RENANA PERES: Indeed, word of mouth has a double role.
It has the role of enhancing and accelerating and make
processes happen faster and deal in a larger scale.
But it also has this role of blocking the competition, of
making your customers--
by the fact that you make customers your customers, you
also in a way own their word of mouth.
Now, it's never full, because we know that word of mouth
leaks between brands.
I can have iPhone and then talk to you, and then you will
be convinced to buy a smartphone, but you will end
buying BlackBerry because of price promotions or service
provider, all kinds of thing.
So there is this leakage.
And this leakage is very, very interesting and is also one of
the topics we explore.
But still, part of the word of mouth is brand specific.
So once you acquire your customers, you also own part
of their word of mouth.
You gain some share in their word of mouth.
And therefore, you get some more competitive edge, which
increases over time as the word of
mouth process increases.
And this is again something that firms should be aware of.
The process doesn't end with the purchase, even with a
one-time purchase product, but it grows for a longer time
through the word of mouth process.
