▶ Your Answer :
There might be some people believe that
reviews from magazines or comments from online communities have the most impact
on consumers’ choices. However, I personally disagree with the above idea for
the two following subsequent reasons. First, friends are more reliable than any
other sources regarding the buying decision. Second, mates have similar
interests and particular needs.
To begin with, information from friends are
more trustworthy than other sources. To be specific, magazine or online reviews
are somewhat advertisement like. Authors are sometimes rewarded by companies
who want to promote their products. However, friends are not monetary rewarded
and gives more exact evaluation of the product. Let me bring up my personal
story as an example, for example, I was considering to purchase laptop computer
last year and had problem with choosing between two major brands. I could not
find any honest reviews and rational evaluations of those products in magazines
and the internet. But, two of my friends had the laptops and I could hear their
opinions, which help me decide which to buy.
On top of that, mates are in same consumer
category. This is because, friends are roughly same age and have same
interests. Hence, your needs are similar to your friends' and intimate people's
recommendation and judgement of a particular product is more appropriate than
those of magazines and online blogs. According to a research done by Australian
center for marketing research, ACMR, people are prone to buy a product if their
friends already have bought one. This result was supported by that 70% of the
respondents of the survey answered that word of mouth from their friends have
the most critical impact.
To sum up, friends' recommendation is the
most crucial in a consumer behavior because mates are reliable and have common
interests. In this regard, friends have the significant impact on buyers'
purchasing decisions. |