▶ Your Answer :
People rely on various sources when they make
a decision on a major purchase. There are several options they can choose:
recommendation from friends, information from magazines, and reviews from
online communities. Some people might consider information from magazines or online
reviews. However, I would take ask my friends’ recommendation most importantly.
There are several reasons and examples as follows.
First, friends are more reliable than magazines
and websites. This is because friends are not influenced by certain kind of
interests as magazines do, but also they provide more honest opinion since they
are not anonymous as online reviews are. For example, when I bought a new smartphone,
I asked around my friends and searched information and reviews from both magazine
and website. I could only find favorable information towards certain brands from
magazines because they gained a lot of revenues by advertising their products. Furthermore,
when I read online reviews, there were so much unrelated information and even
unfair critiques about the products. This made it harder for me to judge because
I didn’t know what to trust. When I asked several friends of mine about this,
they gave me detailed and honest opinion about the brand they were using. I
purchased a new phone based on their opinion and I am still using it with
satisfaction.
On top of that, friends can give more
useful advice because they know my situation better and they can accompany with
me in person on the day of purchase, whereas other sources do not provide
information tailored to my specific needs. For instance, one of my friends
Carole moved to a new apartment and had to buy some furniture such as chairs, table,
etc. Several friends including me went to the furniture store with her. As we
knew her taste, we could help her to find appropriate furniture easily. Furthermore,
since we were in the place together, it was easier to give her tips which greatly
helped her to make decisions. If she depended on information from magazines or
online reviews, she would have had trouble making a right judgement.
All things considered, I strongly believe
that the advantages of asking suggestions from friends for a big purchase far
outweigh those of other options for the reasons I have mentioned above. In this
regard, the impact of friends’ recommendation cannot be overestimated in our
lives.
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