I witnessed firsthand how word of mouth can influence the decision making process.
Yesterday my wife and I happened to be in Sarasota, Florida during the Atlantis Space Shuttle launch. I wasn’t aware of the launch until my wife mentioned it. It was 11:00 EST and we were planning to leave for the day. The shuttle was scheduled to launch at 11:15. She asked if I had read anything about whether the launch had been cancelled or not. I happened to be online and couldn’t find any news about a cancellation.
We turned on the television in our hotel room and discovered the shuttle was due to launch in a matter of minutes.
My wife had lived in St. Petersburg, Florida during the 1970s. She said she had been able to see a Apollo launch from her home at night even though Cape Canaveral was 150 miles from St. Petersburg.
We both thought there was a possibility we could see the launch from the club section of our hotel.
We got our bearings and walked across the hall. We told one of the staff what we were planning to do. She got excited because she had never seen a shuttle launch. She disappeared and within a minute reappeared with two of her coworkers.
All of us then became excited at the thought of seeing something we had never seen before live – albeit from over a 170 miles away – a Space Shuttle launch.
Shortly thereafter the five of us watched the Space Shuttle Atlantis ascend into the sunny Florida sky.
My wife and I may have seen the shuttle launch but the other three surely wouldn’t have had they not been referred to the event by word of mouth.
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