Heard Around Town

People often ask me what Word of Mouth Marketing is.  Well, here are a couple of interesting Word of Mouth Marketing initatives so you can see it in action.

- Microsoft hires college students to promote their class-notes-organizing software on campus

- Cloud Ten Pictures sets up preview screenings of their new film, which has a "biblical message of salvation", at thousands of churches across the US (To quote their website, the producer said theater showings are a loss leader that drives video sales. The Sony Pictures Entertainment DVD releases in stores tomorrow. )

Another way to drive Word of Mouth is to determine who the influencers are and consult with them on product launches.  An August survey conducted by Intelliseek confirms what we already knew, that early adopters are early adopters and cool people are cool.  It's no coincidence that iPod users are also bloggers, movie downloaders, and text messagers, but Apple is entitled to feel proud about it anyway.

Comments

[Russell Nelson]

Hmmmm..... Am I too late to ask what Word of Mouth Marketing is?
-russ
p.s. A!

[Iz]

Hi Russ! Good Word of Mouth Marketing starts with conversations with your company's stakeholders (customers, partners, vendors, employees) in order to drive product improvements (on your side) and inspire them to talk publicly about your company (on theirs). Marketers can leverage different WOMM techniques to enable enthusiastic customers to better spread the word. These techniques can be as simple as sending a great newsletter the recipient wants to pass along, or as complicated as teaching your biggest fans how to blog so they can spread the word about you. Even simply doing something outrageous that gets people talking could be considered a Word of Mouth Marketing technique. The result you get depends on the technique you use and your existing reputation, corporate behavior, and product -- you certainly don't want to ignite negative conversation about your brand.