There was a huge silence in the Disney Resort meeting room. An audience member stood up, microphone in hand, poised to ask a question, and instead voiced his opinion to nearly 500 marketers, brand managers, agency folks, and business leaders attending the first Word of Mouth Basic Training Conference in Orlando.
The irritated man loudly grumbled something like, "No wi-fi in a convention place like this! Not a good way to build a connection to a business customer. They need to get a clue."
He was right. And just hearing his vent made my blood pressure rise, too. Minus 10 points for the brand experience, my brain quickly transmitted.
Later in my room while using the high-speed connection, I had a replay of that man's conviction. The technology in this place sucks. The IP service the hotel uses dropped off every 10 minutes or so, which was totally annoying. Minus another 10 points. And since I was on the phone while this was happening, I naturally whined to one of my officemates who was in a meeting with 10 other people and had me on speakerphone. "This place is stressing me out," I snarled.
"Where are you?" she asked.
"I'm in Orlando at some Disney property."
That would be classic word of mouth (WOM), the act of a consumer creating and/or distributing marketing-relevant information to another consumer. And that's just a small bite of what I digested at the excellent two-day conference last month.
For a long time, most of us have known word of mouth was a vital channel for building businesses and brands. Now, lucky for every business leader and brand person, this powerful means of connecting to consumers is an official business discipline and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is leading the charge.
It all started in 2004, when the CEOs of BuzzMetrics, BzzAgent, and Intelliseek kept running into each other while on the conference circuit. They were all talking about the same ideas -- consumer control, buzz marketing, consumer-generated media, word of mouth -- and found common ground. After a few informal meetings someone said, "We should form an association around this idea." The rest is history, and for a young organization, they have accomplished so much.
Where do I begin? This 48-hour, information-packed, intense data dump has my brain on a rush. Word of mouth is the real deal and those who don't embrace its profound power will be left depressed and in the dust.
To give you a better understanding of how it works, here are some top-line highlights I garnered from the event:
The basic principles of WOM apply to both consumer and B2B challenges.
Getting started with WOM takes understanding how "WOMunits" or pieces of information can be transmitted. Here are few ways:
When you are designing programs, be honest and authentic. Research has proven that full disclosure actually aids in the success of a WOM marketing program.
Remember that, as Douglas Atkins (conference speaker and author of The Culting of Brands) proclaims, many brands are like cults. Their followers' behavior stems from believing and belonging with like members. This will not happen with deceptive marketing.
Don't even think about employing sleazy tactics. Ethics are a major platform with WOMMA and should be for you too. Stealth campaigns (deceiving consumers about a marketer's involvement), shilling (paying people to spread buzz about a brand without disclosing their affiliation), infiltration (using fake identities to post on blogs and message boards), lying, and spam in any fashion all smell like dead fish and will only harm your efforts in the long run.
Stick with this basic formula and you'll be on your way.
Buzz and viral initiatives are great methods to touch consumers and can support a WOM program. However, they are completely different animals than Word of Mouth and can backlash big time, harming positive Word of Mouth.
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Twitter
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
