for this cognitive disconnect is that we have evolved brains that pay attention to anecdotes because false positives (believing there is a connection between A and B when there is not) are usually harmless, whereas false negatives (believing there is no connection between A and B when there is) may take you out of the gene pool. Our brains are belief engines that employ association learning to seek and find patterns. Superstition and belief in magic are millions of years old, whereas science, with its methods of controlling for intervening variables to circumvent false positives, is only a few hundred years old. So it is that any medical huckster promising that A will cure B has only to advertise a handful of successful anecdotes in the form of testimonials.

The article goes on describe beliefs that continue to prove popularity despite like solid scientific evidence: from concerns about vaccines and autism to health benefits of wheatgrass.


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4 responses to “Word of Mouth is Powerful Marketing: It’s Science!”

  1. pelf Avatar

    Word of mouth is definitely powerful. My Advisor has been running a long-term marine turtle conservation program in Malaysia, and we word of mouth has enabled volunteers from all over the world to participate in the program.

    Who would have thought, a decade ago, that people would be paying USD 250 to spend a week in an private beach, doing nothing but watching turtles lay eggs?

  2. Daniel R Avatar
    Daniel R

    Hi Pelf,

    That sounds pretty cool, plus I love turtles. My friend had a pet turtle growing up.

    But I definitely agree, hearing people tell about their personal experience is a huge motivator to help be comfortable in making big purchases. I would of never gone to Burning Man, if it wasn’t for all the random people I’ve met that swears by Burning Man.

  3. Lesley White Avatar

    Hi Daniel, A belated thanks for citing Freshchat.

  4. […] If enough people believe in something it can be as good as real. Like I blogged about yesterday, anecdotal stories are powerful forces effecting products, brands and company images. And it is part of how our brains are generally […]

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