Okay, I should start off with the disclaimer…
I discovered a citation from 1820 about “word of mouth” in historical documents referencing cash rewards for gunfighters, highwaymen, and vigilantes captured dead or alive during the settlement of the West. These may have been the first incentive-based agents in history. This first-use of the phrase word of mouth could be confirmed by Don Imus and Casey Kasem who were living during that time.
A little humor but it does raise the question: where’s the research in recent word of mouth advertising books? I’m in the process of reviewing WOM marketing models in three recent books Pyro Marketing, Buzzmarketing, and Grapevine. It’s early but I’m seeing lots of prose but not much in the way of step-by-step frameworks. You may also want to read my post on Scott Kisner’s piece on trusting buzz.
Since I’m on the research kick, I’ve provided links to a bunch of research documents I found on Google Scholar. Please scroll on down to check them out…
http://www.womma.org/womlibrary.htm
http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~herlock/papers/aaai-99.pdf
http://www.marketing-online.co.uk/ch8.pdf
2 responses so far ↓
Chet Geschickter // Nov 22, 2005 at 9:39 am
I recommend that you also check out:
http://wom-study.blogspot.com/2005/08/whats-all-buzz-about.html
for a paper by Walter Carl, a Northeastern University professor that is focusing on WOM.
Thanks for all the links! I’m checking them out as I am interested in the topic as well.
Administrator // Nov 24, 2005 at 1:10 pm
Thanks Chet!
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