Is Word-of-Mouth Advertising Becoming Obsolete?

Some smaller companies rely very heavily on word of mouth advertising. Why? It comes down to a few simple reasons. One being the heavy cost of advertising in today's world, and another being that they want to appeal to a certain target audience or a certain geographic location that is more centered around where their stores are located. One example of a national level of word of mouth advertising is that of The Walking Company. Specializing in comfort shoes, The Walking Company has over 250 stores throughout the United States and a few located in Canada. Based in California and being so large of a chain, most people would think that they would allow some money towards advertising. In a sense, they do. They have advertisements on Pinterest and located in their stores in shopping malls or plazas. What they do not do, however, is commercial or web-based video advertising. The Walking Company has had some very good success with this. Each of its retail locations, of which there are over 250, pulls in $1 million annually. Some locations do between $1.5 and $2 million depending on where they're located. In my mind, it seems as though The Walking Company has deployed some successful word of mouth campaigns. Sure there are companies that really cannot do it well, but if a company is established well enough and has a loyal customer base, as well as delivers quality products, word of mouth advertising will continue to be one of the most effective forms of advertising out there.