June 2006
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Word of mouth has always affected whether a movie does well or poorly at the box office. Now, the hyper-connected audience has blogs, text messaging, and other tools that have the potential to spread positive or negative WOM on the very first day of a film's release. Such is the case especially with summer genre films like "X3" and the upcoming "Superman Returns". One company, M80, has been hired by studios to work with fans and help them be positive advocates for the film. To avoid any backlash, the company insisted on complete transparency and educated its advocates to be up front about their relationship and identity.
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Writing in Chief Marketer, Promise Phelon of The Phelon Group pointed out that satisfied customers' willingness to talk about your company and refer others can be an indicator of your company's ability to meet and exceed expectations. Dissatisfied customers are often forward-leaning warning signs for businesses that have made bad decisions or going in the wrong direction. Encouraging your advocates to talk about you positively can help, but even at this stage there are warning signs of a failing relationship between the company and its customers, including:
* Customers willing to talk demand deep discounts, cash, or "points" first.
* Customer willingness to speak publicly about you is "vapor" and the happy customers must be re-qualified every time they are approached.
* Customers always seem to have an excuse for why they can't talk about you, no matter what's offered in return.
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One natural topic for consumer conversations has always been "How do I get the best deal on travel?" Consumers have come together to form an online community called BiddingForTravel.com to share their winning bids with each other after using travel bidding sites like Priceline and Hotwire. By bringing consumers together to talk and share with each other, the community enables them to come away with helpful data to make more informed bidding decisions.
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Online WOM tools like review and recommendation web sites have made it easier than ever for consumers to switch providers. Because of this, companies are going to have a harder time retaining their customers. That's the key conclusion from a December 2005 study from GfK NOP and Accenture. The study emphasized that customer retention -- via outstanding service, price, and product -- have become more important than ever.
Other key findings include:
* 82% of consumers said they would continue to buy things from companies to whom they consider themselves loyal.
* 74% would recommend the company to others.
* Of consumers willing to switch providers, 80% are motivated by price, compared to 58% motivated by better service and 48% by better products.
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Financial Express: An International Perspective on WOM
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Adweek: IPG Forms User-Generated Practice
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Rohit Bhargava: For Consumers, it Pays to be Creative
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Learn WOM in 16 real-world case studies from big brands including: Clorox, Disneyland Resort, DuPont, Goodyear, Harvard Law School, Intuit, KFOG Radio, The Learning Channel, Microsoft, Pedigree, Sara Lee, Sprint Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Tide Coldwater, TiVo, Virgin Mobile, Xbox, Whiskas, and more.
WOMBAT 2 is:
* Two days of intense learning
* Practical, hands-on advice
* 16 case studies
* 16 how-to courses
* Unbeatable networking
Everything you need to be successful in word of mouth.
WOMMA's Word of Mouth Basic Training 2
June 20-21 -- San Francisco
LEARN TO GET PEOPLE TALKING
http://womma.org/wombat2
Dunlop Tires is the latest brand marketer to use podcasts to connect with customers. Instead of merely using audio, however, Dunlop is going full-throttle with video. The site features clips following the action at the Drivers Cup and includes interviews with the leading drivers in D-1 drifting. The entire effort is aimed at reaching the company's influencer customer, or what it calls the "in-the-know driver".
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How do you get people so excited about a product that they'll tell their friends and spread the word? It starts with an interesting story that people will want to talk to each other about and pass along to their friends. The story is the key, according to Bryan Lukas, associate professor of marketing in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne.
The professor cited Krispy Kreme as an example of where a good story creates WOM. Instead of buying expensive ads, new stores are launched by giving away free donuts. Excited customers tell their friends about the free giveaways, who tell their friends, and so on.
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Have you heard about NOSCRUF, the National Organization of Social Crusaders Repulsed by Unshaven Faces? Created by Gillette as part of a viral campaign to promote its new electric razor, the fictional organization "protests" men who go unshaven (encouraging them to use the new razor, of course). The campaign is classic viral. It uses humor promote an otherwise ordinary product and catchy, tongue-in-cheek video clips have been seeded on YouTube to make it easy to watch and pass along.
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Small companies do a better job leveraging word of mouth tools such as blogs and message boards -- and often allow company employees to engage with customers more freely and directly -- than large companies with more ad dollars to spend. Those are the key findings of a new study from Jupiter Research, which also found:
* 44% of small businesses ran corporate blogs, compared to only 24% of larger firms.
* 74% of smaller businesses posted information on a web site to generate buzz, versus 61% of larger companies.
* 30% of smaller businesses allowed employees to maintain blogs, compared to 22% of bigger businesses.
Link to Jupiter report
Gary Stein commentary on WOM Research blog
BtoB: Gary Spangler on WOM Ethics
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Fastlane: Chevy Exec Responds to CGM Critics
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Detroit News: "Don't Make it a Commercial"
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