Word of Mouth Marketing. 2007 Qtr 4
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MB Journal Book Review
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Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking
In the late 1990’s, TiVo created a buzz in the marketplace by developing the first-ever digital video recorder. Instead of implementing an extensive marketing campaign, which can be quite costly, TiVo tapped into its users' loyalty and extreme enthusiasm to spread the word about TiVo. It worked. Grassroots buzz and word-of-mouth referrals helped spread the word about TiVo.
“Satisfied customers who will spread word of mouth are the most powerful assets a company can have.”
Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing
TiVo, like many companies have discovered the power of Word of Mouth Marketing, a concept explained by marketing expert, Andy Sernovitz in his new book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. Customers are quickly becoming the wielders of power in today’s marketplace, forcing companies to take notice of what customers are saying about their products and/or services. Sernovitz takes a simple but practical approach to illustrate how a company, product or service can use word of mouth marketing to drive sales and increase market share.
More Than Just Marketing
Defined as “Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff, and making it easier for that conversation to take place,” word of mouth marketing is similar to other forms of marketing. This new specialty is actionable, trackable and plannable but there’s one big difference — it’s FREE!
According to Sernovitz, word of mouth marketing is becoming the most important, most effective, and most ethical way to promote a company. The rise in consumer control of the media, blogs and social networks are changing advertising forever. This book discusses how this phenomenon has happened — and what we all need to do to keep it happening.
At the root of word of mouth marketing is
the concept of being remarkable.
Servonitz refers to best-selling author and marketing guru, Seth Godin’s Purple Cow theory, which explains that a product or service must be “remarkable” but not in the traditional sense. Remarkable in this case means a product or service is worthy of remarking on or worthy of saying something about.
Word of mouth is about genuine consumer conversations. Word of mouth marketing is joining that conversation, participating in it, but never manipulating, faking or degrading its fundamental honesty in any way.
Five T’s
While the first part of the book is dedicated to helping the reader understand this marketing phenomenon, the second part of book focuses on the steps a company can take to actually implement a word of mouth marketing plan. Using real-life examples, Servonitz explains how to build a successful word of mouth marketing plan by implementing the “Five T’s.”
- Talkers: Find people who will talk about you
- Topics: Give people a reason to talk
- Tools: Help the message spread faster and further
- Taking part: Join the conversation
- Tracking: Measure and understand what people are saying
To do these things well, according to Servonitz, always remember the three reasons people talk. They want to feel good, they want to help others and they want to belong to a group.
Does it Really Work?
After attending Andy Servonitz’s presentation on the book, we put the theory to the test. We wanted to enlighten our colleagues about the benefits of this fast-growing phenomenon, so we decided to call a meeting with all the staff. Rather than doing the customary email announcement, we put word of mouth principles into action by giving people something to talk about. We identified who we believed to be our “talkers” and placed a donut on their desk with a card inviting them to the meeting and instructing them to pass the card along to someone else so they could receive a “special prize.” These cards eventually made it around the office and before long, people were buzzing about this special prize and the upcoming meeting. In four short days, this inexpensive and simple method of communicating led to a successful meeting — and a lot of donuts consumed!