I respectfully differ in my opinion that false or manipulated reviews are not differentiable. As you mention, Gen Y’ers are tech savvy and do their homework before making a [relatively] significant purchase. After reading several reviews of the same product, any self-respecting Gen Y would be able to get a reasonable idea of which reviews were more veracious than others.

Simply put, a worked review would contain little if any negative aspects. I’m always wary of reviews that are overly positive; even the best products and services have their flaws, and if a reviewer is unable to detect them, either due to lack of expertise or because a third party has their paws involved, that reviewer has lost all credibility in my opinion.

I’d say this post is definitely accurate. If I ever step into a store, 95% of the time I already know exactly what I want, and if I even interact with a sales associate, it’s to find where my item is. If they try anything more than that, they’re just annoying and in the way.

I agree that reviews should optimally be kept as pure as possible. We can’t really stop companies and employees from reviewing themselves, unless we limit who can post reviews (for example only after you have completed a purchase).

But companies should encourage users to leave feedback and make this an easy and natural task when browsing. Eventually the user community will edit itself, and hopefully genuine reviews will be appreciated more than obvious self promotion.

I hope companies don’t start infiltrating reviews as a means of advertising. Otherwise, it will all degenerate into something like the state of webhosting advertising — it’s nearly impossible to discriminate genuine vs fake reviews.

As a shopper, I’m like a Gen-Yer. Occasionally I’ll buy something just because it’s a good deal. But only if it’s something I’ve already been thinking about getting. Most of the time I know exactly what I’m looking for, what features, and what’s the cheapest price it can be found for online. I also know that some of the “experts” working at these stores (like I used to) only know what they’ve learned online, from personal experience, and what they’ve had to ask the boss. In other words, just because you work somewhere doesn’t mean you’re an expert on every product in the store.

And I have a lot less money, so of course I price shop.

Technically, I’m a Gen-Jones-er which is really a different demographic than Boomers. We get ignored in the larger scheme of things in sales and marketing even though we include people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs among our ranks.

The difference is, they trust the online community much more than a sales rep. Thus, reviews are crucial sources of information. And the most useful ones are usually reviews submitted by regular web users.

In order to be able to influence web based decision making, marketers need to be present in Google as well as in various social settings.

(Yeah, ok, ok, there are no other types of politician. I know.)

It’ll be interesting to see what the next gen does. I think we’re up for a bad bout of goldenagism. Corporations will be bent through their workers, not by deals between the shareholders and the White House. And I’ll do my damnedest to bring it about, too. Makes sense, to a simple generation Y’er.

- Mei