Word of mouth in America is a key driver in consumer decision making. Positive word of mouth creates brand evangelism. Negative word of mouth can spell disaster for efforts to build a groundswell

76% of Americans don’t believe advertising – Yankelovich, 2005

92% of Americans rate WOM of friends, family, and others as the best source of ideas and information (up from 67% in 1997) – GfK NOP/Roper 2005

WOM ranked as #1 driver of directly influencing technology or services purchase decisions – CNET Business Network

85% of U.S. marketing executives plan to incorporate WOM, customer evangelism and blogs into their marketing mix – CMO Magazine Survey

74% of people hearing a personal, negative recommendation, were influenced to buy another brand – Millward Brown, 2005