Q1.
Have your family members bought some product because their friends or relatives suggested it to them?
Answer
Almost every family has — and this is one of the oldest ways of judging quality, older than any certification mark.
Typical examples: the tailor a cousin recommended; the brand of cement an uncle used for his house; the school bag that lasted a neighbour's child three years; the doctor a colleague trusted; the tuition teacher an elder sister's friend named; the make of cycle a classmate's family swears by.
Why it happens: the chapter calls this the reputation of the product, “built through word of mouth”. A relative has no reason to mislead you and has actually used the product for months — so their opinion carries information that no advertisement can. It is free, it is trusted, and it comes from a person you can go back and question.
Its modern form. When you shop online there are no friends standing beside you, so the platform supplies thousands of strangers instead: “online reviews and feedback from other consumers about products and services help us decide whether to buy or not while shopping online.”
| Word of mouth | Online reviews | |
|---|---|---|
| Who tells you | A few people you know and trust | Thousands of strangers |
| Strength | You can ask follow-up questions and see the product at their home | Sheer numbers, star ratings, photographs and videos from real buyers |
| Weakness | Very few opinions; may not suit your need | Some reviews are fake or paid for; hard to know who wrote them |
Tip: use reviews the way you would use a friend's advice — read a few of the middling ones, not only the five-star and one-star extremes. They usually tell you what the product is actually like.