What movie have you watched recently?
What beauty soap
have you been using?
What song have
inspired you most?
What food is your
favorite?
One time, a friend was really funny in telling me
about a movie that he have just watched. He told me about the story, the visual effects, the characters and how creative the movie was. I have been really curious that on the next day I brought another friend with me and watched the
movie. When we got home, the people around us was so amazed to hear us talking
about the movie. The next day I was giving a talk in a seminar and I was
actually relating the movie in my topic. 
Another morning, I woke up with a head ache and went
to the store to buy some medicine. The sales lady made me choose among five
brands that were effective in removing head aches, I end up buying the one see
recommended to me that according to her was effective based on her experience.
When i got home I went to the kitchen to have some breakfast with my mother,
after I finished eating I brought out the medicine from my pocket and a glass
of water. When my mother saw me, I told her I have a headache and she brought
out a medicine box and handed me another brand of medicine that according to
her was effective. I end up drinking 5 medicines on 3 hours interval that day
and never got a chance to analyze which brand was effective.
People especially our family and friends tend to
recommend medicines, soaps, clothes, food and movie to each and everyone. Not
just on emergency cases but even on small chit-chats, we always look for topics
to discuss with to create communication and built or maintain our relationship.
Caring is another factor why we do this, because we want other people to have
good experience or quick solutions to their problem by recommending things that
we have experienced ourselves.
It is different from advertising, people advertise
because they were paid to do so. They create flyers, brochures, audio or even television commercials to
recommend the product that paid them a price. Product endorsers tends to research or try to test and experience the
product first before they endorse it, but some or maybe just a few tend to do
it just for the money.
When we recommend or endorse products we put our names
with it. When it become helpful to the user they also share the product with
others which becomes their recommendation with our names removed and their
names on the front. But when the recommended product isn't effective, expect
for the blame and the labeling of never to get recommendations from you again.
Word of mouth is a lifestyle, many company tries to
use it for their benefit. There are ethical ways to maximize word of mouth on a
business, But some company are abusing this medium which in turns damages or
even destroy relationships. My recommendation to business owners or endorsers
(not just the high-earning artists but down to the sales persons who wants
their product be sold) If you want your product to maximize the real power of
word of mouth do not just invest on promoting your product big time, start with
your few buyers and invest on the benefit and effectiveness of your product.
Soon you will have these buyers endorsing your product that you don't have to
pay them fees. It will become their lifestyle, your products will be
recommended and you will have advertising for free. That's the real power of
word of mouth.
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