Maybe.
The brands with real marketing power are the ones pushing the Six Buttons of Buzz—and letting word of mouth proliferate exponentially. When consumers start talking, they begin marketing your brand for you.
Word-of-mouth marketing works well because of attention. When people talk to each other, they’ve got undivided, face-to-face attention—something conventional advertising rarely achieves. Word-of-mouth marketing also succeeds because of credibility. When an advertisement tells us to buy a product, we know it to be biased; we know it to be advocacy. When our friends and family members tell us about a great product, we believe them.
Big brands and small start-ups using word-of-mouth marketing achieve three-to ten-times higher sales versus using traditional marketing. George Lois, who put Tommy Hilfiger on the map, puts it at the top end of that range, claiming a ten-times impact when you create buzz.
But remember, word-of-mouth marketing ain’t easy. You’ve got to create a story…ready-made for water-cooler conversation. It’s got to be entertaining, fascinating, and newsworthy. You’ve got to give ‘em something to talk about. Connections count, impressions don’t.
When people begin talking about your brand, you’ll break away from the pack in no-time.
Push people’s buttons—the Six Buttons of Buzz.
Recap
Can you reach far more people with one TV ad than with word-of-mouth marketing?
If you call impressions meaningful, yes. If you’re talking about consumer connection—-people who actually pay attention to you—not in a million years.
First, remember our secret about attention. Then remember the clutter issue. You could create a Mr. Whipple ad—but how long will it take you? And remember the odds against management actually recognizing a great, buzzworthy campaign.
Word-of-mouth marketing isn’t about you and your brand. It’s about them—the people who will start the conversation for you. You have to be a buzz giver—creating a ready-made story to make them the center of interest.
Push the six buttons of buzz. They’re tried and true:
Are people really that easy to figure out? Aren’t we much more involved and more intricate as human beings?
Of course we are. We read books. We talk about philosophy. We all seek a deeper level.
But at the same time, we want to be entertained, and we want to entertain others. There’s nothing new about this. The playwrights of the ancient Greek comedies understood about entertaining to hold people’s attention; Shakespeare understood it. Buzz and word of mouth are just as predictable.
Give people currency, give them entertainment, and discover an explosion about to happen with your brand.
Media Attribution