Chalk this one up to internet rubbernecking. And if you’re similarly inclined to slow down and watch, you might enjoy the back and forth going on in the Marketing community over “word of mouth” (WOM) marketing.

The latest hostilities (I’m assuming this has been brewing for a while since I’ve come across some occasional debate on the subject) started with a post (Link) by Jack Trout over on Forbes called “Is Word Of Mouth All It’s Cracked Up To Be?” which, to be honest, wasn’t all that bad imo.

Friendly(?) fire came from George Silverman, author of a book on WOM and considered by some – I guess – to be “the father of word-of-mouth marketing”; he didn’t think Jack’s comments were very good. And he says so (Link).

Close to the sidelines but rooting for George is the Brand Autopsy blog where I first read (Link) about this little civil war percolating in the Marketing community. He adds some good comments … until that last little swipe which sounds to me like a bad political tagline. Maybe that was an example of why consumers prefer WOM to artificially constructed messages.

Now I could justify my posting this entry on the fact that WOM is a big part of the economic system I see developing within and around the future 3D internet. But the truth is, as an industrial designer, I’m getting a kick out of the controversy for its own sake and intend to find time to visit a few trackbacks. This is the kind of drahma I like.

I know. I’m bad. Now go read those posts … because, ummm, WOM will be a big part of the future 3D internet.