Word of Mouth (word-of-mouth)

any independent person-to-person communication about a product, service, experience or entity. The passing of information by verbal means, especially recommendations, but also general information, in an informal, person-to-person manner, rather than by mass media, advertising, organized publication, or traditional marketing. Word of Mouth is typically considered a spoken communication, although web dialogue, such as blogs, message boards and emails are often now included in the definition.

Word of Mouth promotion is highly valued by marketers. It is felt that this form of communication has valuable source credibility. People are more inclined to believe Word of Mouth promotion than more formal forms of promotion because the communicator is unlikely to have an ulterior motive. Also people tend to believe people that they know.

Brand Marketers use word of mouth to make campaigns go further.