Social trends and word of mouth

So we talked about word of mouth and social trends on monday. I think word of mouth is one of the most interesting ways to advertise something. It's cheap but very effective or at least can be.

I'm interested to learn more about how corporate people try to get something going word of mouth though. I don't really understand why the average person would listen to a corporate person who is boosting their own product. I'm not saying I'm against it at all. I just don't really understand it.

The story about those hush puppy shoes was really interesting. What a lucky break. It reminded me of another story about shoes though circumstances were different. The converse chuck taylors were dying out several years ago. You could buy them for like 20 bucks. Then nike swooped in and saved them. Now chuck taylor are everywhere in many different collors and patterns. Nike is really popular in Japan and over there they sell shoes in tons of patterns and designs. I guess they realized they could sell more chucks by applying that idea to here in the states. Suddenly chucks are now 40 dollars or more. I own two pairs myself. Recently the one stars started disappearing from everywhere too. I bought a pair for 20 bux and it was the last one in a shoe star. This year I noticed they signed some kind of deal with target and now you can buy them again for 30 bucks at Target. It's not word of mouth, but it was taking advantage of a social trend. Everyone I know lately has been wearing converse. A lot of young people wear them. Some like those interesting colors since a lot of the wearers are: punks, goths, indie etc.