I’ve been reading. A piece from the McKinsey Quarterly entitled: “A new way to measure word-of mouth marketing.”

And McKinsey guys reckon: “Marketers may spend millions of dollars on elaborately conceived advertising campaigns, yet often what really makes up a consumer’s mind is not only simple but also free: a word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source.”…”As online communities increase in size, number, and character, marketers have come to recognize word of mouth’s growing importance.” They talk about a “tectonic power shift toward consumers.”

And here’s where we quick flexible online folk come in:

“Messages can be directed at specific individuals who are most likely to spread positive word of mouth through their social networks. As a message spreads, this approach generates an exponential word-of-mouth impact, similar to the ripple effect when a pebble is dropped in a pond.”

Here’s the full piece

And welcome to the new world. Where the reputations of musicians with the kind of word of mouth which goes straight in, cuts deep and stays internalized for life (Parker, Monk, Mingus…) can only go on growing.

Picture : A La Bourse: Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
ca. 1878–79. Pastel on paper, pieced and laid down on canvas. Metropolitan Museum New York