Archive for the 'Word of Mouth' Category

19
Aug
10

Word of Mouse: Social Media Impact on Word of Mouth Marketing

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Communications, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking and Word of Mouth
Tags: , , , , ,

Word of Mouth has always been an effective form of marketing because people trust the opinions of people they trust. All word of mouth marketing is based on two-way, transparent communications. Many marketers are not always willing to wait on organic word of mouth, so to systematically leverage and encourage word of mouth, take the following steps:

  1. Raise customer awareness about products and services
  2. Educate customers about your products and services
  3. Identify opinion leaders
  4. Facilitate the information sharing
  5. Study the opinions being shared
  6. Respond to feedback (positive, negative and neutral)

Social media has changed the rules of the game, primarily because of online scalability.  In a world where 90 percent of people trust consumer recommendations from known people, (Source: Neilson Global Trust in Advertising Survey, 2009) social media is taking on greater importance. It is the easiest method for recommendations to spread and an essential part of an integrated marketing program.

However, there is one problem. Companies often believe that by simply participating in social media, they’re meeting customer needs.  Nothing could be further from the truth, participating in social media means having a different purpose for each social media outlet. Consider these descriptions:

  • YouTube captures the imagination 
  • Twitter jumpstarts the conversation
  • Facebook facilitates in-depth conversations 
  • Blogs share knowledge  

Tell us if you have any success leveraging social media to promote word of mouth, and how you have been able to leverage the combination of social media and word of mouth into achieving business goals.  

For more information on integrating social media into your marketing program, you can find Weise Communications on Facebook and follow Weise on Twitter for more updates. 

28
Jan
09

New Tropicana Packaging Turns Away Customers

By Tracy Weise 4 Comments
Categories: Design, Neuromarketing, Packaging and Word of Mouth

I first heard about the new Tropicana packaging from a friend of mine who is an extremely busy working mother of two. She told me of her weekly trip to the grocery with her two boys (8 and 2 years old) and how her eyes bugged at the OJ cooler.

“They changed all the packaging!” she said. “And it’s not color coordinated anymore. I’m used to just grabbing the blue one (reduced sugar). I have my two-year old with me. I don’t have time to sit and figure out what’s going on with the orange juice, so I bought the King Soopers brand just to spite Tropicana.”

Granted, there actually is still some color coordination going on for Tropicana (who, incidentally has 18 kinds of orange juice to choose from), but it’s very subtle. In fact, it’s only on the top of the box. In the old packaging, the color keys were about five times larger. Look at the picture below and tell me how well you would notice the colors in a giant cooler with a 2-year old screaming in your ear.

picture-1I give Tropicana props for the new look, though. Not only is it clean and simple, therefore making it stand out from the clutter, but it also plays to our psychology (um, neuromarketing*) by attracting us with the look of a generic brand. Basically, we will feel like we are saving money, even though we are not.

And yet, this neuromarketing fails the test with moms and other bloggers. Susan Gunelius over at Brand Curve says, “They’re not fooling anyone.  The cheap looking 7-11-esque packaging doesn’t make me feel any better about forking over a whole lot of money so my kids can get their Vitamin C in the morning.”

*Speaking of neuromarketing, Beth and I are gearing up for a full week of it in February. We’ll explain what it is, how it works, and why it matters with plenty of examples and insights from industry professionals. We are even running a few tests of our own. I have Beth on a treadmill right now, hooked up to all kinds of machines, and small animals are randomly jumping out of boxes and shrieking at her. Each of those animals has an ad taped to their back so I can measure Beth’s reaction to them. I’ll let you know the results.

By the way, none of the animals are being harmed. They all volunteered for this and I have their signatures to prove it.

19
Jan
09

The IKEA experience, and why it matters

By Tracy Weise 3 Comments
Categories: Advertising, In-store, Marketing and Word of Mouth

Before moving to Denver in 2007, I rented a studio apartment in Uptown. It was only 300-sqft and I had no idea how to furnish such a small living space. You see, in my hometown in Alabama, all we have is space—you can still get a posh 2BR, 1,000-sqft apartment for as little as  $750/month. I know. It’s awesome.

So what do I do with only 300-sqft?

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This is when I first heard about IKEA’s in-store displays. IKEA tackles living spaces under 300-sqft and then goes up from there. While many furniture stores try to instill a sense of living space with their showrooms, IKEA creates actual living spaces, covering everything from the couch to the medicine cabinet.

There is no better model for a retail store than to create an interactive environment where customers can experience the product in ways never considered. While this is more feasible for a goliath like IKEA and its thousands upon thousands of square feet and products, every retailer should endeavor to initiate this practice.

Consumer perception is driven by consumer experience, so every opportunity should be taken to maximize the experience. Surely that can only result in maximizing your ROI.

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16
Dec
08

The Return of the Blog – Part 2

By Tracy Weise 1 Comment
Categories: Blogs and Word of Mouth

Following this morning’s article, I have to say that blogs are not about competition. With blogs being the original new media tool for self-expression, can you think of a MySpace tween who started a blog hoping it would reach the top of a 100 list? Companies may have such aspirations, but the best marketers know that quality gets results.

newrulesofmarketingIn “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”, David Meerman Scott says, “Think of the Web as a huge city…and blogs as…independent voices, just like…that friend of yours who always recommends the best books.”

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Blog readers are discerning.

If they feel you are talking to them, they will listen. If what you say is relevant to them, they will stay with you (read: niche market).

Regarding Boutin’s talk of appearing on a Google search, I say that word of mouth is still the best form of advertising. I have yet to read a blog because I found it on a search, but I read The Egotist because my boss recommended it. I’ve started reading Denver PR Blog because a coworker is reading it. I even started reading Zach Braff’s blog (think Scrubs, et al.) because a friend told me about it.

Knowing other people participating in the blog far outweighs a Google return, because the people I know have some credibility to me. The end result for the blogs is that their audience expanded because they hit their target market and their target did the rest for them.

Boutin says, what was “once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge.” So what. When paid programming hit the airwaves we didn’t throw out our TVs, we simply changed the channel.

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This is the time to improve blog content.

As in any market, competition increases with time, but blogs still work today the way they did four years ago. Readers just have more choices, which means your blog has to be more relevant and more focused than ever before. No more free passes people.

This is the mission of The Side Note. We will not be a blog-machine, pumping out endless amounts of posts to simply give you something to read. Without relevance, there is no chance for authenticity, and we will post what is relevant in the marketing, advertising and PR industries. Whether you offer the services or use them, we will act as your information supplement. Oh yeah, and we’ll have some fun too.

When you need industry news, get some on the side.

—Travis Parker

Tomorrow on The Side Note:

Find out if a blog is right for you.

And a blog about turkey.

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