Promoting Products to Cynical Consumers:: One Method Discussed at a Forum: Word-of-mouth ads.

When it comes to advertising, Americans have gone from cynicism to active resistance.

Almost two-thirds of us say we are extremely concerned about the practices of marketers. Nearly half think the amount of marketing and advertising is out of control.

"Trust has eroded to the point now where we are almost in a state of distrust in the marketplace," Steve Bodhaine, group president of Yankelovich Inc., said yesterday, citing his company's surveys.

Bodhaine, who runs The Segmentation Co., a custom research division of Yankelovich, spoke at a conference on marketing in the 21st century at St. Joseph's University. He and others discussed how to promote products to savvy, stressed-out, demanding consumers.

One trendy way is to let consumers play a bigger role in critiquing and selling products. Companies are enlisting thousands of influential consumers to try new stuff, hoping they will say good things to their friends.

"Many people look at us as new media," said Steve Knox, chief executive officer of Tremor, a word-of-mouth marketing company created by Procter & Gamble Co. that sends new products and marketing information to 225,000 well-connected teens and 600,000 moms. "No. We're old media. We're the oldest media." More than 90 percent of word-of-mouth advertising is "offline," he added.

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