Spending where people trust.....

I was reading an interesting post this morning at Church of the Customer about a new Neilson Study that shows that word of mouth is the best way to reach consumers.

The chart below shows the forms of media most "trusted" by consumers.  Its amazing how big of a role recommendations play in the purchase decision.  Importantly, the only REAL way to get good word-of-mouth and recommendations is to have a great product, that people love and want to talk about.  What you can then do from a marketing perspective is ENABLE people to talk about it.  How do you make it easy for people to talk about how great you are?

What would be interesting would be to compare how companies SPEND their advertising dollars vs. the mediums that drive customers to purchase.  With so many marketing dollars still going towards advertising, you have to wonder when companies will shift their dollars towards the mediums that people CARE about.

Do you spend your marketing dollars on the mediums that people trust?