Trunks Tails & Trees

One of the leading gurus of word-of-mouth marketing, Dave Balter of marketing firm BzzAgent, is out with a new book: The Word Of Mouth Manual, Volume II. The book, which costs $45 at Amazon, can also be downloaded for free in PDF format from a bunch of other smart marketers that Balter reached out to, including Todd Deffren of PR-Squared, Guy Kawasaki of Garage Technology Ventures and Jason Fried of 37 Signals. See the whole list of resources here.

Now a note of fair warning: I am a registered BzzAgent myself, and Dave sent me a free copy of the new book (along with a previous book he wrote) for signing up to help him promote the book. That’s smart—and that is just what BzzAgent does. Also, I haven’t read the book yet but eagerly look forward to it. Because let’s face it–everyone wants to generate better word-of-mouth marketing, but few really know what it is or how to go about it.

carbonhouse was fortunate to have one of Dave’s top notch colleagues, Joe Chernov (BzzAgent VP Communications), stop by our office recently. He was in town to give a talk to an PR group on the whole subject of WOM. The following are excerpts from Joe’s talk, which no doubt are expanded upon in Dave’s book.

“PR plus word-of-mouth equals marketing’s new power couple.”—Andrea C. Wojnicki, Rotman School of Management

First, WOM often gets confused with viral marketing. The key WOM rules, Joe said, are:

1. Don’t sacrifice your brand for entertainment.
2. Pick the right medium.

The medium is truly a significant issue. For example, with Consumer Generated Media (CGM), consumers will do what they want with your brand, and you might not like the results. Think about homemade YouTube ads, for instance. Be careful what you ask for.

When considering “buzz marketing” reminder first that it is typically an event designed to get people talking, like the time Oprah gave away a bunch of free cars. Unfortunately, that incident backfired (no pun intended), when sales at Pontiac (the giver) tanked, and the tax man bit the receivers, some of whom couldn’t afford the “free” car. Another buzz marketing example Joe cited was Starbucks closing most of its stores recently, for an afternoon, to retrain and invigorate its baristas. It made for some good press (”we care of our customers enough to close down and lose money” message), along with some lampooning on the flip side of the coin.

Another thing to keep in mind: “buzz” does not always translate into successful WOM. Sometimes buzz just creates a blip—like the examples above, which are essentially “PR stunts.”

Shilling is an evil cousin of buzz marketing, and to be avoided at all costs. If you’re lying, tricking, hiding, cheating or misleading—you’re shilling and setting yourself up for potential disaster.

WOM, on the other hand, is about sharing honest opinions between two or more people. WOM is ALWAYS open, honest and authentic and NEVER scripted, paid for or stealthy.

According to Joe (via Media Edge stats), 76% of purchasing decisions come from WOM. Therefore, it’s critical to understand it, plan for it and implement it well.

So what are some tips to doing WOM the right way, from the BzzAgent playbook? Here are just a few nuggets that make me anxious to dive into Dave’s book for deeper insights.

• Be outlandish. An example can be an ad campaign that is a little shocking or at least thought-provoking.
• Help tell stories. People respond to messages that resonate with the “running autobiography” of their lives.
• Listen. Listen first, then respond to, your customers.
• Polarize. Embrace differing opinions and encourage debate and dialogue.
• Impose rationing. In other words, scarity can be a good thing. It drives up intrigue, interest and demand.
• Create experiences. Birds of a feather indeed flock together, so figure out how to facilitate memorable interactions.
• Use WOM as media. This is the BzzAgent model, where they have over 400,000 people willing to evangelize for their customers’ products or services—saying whatever they really think (good, bad or indifferent)—but spreading the word nonetheless.

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