By Mark Hughes (Portfolio, July 2005, 242 pp., $23.95)
Each year, 23,000 new products hit U.S. shelves, trailing a spectacle of advertising and hype in their wake. Problem is, the more advertisers plug their products, the more consumers just plug their ears. Author Mark Hughes's solution: Quit shouting and get people talking. Hughes isn't the first to explore the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Just in the last half-decade, we've seen Seth Godin's Unleashing the Ideavirus (2000) and Emanuel Rosen's The Anatomy of Buzz (2000) beat him to market. And Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point (2000) is arguably the godfather of this modern boomlet of buzz. (Getting out in front of an idea is apparently not a prerequisite for being a buzz maven.) Hughes isn't likely to have the last word on buzz either, but here's what he adds to the canon: a historical perspective. A lot of buzz mavens act as if they just invented word of mouth. Hughes dissects some of the best buzz coups of all time -- Apple's "1984" ad, Ford's original Mustang debut, Fox's American Idol, and even the story of Rit Dye powder in the late 1960s, which bested its rival Tintex by tapping into tie-dye-loving hippies. As good as the stories can be, is there really a recipe for buzz? Hughes does offer some solid ground rules for generating word-of-mouth attention. Best among these are the hands-on fixes where marketers really get involved in the production and design of the product. And that's what lets Buzzmarketing just barely escape being old whine in a new bottle.
Backstory Hughes cut his teeth at Pep Boys and Pizza Hut, managing traditional multimillion-dollar marketing budgets. But his work for Half.com -- where he leveraged a small budget to rename a city in Oregon after the company, garnering national press and 8 million users in the process -- made him a buzz big shot.
What we liked Growing up with a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for a father, Hughes picked up a few things along the way. The result bears fruit in a clever section on capturing media. His tips on the five most frequently written news stories (and how to spin your brand to land on the front page) are arguably manipulative, but admittedly clever.
What we didn't Hughes is a smart guy with a long resume, yet he spoon-feeds readers as if they're attending a night class in remedial English ("Stay with me. I'll have you convinced by the time you finish reading").
What to say to sound like you've read it It's been measured: Word of mouth is much more effective at generating interest than advertising. Give people a reason to talk to their friends and family about your brand, and sales will follow.
