How to make word of mouth last longer

New research explores why some word-of-mouth discussions last longer — and what leaders, marketers, and managers can learn from them.

Word of mouth can be one of the most powerful forms of advertising. A Super Bowl ad or a gigantic billboard can make an impression, but often, the real goal is to get people talking. And the longer people talk about a product, service, or experience, the more persuasive that conversation can become.

So what keeps people talking about the same topic longer? That's what Reihane Boghrati, assistant professor of information systems, and Jonah Berger of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania set out to understand. Their paper, "What Leads to Longer Word of Mouth Discussion?" was published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

What kinds of questions keep people talking?

Previous research has shown that questions play an important role in conversations. "It's very natural, maybe not even surprising, that if you ask questions, you keep talking," Boghrati says.

But not all questions have the same effect.

"If you're asking broad questions that have lots of possibilities for answers," Boghrati says, "it's more likely that you move away from the original subject because you are opening up an opportunity to think about something else. With narrow questions, there is a more limited set of answers, which can help you stay on topic."

The researchers also studied the role of concrete language. It takes more mental effort to picture a general category, such as dinner, than a specific dish, like chicken teriyaki.

How did the researchers test conversation length?

How much do narrow questions and concrete language extend conversations about a particular topic? And are longer conversations more persuasive? Boghrati and Berger designed two studies to find out.

In the first study, the researchers worked with 192 participants, divided into 96 pairs. To capture real word-of-mouth conversations rather than getting-to-know-you chitchat, participants signed up with someone they already knew. Each person listed five brands, products, services, or experiences they thought their partner didn't know much about. Both participants then rated their interest in discussing each topic. Each pair was randomly assigned a starting topic and given 10 minutes to talk, with the option to move on to other preselected topics at any time. Afterward, participants rated how much they enjoyed discussing each topic and how persuasive they found the conversation.

COVID-19 lockdowns began during the conversation portion of the study, requiring the researchers to shift some conversations from in-person to Zoom. "In a sense, it was useful because we could show that it doesn't matter if people talk face to face or over Zoom," Boghrati says. "You still see the same effect."

The researchers recorded and transcribed the conversations, then broke them into discussion topics. They marked where participants changed topics, identified whether questions were broad or narrow, and measured the concreteness of language in each conversational turn. Then they analyzed whether those language choices predicted how long participants stayed with a topic.

The researchers found that discussions lasted longer when participants used narrow questions and concrete language. Longer discussions were also more persuasive and more enjoyable.

Would people talk the same way without assigned topics?

Still, the researchers wanted to know whether the first study's results were influenced by asking participants to list their conversation topics in advance. So in a second study, they created a more natural setting: Participants signed up with someone they already knew and were told they could talk for 10 minutes about anything they wanted. "They talked about brands like Starbucks and Trader Joe's," Boghrati and Berger write, "products like shoes and wine, services like TikTok and insurance, and experiences like weightlifting and boating."

In the second study, the researchers collected 125 conversations, broke the transcripts into topics, and again analyzed discussion length, question type, and language concreteness. The results were consistent with the first study: Participants stayed with topics longer when they asked narrow questions and used concrete language.

What can leaders and marketers learn?

The findings could be useful well beyond marketing, Boghrati says, including for fundraisers, business leaders, managers, or anyone trying to keep a conversation focused.

"If you want to keep your customers, employees, or other audience engaged with a particular topic, you might want to use narrow questions," she says. "If there's an idea you want to bring into focus, or you want to get to the point of implementing the idea, narrow questions can help people stay on a topic, and concrete language can help everyone vividly understand what's happening."

That doesn't mean broad questions are bad, Boghrati adds. They can be useful for opening up discussion, brainstorming, or encouraging people to explore new directions. But for leaders who want to keep people focused on one topic, the type of question matters.

The findings offer a timely reminder for International Day of Listening on Sept. 17: Keeping a conversation going isn’t just about asking more questions. It’s about asking the kinds of questions that help people stay engaged, focused, and understood.