Viral Marketing

First and foremost, I am very upset that I cannot dedicate more time to writing this post since I love viral marketing. For this reason, I have a feeling I will revisit this topic later this evening, once my retailing test is over and not consuming my soul anymore. 

After skimming the chapters for today (sorry Alisa), I decided to Google search viral marketing. I found an interesting fact on Wikipedia that says "a customer tells an average of three people about a product he/she likes, and 11 people about a product or service which he/she did not like." This shows that people will trust their peers more than marketers, which isn't surprise. Paul Gillin touches on this subject in "The New Influencers" when he discusses customer preference. I know from personal experience, I take my peers' opinions over any marketers since I know they are just trying to sell their product or service.

For example, I am going on a cruise this summer for spring break. Instead of just looking on Carnival's Web site and listening to Carla (our wonderful travel agent), I looked at other independent sites. I found TripAdvisor to be the most helpful, since this is a forum for people to share their traveling experiences. The site features reviews about everything imaginable and even has pictures available to look at from complete strangers' trips. After looking at unbiased information, I made my decision and know I will have a great time based off of others' experiences.