THE NEW WORLD OF WORD OF MOUTH

CREATED BY aaron shields DESIGNED BY melissa thornton

© 2 0 0 9 T h e C u l t B r a n d i n g C o m p a n y

w w w . c u l t b r a n d i n g . c o m

Help! I can’t reach my drones with my message; they’re talking on their own!“The mad men shout:

”

It took me 3 spots to reach 80% of women 18-49. Now it takes more than 97!“ ”

I can’t buy first weekend gross—bad word of mouth drowns out my $35 million advertising budget!“ ”

I’m lost in this new world. My budget no longer controls the drones!

“”

You just haven’t been paying attention.

THIS WORLD

ISN’T NEW:

Sorry Mad Men.

to advertised brands.

REAL THREAT

Consumer skepticism has become a“ ”

to advertised brands.

REAL THREAT

Consumer skepticism has become a

—BusinessWeek 1939

“ ”

“Do you know that 85% of ads don’t get looked at?...They ignore us...We’re right about everything, but nobody looks.”

“Do you know that 85% of ads don’t get looked at?...They ignore us...We’re right about everything, but nobody looks.”—Bill Bernbach 1968

SO WHAT’S

CHANGED?

larger TECHNOLOGY has given people larger &

bullhorns to drown out the messages of advertisers.

Casey Neistat’s iPod battery dies but Apple’s battery replacement costs as much as a new iPod.

Casey posts an anti-Apple video and sends it to a few friends.

A few days later his

website has 40,000 hits.

By the end of the

month it has over

1,000,000 hits.

Apple changes its battery replacement policy.

to talk about your brand?

ENABLED CONSUMER

So how do you get the

RAGING COW.You can’t unless you want to be another

Dr Pepper/Seven Up hired people to blog positively about Raging Cow, leading to consumer outrage and the failure of the product.

Dr Pepper/Seven Up hired people to blog positively about Raging Cow, leading to consumer outrage and the failure of the product.

“This website is FAKE. When you are advertising under false pretenses and not being up-front about what you’re doing … that isn’t just wrong, it’s immoral and disgusting.”

POLLUTES the word-of-mouth stream.

Mixing your message with the consumers’ authentic opinions

HARNESSINGthe power of word of mouth isn’t about telling people what to say or giving them incentives to talk.

THEY WANTIt’s about giving them something

to talk about.

So why would they

naturally want to

TALK ABOUT YOUR

BRAND?

THE CRUX OF WORD OF MOUTHPeople talk about brands because it benefits them.

NEW, VALUABLE INFORMATION

By talking about your brand, people provide

to their peers.

STATUSPeople who provide valuable information gain

in their communities.

Amazon provides a place where people can come together, give their opinions on millions of products, and achieve status as a top reviewer.

in their lives.

CENTRAL ROLE

People only want to achieve status in relation to brands that play a

WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS TRULY WANT.

Harnessing the power of word of mouth starts with learning

MEANINGFUL

Once you know, you can design your brand to play to what’s

to your customers.

“The philosophy we’ve taken from the beginning is if you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” —Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com

EXPERIENCEBut the

most companies provide isn’t the one their customers want.

80% of companies think they’re offering a superior experience, BUT ONLY 8% OF

CUSTOMERS THINK THEY DO.

“You must decide what you stand for, and then you must align every one of your systems to reinforce it. You RECRUIT FOR IT, you SELECT FOR IT, you ORIENT FOR IT, you TRAIN FOR IT, you REWARD IT, you PROMOTE FOR IT, and you TERMINATE THOSE THAT DON’T HAVE IT.” —John Young, former EVP, Human Resources, Four Seasons

Most hotel chains promise superior service. AT THE FOUR SEASONS,

part of the employees’orientation program is geared towards helping the employees understand how they can delight their customers.

SENSE OF BELONGING

A superior customer experience fosters a

between the CUSTOMERS and the BRAND.

POWERFUL BRANDSprovide platforms for their customers to come together and form communities...

...and provide their customers ways to STAND OUT and WIN PRESTIGE AMONG THEIR PEERS.

If your product only lives up to the hype, there’s no reason for people to talk about it. TALK-WORTHY BRANDS

KNOW HOW TO EXCEED THEIR CUSTOMERS’ EXPECTATIONS.

Very good “ ” isn’t enough to generate talk.

WOW!Talk-worthy brands establish a new level of

These brands allow customers to discover some of their best features on their own.

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE gives customers something to talk about.

Zappos often surprises its customers with free overnight delivery upgrades.

“Our goal with every interaction is for the customer to walk away saying, Wow that was the best experience I ever had.” —Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos

‘’

THE HOLY GRAIL OF MARKETINGis not attained through manipulation.

GREAT BRANDS become talk-worthy by serving their customers better than anyone else.

REMEMBER,people only shout your virtues when two conditions are filled:

1) When providing information about you gives them status in the eyes of their peers.

REMEMBER,people only shout your virtues when two conditions are filled:

REMEMBER,people only shout your virtues when two conditions are filled:

1) When providing information about you gives them status in the eyes of their peers.

2) When what you supply is meaningful to them.

LISTEN Never forget, you must

to your customers before they’ll be willing to talk about you.

visit the word-of-mouth

learning center @ www.cultbranding.com/wom

join us

from the creative minds @ www.cultbranding.com