3rd party reviewing

Companies looking to increase their marketing and sales efforts should turn their efforts to social media tools like Twitter, Orkut, blogging and Facebook, but there is still nothing like word-of-mouth - or in the internet age, the online review. While many companies are putting time and effort into the newest marketing efforts, it's the product review that often gives them the most accurate feedback for companies big and small. Whatever you are buying, especially if it is a high involvement purchase, the review is what makes me buy it. All your marketing efforts go to the bin as I suspect foul play to fool me or trick me. This is the attitude of the consumer. A positive review has more influence than hundreds of dollars spent on advertising.

And while there is a dearth of websites devoted to reviews, many companies choose to allow consumers to review products on their own site - something that allows them to not only get positive feedback, but to quickly change course if a product is getting poor reviews i.e. the rectification part. I believe this is a good phenomenon but I would like to get a review from a 3rd party blog which I expect to be honest and direct.

This is bad news for the firm if it is ignoring these 3rd party, independent reviewers because they influence your sales and marketing. Put together a cross-functional team that cuts across product development, merchandising, sourcing, inventory, e-commerce, creative and quality which reads these reviews and ensure all complaints are solved and there is a happy ending in each and every story.

What should a consumer do before going for a high involvement purchase? Check for these blogs, twitter, Orkut, Facebook, etc. for a review and then buy!