How Much do You Trust Advertising?

Nielsen recently did a survey regarding people’s “trust” in various forms of advertising (see the graph below).

Remarkably, the two top categories of trust involved word of mouth!  All other forms of advertising were substantially lower than the top two (word-of-mouth approaches).  Furthermore, 82% of all forms of advertising (other than word of mouth) showed that more than half of all people didn’t trust that form of advertising much at all!

The media often asks me why networking is so important.  I think the graph below clearly demonstrates why networking is so important for business growth and success.  It’s important to note that I believe in advertising; I also believe that referrals and networking are a form of advertising and I’ve been saying for many years that business networking (i.e., referral marketing) is the most cost effective form of advertising.

This independent study clearly confirms the power of word-of-mouth advertising.  Weigh in here – what are your thoughts on the matter?

10 thoughts on “How Much do You Trust Advertising?

  1. I totally agree that word of mouth is the best form of advertising. My husband and I have owned several businesses over the years and as long as we provided excellent service, we had many people referring us to their friends and family. I, personally, also tend to gravitate to those businesses that my friends and colleagues refer me to. It has always worked for me!

  2. Word of Mouth and Referral business has been the mainstay of our travel business since 1981. Four out of the five closed business calls today were referrals from clients or BNI members! Know, like and trust……perfect recipe for business.

  3. Creating awareness, consideration, trial and regular usage are the 4 steps in marketing. Advertising has maximum role in creating mass awareness overnight and new products are the biggest beneficiaries.

    And even large corporates survives on positive word of mouth to sustain their growth.

    For SMEs now the viable platform in the form of BNI is there to become strong enough to sustain advertisement cost and grow in to a Corporate.

  4. Word of mouth works, because of the trust from the person, who pasted it own, but with my business it works both ways, when it comes to business. I get business from the high tech as well as the high touch.

  5. Mastering these confirmed and also effective advertising means can generate earnings guides for the business in any business.
    Pay per lead or cover per appointment is a a lot more are priced at effective solution to the traditional method of gathering leads.
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