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Home→The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing→W→word-of-mouth

word-of-mouth

Definition:
A narrow interpretation of the effect of personal influence on the flow of mass communications. In a seminal study (Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communication, 1966) Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld developed what has become known as the 'two-step flow' theory which holds that communications do not move directly from the mass media to the consumer but are translated or transmitted through the intervention of opinion leaders. There is considerable empirical evidence to support this theory but it is difficult to operationalize it as opinion leaders do not possess any distinctive characteristics which apply across the board. Rather, opinion leaders are recognized as such by their peer group by virtue of their perceived expertise and knowledge on a particular subject and it is quite likely that on other topics they will be 'followers' rather than leaders'. That said, identifying opinion leaders holds considerable promise for accelerating the diffusion of an innovation if they can be profiled at reasonable cost. See ADOPTER CATEGORIES.

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[adopter categories]

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© Westburn Publishers Ltd 2002, The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing edited by Michael J Baker, ISBN 978-0-946433-01-8. www.themarketingdictionary.com. Entry: [Michael J. Baker], [1998].