Free Access to 'Word-of-Mouth Communication and Opinion Leadership'

They say nothing in life is free.  Well, I hate to prove the pundits wrong, but the people behind the online Henry Stewart Stewart talks are featuring my installment in Michael R. Solomon's new series, Why We Buy: Understanding Consumer Behavior, as their free talk of the month.  So anyone can have access to the full 58-minute presentation, free of charge.  At the end of October, however, we go back to nothing in life is free.

The presentation can be found at the following link :

 http://hstalks.com/main/view_talk.php?t=2622&c=250

Let me know what you think.

WOM Recommendations: In A Nutshell

There are three types of word of mouth in terms of directionality:  positive (a recommendation), negative (advice against), and neutral.

Neutral, you ask?  Sure.  Imagine a friend telling you that a new bike rental stand will be set up outside your place of employment.  You drive a car and have no interest in riding a bike.  Well, that's your problem.  But you probably don't care one way or another about that piece of information your friend passed along to you (and which you might pass along to another friend at work who doesn't own a car) - it's neutral.  But from the marketer's perspective, that information could be disseminated through a relatively inexpensive advertising or direct marketing campaign.  What is interesting when it comes to efforts to leverage WOM is a positive recommendation.  And the following infographic neatly summarizes a few key points about it.