The likelihood of buying a product increases when I find a review that comes along with it. I learn of a product from what I see online and on TV, their advertisements and the information in their website, but what really helps me make a decision on what is best for me are the reviews posted online.
Formal marketers will only tell us of the best features of the products, they will never tell us about their flaws. In fact, advertisements and information provided by the company will sometimes exaggerate of the product’s excellence to persuade us to buy the product. Most of the times I can’t trust this information. On the other hand, the reviews tell me the real strengths and weaknesses of the product and whether or not I’ll be able to live with them. I trust them because they are posted by people like me, consumers who have nothing to win or lose by promoting or discouraging the use of the product. Further, I trust these sources because I have a variety to choose from. There are many reviews about the same product; so, if I don’t trust one I read the next one.
Therefore I really believe what was said in the article, when they say businesses should facilitate the creation of the user generated content as it is not only free advertising and marketing research but also a way to increase trust and confidence when a consumer is about to buy a product.
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2 comments:
I agree, just using formal marketing to decide what to buy is the not the best way to go about finding the best product to consume. However I think we also can't trust a lot of the reviews we read on the internet. As we can see from people advertising on our blogs that not everyone we percieve as regular people are actually advertisers in disguise.
I do agree that UGC does give us a more objective review of products because as you stated marketers just tell you the benefits of products and don't discuss their weaknesses. Thus, I think UGC is a "great equalizer" leveling out the power between the big companies (who used to be able to control what the public knew about their product) and the ordinary "Joe Consumer" who can now point out product weaknesses to a wide audience.
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