This is old content! The Research Blog has been retired. For the new stuff, visit 
From the Archives: Networks of Interpersonal Relations, Circa 1957
Advertising and personal selling are not the only ways to get product information to consumers, ways Robert C. Brooks Jr. in his October 1957 Journal of Marketing article, titled "'Word of Mouth' Advertising in Selling New Products." Brooks -- then a member of the Marketing Department at the University of Georgia -- suggests that powerful "networks of interpersonal relations" that exist in the consumer market often are used to spread product information.
The research, which is taken from new product data, shows a correlation between interpersonal networks and product acquisition. For instance, though the use of air conditioning units might average 10-per-block, clusters are common and the pattern of the clusters follows the friendship patters of children and spouses of early adopters. A similar pattern in a study of new drug adoption suggests that doctors who are integrated into the medical community adopt new medications more rapidly than doctors who are more isolated.