Why we listen to recommendations.
The other day I took my Dad for a Father’s Day brunch at a great diner a short drive from my home. How did I know about the diner? I heard it on a podcast. OK, nothing particularly unusual about that. But why are people persuaded by recommendations on podcasts, on social media, or anywhere else for that matter?
Importantly, the recommendation was not an advert. Neither was the podcaster sponsored to refer to the diner. He simply mentioned, in passing, that there was a great diner near his home – and he happens to live near me.
There is a theory that explains the impact of such recommendations. Known as Warranting Theory, essentially the theory states that positive reviews are more powerful when they come from an independent reviewer. The original theory (Walther and Parks, 2002) posited that information about another person is valued more when the receiver knows that the person in question could not have manipulated it e.g. when students ask their lecturer to provide a reference to an employer, they know that the employer values the objective view of a lecturer.
In the modern world, brands often offer journalists or social media influencers new products or free trials of new services. The hope is that they might use and therefore mention these products and services. Of course, overt payment is also an option, and there are advantages of repeatedly seeing adverts (more on the ‘mere exposure effect’ another time). However, many marketers know that customers are likely to be more persuaded by a review. In particular, Sun, Kang and Zhao (2023) have recently shown that reviews relating to product quality have a strong effect on customers.
The learning from this? Given that customers know adverts are generally paid for by the advertiser, many assume that adverts are likely to be biased. Have you ever seen a brand deliberately criticise itself in an advert? Therefore, if you are a marketer yourself, consider working with independent source to offer a review or trial. Yes, it’s a risk, but if the product or service is as good as you intend it to be, it’s probably a risk worth taking.
Sun, B., Kang, M., & Zhao, S. (2023). How online reviews with different influencing factors affect the diffusion of new products. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 47(4), 1377-1396.
Walther, J. B., Parks, M.R. (2002). Cues filtered out, cues filtered in: Computer mediated communication and relationships. Handbook of interpersonal communication, 3, 529.
Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash
