Word Of

By: Andalib, Mahmood Kardani, Amir Hossein

Mouth

(WOM)

Introduction:

Word of mouth:•The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.•WOM is an interpersonal communication for products and services without a commercial scope. (Arndt 1967)

•WOM is the most influential source in marketing communication. (Day 1971; Sheth 1971)

Word of Mouth is . . .

• The voice of the customer

• A natural, genuine & honest process

• People seeking advice from eachother

• Consumers talking about products,services, or brands that they haveexperienced

Word of Mouth Marketing is . . .

Recognizing that a happy customer is the greatest endorsement

• We work to create customer enthusiasm instead of pushing marketing messages

Giving customers a voice• Providing something worth talking about• Providing tools that make it easier for them to share

their opinions

Listening to consumers• Engaging them in open, unfiltered conversation• Promptly and honestly responding to their

concerns• Valuing customer opinion, whether it is positive,

negative, or neutral

Engaging the community• Finding the right people and connecting them to

each other• Helping new communities to form• Participating in and supporting existing

communities and conversations

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Major Types of Word of Mouth Marketing

• Advocacy Marketing:Focusing on the brand and its merits (positive or negative)

This is more likely to have a greater short-term sales effect.

• Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about

your brand.

• Viral Marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to

be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.

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Importance of WOMWhy Do We Talk?

• Before we could write, the only way for humans to communicate was via speech

• So for hundreds of thousands of years, talking was our most important social connector

- Information – danger, food, water- Social – history, love, kinship, enmity

• Word of Mouth today fulfils the same role- Provides people with information- Reinforces social bonds- Builds on oral tradition

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Why Has The Role of WOM grown?

• As life becomes more complex and choice proliferates, people are relying more than ever before on recommendations

• WOM now 1.5 times more important now than it was 25 years ago

• 89% of women believe recommendations by friends and family

• 70% of women learn about new products or services from another woman

Recommendations Make People Feel Confident And Keep Them Connected

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WOM Growth

Where do you get most of your information about new products and services?

Late 70's Late 90's0

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Friends & FamilyAdvertisingEditorial

How Does Word of Mouth Work?

• Spontaneous – sharing an experience– “I went to an amazing restaurant on Friday night”

• Prompted – speaking in response to a need– “If you’re looking for a new buggy, I’d recommend

the Maclaren”

• Secondary – relating experience of another person– “I’ve never tried it, but my mum has and she didn’t

think it was that great”

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• It’s the kind of natural phenomenon that occurs only when a number of factors come together in just the right way at just the right moment: beliefs, wants, habits, events, weather, and constellations. Suddenly, the entire cosmos is calling out to people,

it’s TIME!

So what is PURE Word of Mouth?

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Now just let’s take a brief look at 2 examples of pure word of mouth:

• Tickle-Me-Elmo• Crocs

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1.Tickle-Me-Elmo

The story of Tickle Me Elmo gives you an idea of what pure word of mouth looks like.

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Yes, the genius company that created Tickle Me Elmo—Tyco had spent millions on promoting the $30 doll. Certainly, their efforts helped fuel initial customer demand. But we all know that marketing is not what drove parents to pay black market prices of $1,500 or more to get their hands on a red plush creature that giggles when you poke it.

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So…

So what creates this type of customer volatility and

aggression?

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Marketing theorists will point to psychological concepts like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs . They’ll tell you that this little red, chuckling doll climbed the needs pyramid to make it into the category of Esteem (just above Love/Belonging and just below Self-Actualization). These dolls came to represent achievement, brought people recognition, helped them feel accepted, and increased their feelings of self-worth.

C’mon . . . .

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2.Crocs

Crocs, the brightly colored plastic clogs, is another brand that reached a peak of pure word of mouth madness.

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The Crocs brand managers had a small marketing budget, but slowly built acceptance and then passion among specific consumer segments—particularly sailors and nurses—who were zealous about the performance and comfort of the shoes.

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1.Advocacy

In this kind of WOM marketing focus is on the brand and its merits which can be positive or negative. This method can have great short and long-term effects on sales.

Here first we talk about different advertising models, then we try to speak about influentials who have an outstanding role in spreading Word of Mouth.

What Propagates WOM?

• Family

• Friends

• Colleagues

• Trusted Independent

Traditional Advertising Model

communication

Audience

Consumers are “Passive Receivers” who are served blanket advertising

New Advertising Modelcommunication

Audience

Reach Opinion Leaders and they will pass the communication on to Opinion

Followers

10%

90%

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Who are Influentials?

So many terms have been used to address these people such as:

• Advocates• Referrals• Influencers

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• Do you talk to lots of people about a category?

If yes you are a connector

• Do you know a lot about the category? If yes, you are a maven

• Is your opinion likely to convince others? Again if your answer is positive you’re a seller

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Key Influentials are Connectors, Mavens and Sellers

That is:

• Sellers

• Connectors• Mavens

• Influentials

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In other words you can be a good influential if these statements describe

you well:

• I buy new products before most of my friends

• I’m usually the first amongst my friends to know what’s going on

• People come to me for advice before buying new products

• I spend a lot of time with my friends every day.

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For example:

The key Influentials in the Clothes category are predominantly young women aged between 15 – 34.

They enjoy shopping and regularly spend significant money on clothes. As a consequence they often buy products before their friends and are asked for their opinion on clothes by their social network.

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There are two types of advocates: Stimulated vs.

Natural1.Stimulated advocates:

Some advocates are typically paid or otherwise incented to talk about your services to others — this is “Stimulated WOM”

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2. Natural advocates

Other advocates will proactively recommend your services to others because they truly believe in the service, which increases the impact of their recommendation. They also to speak to others about your brand based on years of personal experiences — this is “Natural WOM”

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Here some characteristics of advocacy WOM are taken into consideration

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IT’S HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS

REACHES MORE PEOPLE THAN ANY

OTHER MEDIUM

Even the hard to reach guy down here

REACHES MORE PEOPLE THAN ANY OTHER

MEDIUM

Even the hard to reach guy down here

LEADS TO BEHAVIOUR CHANGE – SALES!

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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE INFLUENTIALS:

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VIRAL MARKETING

• an attempt to deliver a marketing message that spreads quickly and exponentially among consumers

 • often comes in the form of an email message or

video 

• viral isn’t evil

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Defining Viral Marketing

The term ‘Viral Marketing’ was first coined in 1997 by Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper

• “Viral marketing is the process of encouraging honest communication among consumer networks, and it focuses on e-mail as the channel.”

• “Viral marketing can be defined as making e-mail into a form of advocacy or word-of-mouth referral endorsement from one client to other prospective clients.”

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• WOM still exists independently of the Internet. Instead Viral marketing has developed in an unplanned fashion predominantly through the use of e-mail

 • Viral marketing now encompasses a number of

technologies including SMS (Text) messages, multimedia messages, and Bluetooth transfers between mobile devices

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Viral Marketing vs. Spam

• Spam is essentially a term invented to describe ‘junk mail’ in an Internet domain. This could be described as communications for which the recipient has no need or desire.

 • spam is when you don’t know the sender

• in viral marketing, even though the communication may be irrelevant or of no interest to the recipient, they are tolerated as they are sent by someone they know

• Interestingly, Viral marketing remains personal and trustworthy, even when the sender adds no personal aspects to the communication

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Why use Viral Marketing?

• for a number of reasons, such as the effectiveness of communicating instantly and storing the message for viewing at the convenience of the recipient, and the distribution of multimedia

• In regards to e-mail, and in some cases SMS, the communication is free and requires no particular effort by the sender, unlike traditional postal mail or telephone

 • a person can communicate with a larger number of others,

more quickly and more easily, via e-mail than any of the other channels

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• in terms of the marketer, e-mail marketing derives a number of benefits, such as reduced costs, selective targeting and high response rates, in comparison to other direct contact media

 • Viral marketing creates additional benefits

such as trust and honesty, due to the voluntary nature of distribution, and the selection of an appropriate audience on a more sophisticated basis than is available to the marketer

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Burger King’s subservient chicken

http://www.subservientchicken.com/

• Burger King's marketing program called Subservient Chicken did indeed generate a lot of word of mouth, but the word of mouth was about the marketing campaign instead of the product that was being marketed.

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Important considerations • the rapidity can sometimes prove to be detrimental to the

originator of the message • Written communications are inherently difficult to craft in

order to ensure one particular correct reading, as interpretations vary according to the audience

 • when the message is released, it is impossible to stop its

spread, the control is no longer in the hands of the marketer, instead the consumer is effectively king

  • Great care must be taken to trial the communication

before release, as a viral campaign can easily revert to unintended negativity, thus damaging the brand

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How to create a successful viral marketing campaign

• due to the lack of control and reinterpretation of the message, the initial distribution needs to be correct

 • the original message is only sent to those with an

association with the company, such as those who have indicated their desire to be contacted with news about the company

 • It is important, if possible, that opinion leaders are

identified, as they will generally be more prolific in distributing the message

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Five tips for the creation of a viral campaign:

• Be fun and intriguing• Relating to a product or service which is easy to use or highly

visible • Well targeted (opinion leaders and women) • Associated with a credible source • Combination of technologies (both online and offline)

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BUZZ MARKETING

• an event or activity that generates publicity, excitement, and information to the consumer 

• It’s usually something that combines a wacky, jaw-dropping event or experience with pure branding, like tattooing your forehead

• If buzz is done right, people will write about it, so it essentially becomes a great PR vehicle

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• The key to buzz marketing is that it has to be bigger, louder, better, more amazing, astounding, overwhelming, or incredible than the last time you did it. (Actually, not more than the last time YOU did it, but the last time someone did it to the people you are doing it to.) 

• customers forget they’re being marketed to. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. 

• Buzz marketing is always about surprising and delighting the customers.

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• For buzz to spread, you need two things: • A contagious product - one that has some

inherent value that makes people talk• Someone behind the scenes who accelerates

natural contagion.

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RICHARD BRANSON IS NAKED!

• About a year ago, Richard Branson wanted to launch his new mobile phone service in America. What he sought, as he always does, was to make an enormous splash. He wanted to do something that no one would forget. He just had to create some buzz.

• Creating buzz for Branson was left to U.S. Concepts, an event-marketing agency.

• Their answer: drop Richard Branson from a skyscraper into Times Square in New York City at rush hour — naked. At the same time, have two hundred people, dressed up in red spandex suits, running around handing out product samples and information leaflets, and otherwise scaring the hell out of the commuters running for the five o’clock train.

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References:

• www.womma.org• www.womuk.org• www.kellerfay.com• www.bzzagent.co.uk• www.boldmouth.com• www.viralculture.com• www.buzzparadise.com• http://foghound.com• http://www.som.yale.edu/faculty/dm324/papers.asp