Word of mouth is more effective than advertising for spreading information about a product, even if the ties between participants are weak. That's the key finding in the study "Talk of the Network: A Complex Systems Look at the Underlying Process of Word-of-Mouth" by Jacob Goldenberg, Barak Libai, and Eitan Muller. While advertising can be effective beyond an early stage of the growth cycle of the new product, the study found that its influence quickly diminishes.
Other findings include:
* The effect of strong ties diminishes as personal network size decreases. When personal networks are small, weak ties were found to have a stronger impact on information dissemination than strong ties.
* The influence of weak ties is at least as strong as the influence of strong ties. Their effect approximates or exceeds that of strong ties, in all stages of the product life cycle.
Source: Marketing Letters, "Talk of the Network: A Complex Systems Look at the Underlying Process of Word-of-Mouth" by Jacob Goldenberg, Barak Libai, and Eitan Muller
Source: http://www.womma.org/research/studies/wom_more_effect.htm
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- Jeffrey Summers
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