Two Key Points on How Word-of-Mouth Transforms Marketing Messages

Online virtual marketing, word-of-mouth and social media are important platforms for marketing. Sometimes we just send messages out there and hope that they will be repeated. Research in the Journal of Marketing indicates that this isn't always true (Kozinets, et. al. 2018). Often such marketing messages are adjusted and changed by the people who repeat them creating new meanings not necessarily intended by the marketer.

1.) WOM is not simply an amplification of the marketing message.

Marketing messages may improve the volume of a marketing channel and create more "hit" on a site but they are not simply an amplified message. People who repeat them because the message resonates with something they believe in. As they encode new information they change it and repeat it in a new way.

2.) Marketers should consider how messages transform to resonate.

This changing and repeating information creates a dilemma for some marketers. Some may not want their messages changes or adjusted but it will happen nevertheless. Having a solid understanding of what type of people the message will attract will help to predict the ways in which it will be repeated. 

Kozinets, et. al. (2018). Networked Narratives: Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Online Communities. Journal of Marketing, 74 (2).