Marketing Amnesia

Imagine someone walked up to you and said "Psst have you tried this cool brand called Pepsi". Would you laugh, scorn or just walk away?

What if someone told you about the awesome restaurant on the outskirts of town, situated in the middle of the woods with a bonfire individually lit for every table. Would you still walk away? Considering Valentine's Day around the corner, you probably would listen with rapt attention.

Defining Word of Mouth
Let me define Word of Mouth at this stage/ Word of Mouth is an endorsement of a product post usage. No wonder that it is considered the holy grail in marketing. When most of us discuss the big brands it is a result of buzz marketing or viral marketing.

Defining Buzz Marketing
Buzz Marketing is typically something gimmicky that a brand does like making the World's largest pizza. This might get talked about, but actually it is just something news worthy that the brand has done, and not really an endorsement of the product.

Defining Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is a little different and depends on creation of content which gets forwarded from consumer to consumer typically following the route that a virus spreads. Again if the content is interesting and relevant, it might lend a positive disposition towards the brand, but by no means is it an endorsement of the product itself.

Brands that are big spenders on traditional advertising keep launching so called Word of Mouth campaigns which constantly fail. Who wants to talk and endorse a brand which everyone knows about.

Word of Mouth fundamentals
There is a certain joy of discovering a brand or product which others know little about, and a greater joy in sharing your discovery. But the greatest joy is probably getting your friends to love the brand and evangelize it as much as you do.

To keep this discovery and sharing alive is the founding principle of a Word of Mouth campaign. This can only be sustained on a brand when the company is constantly innovating on the product.

But if you innovate and undertake a blitzkrieg marketing campaign, it might result in no Word of Mouth. Everyone already knows about it right. So what will they talk, discuss and share?

WOM has been traditionally seen as a slow but very credible means of getting the communication out. If you wanted to communicate your innovation before competition does, then there was no choice but to undertake a massive big budget advertising campaign.

With the rampant adoption of social media to create & share content, word of mouth has taken on a new dimension from reaching 5 of your friends to 1000's of eager listeners.

Maybe it is time to innovate and resist the temptation to spend big, instead get relevant content creators to try your product, give the product free if you have to. If the product is truly innovative and WOM worthy, these content creators will give a whole new dimension to product endorsement.

Sometimes not advertising is the key, everyone loves an underdog who can't afford to spend and needs you to help them win. Who are you likely to endorse and tould you help sell the underdog?

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