Walter Carl has done some interesting work regarding Word of Mouth Marketing and is on a kick to encourage journalists to refer to stealth WOM marketing, where the target doesn't know the sneezer is being paid to sell a product, as "undercover marketing" and not "buzz marketing". Good idea (Note: Carl is compiling a list of WOMM-related videos at his blog).
He says many students he has spoken with don't care whether or not the person who is shilling a product to them is paid. I have seen this time and time again. People -- especially young people -- sometimes don't know when they're being taken advantage of. Doesn't give anyone the right to do it. Stealth marketing sucks, and I'm going on record right here to officially condemn it.
Years ago, when I was running SmartGirl, we were falsely accused of collecting kids' contact information to market to them on behalf of our clients. Couldn't have been further from the truth, and the accusations made me sick. Anything stealthy is the exact opposite of having valuable customer conversations, which are about listening to people's true feelings and acting on their recommendations.
When I ran it, SmartGirl created a space for teenage girls to converse with each other about whatever products interested them, and conducted market research with anonymous respondents on behalf of corporate clients. The girls took to the concept much more eagerly than the corporations did; most corporations are still blind to the possibilities of online word-of-mouth.
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