The Story

Yesterday, I attended the AMA’s Forward 08 non-traditional marketing event. There was a notable concentration on word of mouth marketing - what works, what doesn’t, and why it’s important. The importance is pretty obvious (people trust their peers more than they trust advertising). But some people might still be asking: what creates successful word of mouth marketing?

To answer that question, I have summarized several ideas of the speakers Andy Sernovitz and Mrinal Desai. Both had some pretty good pointers on generating buzz through word of mouth.

Give people something that makes them look smart, cool, or in-the-know

• Example: UNIQLO, a Japanese clothing retailer, tells select fans ahead of time about when a pop-up store is going to open in their city. If the store is opening on Friday, these lucky few will know about it Thursday evening. The only real benefit of this knowledge is that they get to be the first one to tell all their friends, earning them immediate coolness points.

Constantly give people new reasons to talk

• Example: Everyone knows Google is cool, but we still talk about it. Why? Because they’re constantly doing new things to keep us interested. The latest from the Google camp is unique artist themes allowing you to customize the search engine on your computer.

Your talkers are not your buyers

• Example: Lasik providers realized that there was an audience just as big as their patients: the folks who were driving the patients to the clinics. Knowing this, Lasik started paying to have these people’s cars detailed while they waited for their buddies to get out of surgery - thus creating a whole big group of talkers.

Word of mouth topics are not product features

• Example: Back in the mid-90s, Apple created a huge word of mouth buzz with their new computers. But people weren’t talking about the impressive technical attributes of the machines, they were talking about the color. Apple’s new desktops were cute - they came in lots of bright, friendly colors and consumers loved it. In essence, it was the very least important thing about the computer that was creating the most buzz.

Converted haters are your biggest talkers

• Example: Mrinal Desai, co-founder and VP of CrossLoop, makes an effort to answer almost every email and comment made about his company. He has experienced success in changing some people’s minds for the better about CrossLoop. These folks end up being some of his biggest talkers.

New love is powerful

• Example: People talk most when they first discover something they love. When Apple released the first iPhone, they had one shot to get it right. Luckily, most people loved it, and were very very very vocal about that love.

Happy customers are your best ads

• Example: The popular online shoe retailer, Zappos.com, gets 75% of its customers through word of mouth. The company’s philosophy is that every single employee is in customer service. Over 300 of Zappos’ team members are on Twitter keeping touch with customers. This is their fundamental business strategy - building relationships to make people happy. Once when someone called in and randomly ordered a pizza, the representative on the line actually sent him one. I bet that guy was talking about Zappos for a long time.

Be honest

• Example: Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, was busted for praising Whole Foods and knocking competition under an anonymous nickname online. When the embarrassing facts were revealed, it definitely got people talking - but not in a good way. Lesson learned, be honest and transparent.

Finally, just ask yourself: Would anybody tell a friend? The answer to this has got to be an absolute ‘Yes’, otherwise, it’s not going to get anyone talking.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Other, Kick Ass Ideas & Musings, Experiential Marketing, Branding, Corporate branding, Experiential Brands, Apple Branding & Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.