Back in the day, you had to wait for a newspaper or magazine to review a book, or the latest gadget. The internet changed the game. Today we’re inundated with reviews from everyday people. You can type in the model number of a product and get thousands of hits and 100’s of opinions from review sites and the average joe.

Quickly sketching out a timeline, it might look something like this.

From one perspective, choice is great. On the other hand, it is that much tougher to stand out from all the other choices. From a marketing perspective, it seems that a lot of companies rely soley on one track (usually SEM)  to get the word out about their products. In a world of choice, you need to attack from multiple angles and one of the best ways is to motivate your users to become your biggest cheerleaders and influencers to their social circle. Of course, to do this you need to have a great product that excites people. If your product isn’t that great, then you need a much bigger marketing budget. (just ask Microsoft about Vista – he he, I kid, I kid)