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'Word of mouth' marketing

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Cornish Steve

Cornish Steve

Free Member
Jul 4, 2005
13,260
1,906
Atlanta, Georgia, USA (formerly Cornwall, UK)
Several months ago, I read an excellent book by Malcolm Gladwell entitled Tipping Point. This book attempts to explain why epidemics happen, whether medical or marketing. For example, why did the youth of New York City suddenly take a liking to the dying Hush Puppies brand of shoe?

A few weeks ago, I read a book entitled Grapevine. While the book is flagrant self-promotion by the author, his concept is fascinating. Basically, his company (BzzAgent) pays people to mention a new product to their friends. In turn, those people may mention the product to their friends, and so on. If people like what they hear (from a friend whom they presumably trust), they tend to pass it on.

The second book points out that we quite naturally recommend products every day (I even recommended a book in this post). Our friends tend to believe us far more than they believe TV, billboard, or web advertising - which makes them more likely to try a product we recommend and contagiously refer it to others as well.

What do you think about this? Is 'word of mouth' advertising really that powerful?
 
I read in a book (fiction) or saw in a film a while ago something about people who's job it is to hang out in cool places and mention specific products.

Racking my brain cells (all 3 of them) to try and remember what it was now. Maybe "Mona Lisa Overdrive" by William Gibson.
 
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i think it can be incredibly powerful, even something as simple as your parents, family & friends. Since doing my parents kitchen in November, i've visited 5 recommendations, and have another handful in the pipeline - and my main business isnt supplying to the public.

we are also planning our wedding - a large proportion of people we've booked, i.e. flowers, entertainment, cake, have all been off of recommendations.

and with my main business - i have a large national kitchen company recommending my services to all of their trade clients. Thats cost me nothing but has been priceless! And they have 7 sales reps covering the UK - they all have a presentation booklet of mine!

So used creativley, word of mouth is probably the best, and most cost effective way of advertising
 
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What do you think about this? Is 'word of mouth' advertising really that powerful?

I think that, if you're selling a service that's "deliverer dependent", referrals are going to be the biggest part of your business.

By "deliverer dependent", I mean a product or service where the quality is highly dependent on who delivers it. And where it's hard to know in advance how good that delivery will be unless you have a personal insight (either directly, as a returning customer or through a friend).

So, a newsagent isn't DD, it's the same paper. Buying a new car isn't either.

However, an accountant, plumber or estate agent would be DD.

If you have a DD business and you're not asking for referrals, you're probably throwing away a huge chunk of the business you've earned.

Steve
 
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Word of mouth marketing is building our business, period.

.. and also look at the study of memetics for the virus-like qualities that word of mouth ideas can have in general.
 
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goldctrsteve said:
What do you think about this? Is 'word of mouth' advertising really that powerful?
Click to expand...

I know of a few companies that never do any marketing for new clients and all new customers are referrals or word-of-mouth customers - how we all would love that!
 
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recommendations comes a close second to google for how people found us and ordered.

This is not new, but I suppose paying people to drop your product into the conversation is.

Don't you think it is a bit horrid wondering who sponsored your chat down the pub?

I do try and get people to tell friends about us in various ways but it is hard to tell if they work or not as you can't put a tracking number in a conversation.
 
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SillyJokes said:
... but I suppose paying people to drop your product into the conversation is. Don't you think it is a bit horrid wondering who sponsored your chat down the pub?
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This is exactly what the company BzzAgent does. I find it a rather border-line practice too.

At least people who work for the company acknowledge their relationship with marketers. Even worse is shill marketing. In this case, actors talk with one another (using an agreed script) to create demand for a product. Imagine a group of people on the tube in London talking loudly about how wonderful this new after-shave smells, as if it was a genuine conversation. How many people would, out of sheer interest, try it out later in the week?
 
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goldctrsteve said:
Even worse is shill marketing. In this case, actors talk with one another (using an agreed script) to create demand for a product. Imagine a group of people on the tube in London talking loudly about how wonderful this new after-shave smells, as if it was a genuine conversation. How many people would, out of sheer interest, try it out later in the week?
Click to expand...

Isn't this roughly what the ads on the telly do ?

I don't mind being the butt of a referral BUT IF i think for 1 minute the person is recommending something not because they believe it is best for my interest I generally switch off.

I hate being a head on a plate. I recently wanted to use a companies services and instead of getting to the guy I needed to speak to (it was a personal referral) I got another guy who tried his best to put his 'salesmans stamp' on me just for answering the phone. I had £15,000 to spend (all at once) and little do they know they lost the deal on the spot just because I was made to feel like I was commission.

Rob
 
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If there is good gossip to do with your business, then you don't have to do anything. The gossips will do it for you, free advertising, whether you want it or now.

As I said before, when Mark broke his ribs on our wedding night, out shop was packed out with nosey parkers, all buying something as an excuse to get the latest gossip and out takings were up for a good month :lol:

Jayne
 
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Even worse is shill marketing. In this case, actors talk with one another (using an agreed script) to create demand for a product. Imagine a group of people on the tube in London talking loudly about how wonderful this new after-shave smells, as if it was a genuine conversation. How many people would, out of sheer interest, try it out later in the week?

That's quite interesting and it could easily work on me.

However, would it not be quite labour intensive?

It's a bit like spammers on a forum. But they never do it right. They arrive out of nowhere and immediately start talking about a product.

Interestingly, on a non-business forum I'm involved with someone recently asked opinions on a book. A number of regular and respected contributers (including me) gave glowing reviews which I bet resulted in a number of sales.

If there is good gossip to do with your business, then you don't have to do anything. The gossips will do it for you, free advertising, whether you want it or not.

You don't have to do anything, but if you ask for it, you could expect to get a lot more business through word of mouth.

This is why I don't like BNI.

Interesting point. I'd certainly take a BNI referral with a pinch of salt.

Steve
 
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Matrixx said:
Isn't this roughly what the ads on the telly do ?
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It's not the same because we all know that telly ads are fake. I'm referring to people who pretend to be real.

Imagine a young woman on a bus reading a book. She turns to you, waves the book in the air, and says, "I wish my boyfriend would read this book. I'd find him so much more attractive." Then, from a few seats behind, another young lady replies, "Yes, I read that same book last week and gave it to my husband. It's made such a difference to our relationship." Then, a young man chimes in, "So what's the book called? Maybe I'll buy a copy at lunch-time. Do they sell it at WHS?" And so on.

Unknown to you, these three people are actors and in the employ of the book publisher. I find this practice quite deceptive.
 
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Jayne said:
If there is good gossip to do with your business, then you don't have to do anything. The gossips will do it for you, free advertising, whether you want it or now.

Jayne
Click to expand...

But you have to watch is the negative gossip. When I worked in a call centre I remember being told that when something goes wrong people will tell at least four times more people than when something goes well.
 
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You poor thing Lynn, having to work in a call centre, where you stressed a lot! :D

I do know what you mean about negative gossip, I do it myself when I get bad service :lol:

Jayne
 
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Jayne said:
You poor thing Lynn, having to work in a call centre, where you stressed a lot! :D

I do know what you mean about negative gossip, I do it myself when I get bad service :lol:

Jayne
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I worked there in the 90s when call centres were still new. I stayed there for 6 years in the same job and was repeatedly turned down for promotions and sideways moves. Then my marriage went wrong and I got another job before deciding to get out of the marriage - best two decisions of my life!

I am still affected by some of the "rules" in force - e.g. I don't drink as much liquid as I ought because if we were off the phone for more than 15 minutes a day we had to justify it and you limited your liquid intake to restrict your toilet trips!
 
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It might be worth making the distinction between:

- word of mouth marketing
- referrals
- viral marketing
- join ventures/co-promotions

All have been variously mentioned in this thread, and yet have been assumed to be one and the same thing.

I haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, but from what I understand, he's referring to the "viral" effect or the momentum accrued from cumulative effects.

Word of mouth marketing can only go one layer deep. You tell your friends about a great new product/service, and they might buy it next time they're in the market for that solution. But it's unlikely they'll tell their friends, unless they've already bought from you. You have no control of WOM, except by making sure your clients/customers are happy with you.

Referrals are more controllable. You can actually make the giving of referrals part of your agreement/contract, and you can motivate people to send you referrals.

Viral marketing is where you release something that is intrinsically interesting, and it get passed around. The most famous examples seem to be sentimental flash presentations of lakes accompanied by trite philosophy.

Joint ventures/co-promotions are when you arrange to have your promotion sent to someone else's list, or you share advertising or events. If you work with a company that then recommends your products/services, that sounds like a joint venture to me.

Admittedly there's a lot of crossover. But it may help to make the distinction if any of these methods becomes a major part of your marketing planning, because you'll need to know what elements you can control in order to get the best results.

Hope this helps,
Jane
 
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Our business solely depend on word of mouth. Some times we do pay people such as architects to be recommended(if we get a contract), but still they recommend as, because they know we are good professionals. They will not do it just to receive some commission as they can loose they own reputation and get all sorts of trouble on they head if something will go wrong.
 
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Word of Mouth, has been the cheapest form of marketing I've undertaken. Unfortunately, people are getting fed up of me talking about the business now so I need to find some new friends :lol:

Word of Mouth works, it's like a referral, and people like to have a referral before buying a product or signing up for a service.

On another thread Andy mentioned WOM, and I mentioned about my taxi trip which got me a few new clients.
 
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