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With college examinations on in Orissa, a wind of reforms is blowing across its higher education system. Be it conducting of exams, evaluation of papers, introduction of uniforms in colleges, radical remedies are being prescribed by stakeholders to mak…

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I agree that “being in the know” may also be an affecting element.

And I think that companies should always disclose their involvement in marketing activities. But I say that for ethical reasons - and not just because the results might be better by doing so.

… and 3) there’s a sense of being “in the know” when you receive information that’s part of an organized WOMM program (because it might be a new product or something especially interesting about an existing one in order to warrant being part of an …

I agree that I don’t think the 1) existing relationship between the program participant and the conversational partner and 2) the credibility emerging from disclosure (and the existing relationship) are themselves enough to explain the higher pass-along rates. I think a third element might also be at work, which is there’s a sense of being “in the know” when you receive information that’s part of an organized WOM marketing program (because it might be a new product or something especially interesting about an existing one in order to warrant being part of an organized program). I wrote about this third element in a recent blog post as a possible explanation of the findings (http://wom-study.blogspot.com/2006/01/to-tell-or-not-to-tell-question-about.html).

Two other comments:

First, I would suggest that an important implication of the study is for companies to require disclosure in their organized WOM programs. The findings lend some weight to the potential wisdom of that decision. I think there a few other implications as well that I discuss at the end of the report but it’s the reader’s decision to see if they’re “major” or not
Second, I agree that WOM can be tricky to measure and it is essential to remember that there needs to be a balance between understanding WOM and measuring WOM. Part of the challenge in measuring WOM is respecting that its basis is in people’s everyday routine conversations and relationships.