I had my first experience with Five Guys Burgers and Fries today.   There’s a new location at the Brookfield Square mall (Brookfield, WI).

Aside from what was a great burger and a very generous serving of fries, I need to share my service experience.  Like a lot of counter-style places you get a number and they call it when your food is ready.  Good old #48.  A bit later I happened to notice #47 and #49 get called at the same time.  No big deal, but then (only about 3 minutes later) they had gotten to #54 and still no delicious burger and fries for me.

I asked if it was coming up soon and they asked to see my ticket.  Now I think it’s important for those who know me to also know that I really asked the nice gentleman with zero irritation and a smile on my face.

Within one minute I was called back to the register where it was explained to me that they had lost my order, I would have it soon and they would be providing a full refund.  I had my food before my $10 was even back in my pocket.

Wow. That’s service.  No excuses, no hassles.  Just sorry it happened, thanks for your patience and here’s your food and money.

Service organizations take note.  This transaction cost Five Guys $10 bucks and some food.  However for me and the 5 co-workers I was with (and now anyone who reads this blog), the goodwill created and positive word of mouth will be hugely positive.  Think about that the next time your drive thru worker throws my food at me and makes me beg for ketchup!  I’ll share those experiences too.

Black Friday

Every year it seems that Black Friday, the sales day following Thanksgiving, becomes bigger and more chaotic. (consider the woman who died in the Wal-Mart stampede last year) With nearly every store offering some sort of great deal, retailers face the challenge of how to get shoppers in THEIR store. As retailers gear up for their massive advertising campaigns, let us look at the best ways to get the attention of consumers.

1. Build the Hype

Let’s face it, everybody loves that rush that comes from doing something that’s “forbidden”. There is a high level of secrecy around Black Friday ads. Whenever these ads are leaked, consumers pay special attention, because they are getting a look at something that is “top secret”. Though companies such as Sears make much ado over leaked ads, it actually gives them a valuable connection with consumers.

2. People Only Care About Themselves

A recent study from the University of Michigan showed that consumers’ attention went to where their interests lay. This means that you can no longer spend frivolously on mass media. People don’t care about what you’re selling; they care about how it is going to solve their problems. This means you must select the channels that have the greatest access to the people who are interested in your product. For instance, Bass Pro Shop would receive a higher ROI by advertising during Thursday’s football games than by putting inserts in the newspaper.

3. Do Something Unexpected

No one pays attention to boring ads, you have to do something special. You have to be interesting. Not only will this get attention, but it will give people a reason to tell their friends about you. Consider IKEA offering shoppers free breakfast and coffee. This is a simple and affordable way to get people to stop and say “Woah!”.

What are your thoughts on some other ways to get the attention of consumers?

With the recent announcement that Oprah will be ending her talk show in 2011 I immediately thought “Who would be next in line as the most powerful voice in marketing a product.” There is no one who can sell a product or service like Oprah. Her credibility lends itself to an immediate spike in sales anytime she mentions it on her show (especially as a “favorite thing”).

Currently, there is no host out there that comes close to her level. Oprah cuts across all segments as a powerful brand and always comes across as insightful, intelligent, and credible. Oprah is viewed as a life guru, someone to be followed, and I consider her to be the most authoritative word of mouth referral in this country.  So for all who’s dream it was to appear on Oprah or get their product onto one of her lists, you better do so quick.

A few other options (that will do) for once Oprah is done are:

Martha Stewert; Rachel Ray; Ellen; and the Today Show.

Social Media

Twitter, LinkedIn Groups, the blogosphere, Business First, and even the Columbus Dispatach have published numerous articles about the new order faced by business professionals who will be successful. Down goes the traditional marketing with mega advertising budgets and the A, B, C’s of selling (Always Be Closing). No longer is mass mailing thousands of strangers good enough (or wise enough) to put companies near the top of the heap. Now, we have umpteen ways of connecting with people, and getting them to know us, like us, and trust us. Twitter’s micro-blogs enable links to important and informative tidbits about us, our products and our brands while giving followers insights to us as ‘real people,’ not just our ‘Tweeple,’ personae. Blogging (umm, like this. . . ) is a larger stage for us to elaborate the points we want to make while staying on brand and message (as appropriate for our businesses) and inspiring readers to click through to our web sites to gather great tidbits as they move their way down our qualification funnels. Striving to have the most valuable answer on LinkedIn Questions is another way to get visible and credible, and let’s not forget the score of other social media sites liek Digg, Myspace, YouTube, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Technorati, and others that support online social media marketing efforts.

And . . . face to face contact is still the most vital element to develop deep, meaningful relationships that lead to long-lasting, fulfilling, and yes, even profitable referrals. I truly believe social media and face to face networking are strongest when used in the same strategy. I have a personal story that’s a super example of how social media can bring people together. A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference, and I happened to Tweet about one of the sponsors as they were mentioned in the keynote address. The next day, I was searching the exhibitor area for the sponsor, and couldn’t find them. I walked up to another exhibitor whom I knew, and asked if he knew where I could find the other sponsor. He laughed, and introduced me to the business owner, standing right next to him. The sponsor had received a Google Alert about my tweet, and asked the exhibitor if he knew me, just a few seconds before I showed up! His ability to track my tweet put him in a position to meet me, so we can continue to develop a mutually fulfilling relationship.

Santa Claus

Last week I was working the room at a large networking event, when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but an elf with a big belly of lard, and in his left hand was his business card! Yes, Santa Claus (remember him from the title of this blog?) was networking the mixer, eager to discuss how he could help the real Santa (after all, networking is about helping, right?) speak with kids at parties and shopping centers.

According to the Entrepreneur magazine article,  He’s really big this year,  Santa’s popularity with retailers is driving demand for Santa’s helpers to new heights. Shopping center and mall managers realize that people come to their establishments for more than shopping. People are looking for more ways to connect and feel connected with other people, and having one of Santa’s helpers on-hand is drawing visitors to their establishments.

So, the Santa helper I met is being a wise old elf. (Ummm, more like mid-30’s, so not so old). He’s extending his network of contacts, so he can help others find more ways to make connections, while he (hopefully) increases his revenues.

Moms are selfless in more ways than you might imagine.

The MomConnection’s Parenting Group survey reported that 94% of all Moms give advice to other Moms in at least one product category.

That compares to 81% of Moms who visited a brand’s Web site to gather information.

The top five product categories for Moms to share advice include:

• Children’s toys and games
• Entertainment
• Cooking and baking tools
• Online/offline shopping
• Drugs and remedies

Moms will talk about your brand if you are:

• A good value
• Trustworthy
• Responsive to Mom’s needs
• High quality
• A money saver
• A time saver

The top five product categories where Moms seek advice include:

• Financial Services
• Home renovations, repairs and appliances
• Cars and automotive products
• Electronics and home entertainment equipment
• Computers and cell phones

Where Moms go to find information:

• Mom-focused Web sites
• User reviews on shopping Web sites
• Magazine articles

Over the last few months there’s been lots of talk about Augmented Reality. John Mayer launched an augmented reality enhanced music video and dozens of apps popped up for the smartphones utilising this technology. So it’s no surprise that with print in a slow decline, Esquire have jumped on the bandwagon.

This month sees Decembers issue of Esquire come to life when you log on to their website.

The front cover boasts celebrity content with Robert Downey Jr introducing the issue, whilst throwing in a quick plug of his new movie Sherlock Holmes. The rest of the AR features all supplement content in the print magazine. In one of the fashion features, tilting your magazine in different directions controls the weather, and the model adjusts clothing appropriately. There’s also a time-based joke – check out the AR component after midnight and the content changes.

There’s already been quite a buzz about this campaign and whilst I wouldn’t expect it to become the norm, it’s definitely been a great way of generating word of mouth marketing as well as encouraging new readers to the magazine.

WOM UK President Molly Flatt hit Vegas last week for the annual conference of our US sister organisation, WOMMA…

Having arrived back in Heathrow at midnight, I’m still dogged by jetlag and trying to assimilate the great eclectic beast that was WOMMA’s 2009 Summit in Vegas, no less. With three days of keynotes, panels and case studies from some of the biggest US brands active in the WOM space such as Ford, HP and Coca-Cola, as well as research from the likes of Forrester Research, Nielsen and The Keller Fay Group, it was a mindblast of the latest theories and commercial applications of WOM.

Measurement was predictably high on the agenda. Clients are crying out for industry-wide standards, but there was an acknowledgment that meaningful metrics will be be different according to client objectives (visibility, sales, loyalty etc) and therefore project-specific education is still essential. Conversation relies on context, while most ad metrics are stand-alone and focused on scale alone. Consequently, the most successful examples of effective measurement involved a brand combining insights and figures from other departments (sales, eyeballs, customer services calls etc) with a broad range of qual and quant WOM data.

Internal ownership was also a massive issue, with some great sessions from IBM & Newell Rubbermaid and Mars on how they’ve integrated WOM listening and advocacy programmes into their existing structures and processes. This was related to an ongoing conversation about how Customer Services links with WOM. A panel including Pete Blackshaw from Nielsen, Frank Eliason from Comcast, Tom Asher from Levi Strauss, Denise Morrissey from Toyota and John Bernier from Best Buy looked at examples such as @TWELPFORCE and @comcastcares which fully integrate Twitter into CS. The main takeaway was: just try, keep communicating, and help employees learn and progress from their mistakes. Take the risk, and as long as your approach has integrity and strategy behind it, the benefits will be enormous.

Another highlight was Steve Knox from P&G’s Tremor using cognitive psychology to explain why customers talk – apparently if you disrupt their schema (the model in their head of how the world works and their assumptions about a brand) it’s WOM gold. And the panel of WOM academics tackling the toughest questions in the industry had some powerful messages, in particular the importance of overlooked visual, aural and offline WOM triggers; the need for research into geographical and cultural differences in behaviour; and the use of future visioning to sell in the value of WOM to brands: if we do or don’t engage this talkative customer, what will the impact be?

Steve Knox from Tremor on cognitive psychology. Spot me earnestly taking notes on my Mac…

On the flipside, some of the examples I saw were still too based around an old-school marketing approach. Isn’t a moderated, branded page or forum in an independent community (such as Tropicana for BlogHer) really just a microsite dressed up in social clothing? From a WOM UK perspective, it was interesting to observe the differences in approach between the US and UK. I’m not sure that some of the more gung-ho, blatantly branded adovacy groups such as the Feld Family Activators at Mom Central would gain much traction in a nation that tends to be highly sceptical of associating itself so strongly with commerce. And some agencies were even stipulating time limits whereby participants were ‘expected’ to talk in return for goods or experiences – where’s the spontaneous, independent and heartfelt advocacy in that?

Overall it was a rich and stimulating event and I’m sure more thoughts and observations will trickle through across the next few weeks. For more, check out my live tweets from the Summit @WOMUK, as well as video highlights here and photos here. And if you want a more detailed lowdown on insights and issues raised, just drop me a line and I’d be happy to take you through it over a coffee… or indeed a Vegas-themed cocktail.

Just completed a two day storytelling workshop run by Honor Giles and Helen Stewart of Word Of Mouth. It was absolutely grand! Such a lovely group of people and a superb mix of stories told about:

• snakes
• a clever fool
• a teacher-eater
• children lost in the woods
• Solomon
• a talking donkey
• words of advice
• a sheep-headed girl
• a child-eater
• a Scottish ghost
• a lost car
• and a giant.

You had to be there!

And here’s more collages…

Social media sites are most directly aimed at using the internet to socialise, the best example being facebook.com

But, as we know, where you find a gathering of people, you find advertising.

The idea is to get your website noticed.

Create a facebook page and get your friends and colleagues to become “fans” of the page. This is effectively the new word-of-mouth. You can also create ads in facebook. This ad will then be shown in facebook. And seeing as facebook know a lot about everyone using it, you can target your audience quite accurately.

So, apart from facebook, what other social media sites are there?

twitter.com, which is slowly growing and becoming more relvant to the average internet user. Its basically like the facebook wall,
where you can post short messages for all to see. Other twitter users can “follow” your twitter feed and will receive your posts on their twitter account.
Twitter can be incorporated into your website too, so that whatever you post on twitter can be automatically displayed on your website. This can be handy for a little ‘updates’ or ‘news’ section.
Again, the idea of twitter is to get your name and out there and build a reputation for being friendly and accessible.

linkedin.com, which is a rather powerful networking tool. You can create a profile which is very much like a live C.V.
You can use this site to find others in your field, or connect with potential employers and clients.

myspace.com, which was big before Facebook came along, but has now been mostly over run with bands trying to be heard.
If you are a musician, its worth creating yourself a page and uploading some tracks.

There are even more out there, but I have found these to be the main ones (in the western world anyway).
If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me.

ANTEFATTO:

Quando la sera per colpa di – o grazie a – un’ottima cena, un vino all’altezza e un bel po’ di risate fai tardi e la mattina dopo vedi che le risate (sì, solo le risate, Michi, certo…) hanno tracciato sul tuo volto linee dure a morire, tutto vorresti fuorchè essere costretto ad affrontare il traffico milanese per recarti a un convegno/una presentazione/una riunione, insomma un luogo terribilmente popolato e solitamente un po’ troppo illuminato. Solo uno spiccato senso del dovere oppure un evento particolarmente atteso riescono a sconfiggere il demone dell’accidia.

FATTO:

Oggi, 20 novembre, all’interno di una bellissima sala riuonioni all’interno della sede di Banca Intesa decorata da 4 arazzi importanti e sobri al contempo e impreziosita da antiche colonne di pietra imponenti e discrete, (dai, ci stava questa descrizione un po’ romananzesca), WOMMI ha fatto la sua comparsa sulla scena. Se non sai di cosa sto parlando clicca sul link… li hanno inventati per questo, no

RIFLESSIONE SUL FATTO:

Mi piace questo progetto, in particolare mi piace il codice etico dell’associazione e, nello specifico, il quarto punto:

4. Il word of mouth non può essere falsificato.

L’inganno, l’infiltration, la disonestà, lo shilling, e altri tentativi di manipolare i consumatori o la conversazione sono deplorevoli. I professionisti del marketing onesti non ricorrono a queste pratiche, non lo faranno, e se ci provano saranno smascherati.

I comportamenti scorretti saranno messi in evidenza dal pubblico e si ritorceranno in maniera letale contro chiunque li utilizzi.

Il resto lo trovate se cliccate sul link che sta più su

Una delle cose che più mi entusiasma della rete, specie nella sua evoluzione più attuale, è questo ritorno alle forme più arcaiche di relazione sociale.

Non c’è Santo che tenga, il web è veramente come la piazza del paese, qui se dici una fesseria, se cerchi di nascondere qualcosa o ti comporti in maniera scorretta, tutti lo vengono a sapere in un batter d’occhio.

Mi viene in mente una strofa di Bocca di Rosa di Fabrizio de Andrè:

“Ma una notizia un po’ originale
non ha bisogno di alcun giornale
come una freccia dall’arco scocca
vola veloce di bocca in bocca.”

CONCLUSIONE:

L’epoca della comunicazione aziendale lascia il posto all’era del Rinascimento della Conversazione e, quindi, ai marchi più coraggiosi e lungimiranti, ai marchi che hanno il coraggio di mettersi in gioco affrontando le sfide con determinazione e curiosità. (For women only: ma uomini così in giro ce ne sono ancora?)

Un sorriso,

m.

to Tweet or not to Tweet..that is the question!
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Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for attracting visitors to website content by promoting and publicizing it through social media. …try here http://twitter2000.com . As an average Web user, you don’t have to be a fan of social media optimization. However, as a site owner, here you do need to know that it exists and be aware ..

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ERS from Tango Business
http://tangobusiness.net
contacto@tangobusiness.net
http://twitter.com/tangobusiness

Wednesday evening saw the second in our series of WOM UK Thought Leader events – and the first in our new time slot, offering more of a chance for relaxed networking over a glass of wine after the presentation. 50 WOM UK members and friends packed out Grey’s east London offices to hear trnd’s Research Director, Dr Martin Oetting, give an extremely insightful talk on the importance of ‘Empowered Involvement’ in driving word of mouth.

Based on the findings of his doctoral thesis, The Ripple Effect, Martin’s presentation focused on the area of ‘contagious relationships’. He explained that marketers wanting to harness blogs, Facebook and the social web in order to build relationships, both with and between their customers, need to focus on four key drivers of Empowered Involvement – Meaning, Impact, Choice and Competence.

Using several case studies along the way to bring his presentation to life, Martin discussed examples such as Kettle Chips (competence), Livestrong (meaning) and Dell’s Idea Storm (impact) to show where brands have come up trumps, and examples such as Facebook (choice) to highlight where brands have come unstuck.

The presentation was followed by a lively Q&A, which touched on several different issues ranging from WOM metrics to the supposed decline of traditional advertising – see his presentation below and feel free to add any other comments and questions you have in the comments section of this post.

A big thanks to Grey for hosting our first evening slot, and we’d appreciate any feedback on how the later networking event compares to our monthly morning Espresso Briefing sessions. Talking of which, our next Espresso is with Face on Tuesday 24th November, where CEO, Andrew Needham and Head of Social Media & Planning, Francesco D’Orazio will share how real-time WOM monitoring and analysis can enable adaptive brand planning. Check out full details here and register for this event by emailing julian.ferguson@womuk.org your name, company, phone number and email address. As usual, attendance is free to all.

Who do you trust more when deciding on where to shop and what to buy: your friends and family or the hundreds of advertisements you see daily? For me, it’s a no-brainer. I value my friends’ and family’s opinions over anything an advertisement will try to lead me to believe.

This reasoning supports the statistic that word of mouth is two times more effective than advertising. According to a Customer Dissatisfaction Study from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), “On average, U.S. shoppers tell four people about their negative experience, embellishing the story as they tell it.”

WOMMA considers word of mouth as the voice of the consumer relaying information about products, services or brands. As a consumer, I always express my opinions if I have a positive or negative experience within a store, but I had no idea how much of an impact I was making on a company and its reputation.

The customer study continues, “More than 50 percent of American shoppers say a negative shopping experience of a friend or co-worker will prevent them from setting foot in a store altogether.”

We are all influenced by our close family and friends, so how can companies combat the negative word-of-mouth phenomenon? First, companies need to be aware of the specific problematic issues their customers are facing and take control by fixing those problems to create positive word of mouth. Specifically, companies should utilize their public relations tactics to make the positive attributes of their products or services known to consumers to encourage positive word-of-mouth circulation.

Public relations practitioners can manage word of mouth with careful planning and techniques. Most importantly, companies need to focus on making consumers happier by simply listening to them. Targeting their complaints and concerns will allow companies to discover the root of the problem in order to address it properly.

by Ashley Ross

För att göra Krönleins till ett märke att räkna med igen börjar vi med att återknyta kontakten med allas våra lyckliga barndomsminnen: Loranga! Kampanjinslagen är som följer:

* Loranga Fanclub på Facebook

* Videokampanj – Barndomsminne

* Lansering av Krönleins “Andra Hemsida”, en mer grafisk och lättsam sida frontad av Loranga

* Samarbete med en av Sveriges största matvarukedjor, kvittera ut en Loranga mot uppvisad kod skickad via “Andra Hemsidan” direkt till mobilen.

Facebook-kampanjen drar igång tidigt 2010. Med virala metoder som inbegriper Twitter, YouTube, Bloggar mm blir det en Word of Mouth runt tävlingen “Barndomsminne”.

I olika steg fram till sommaren trappas kampanjen upp med priser och lanseringen av Krönleins nya “Andra hemsida” -  Loranga: En del av din barndom. Här kan man anmäla sig för att bli “Barn på nytt” genom att registrera sitt mobilnummer —> få en gratiskod som man under sommaren kan kvittera ut en Loranga för. Kampanjen hålls tillsammans med en av de största matvarukedjorna som ser till att smycka ut sina butiker med kampanjmaterial i samband med hemsidereleasen.

Bilderna som kommer finnas på affischer och pins representerar svenska sommaraktiviteter som bad, bollspel, hopprep mm. Huvudrollsinnehavarna är rätt och slätt barn, detta för att konsumenterna ska minnas sina egna barndomssomrar och koppla till kampanjen “Barndomsminne”. Den svenska sommaren 2010 kommer att vara en vacker, orange sommar. Sommaren då vi alla återknyter kontakten med barnet inom oss. Sommaren då Krönleins påminner oss alla om det vi bär med oss, det som format oss, det ingen kan ta ifrån oss: våra barndomsminnen.

Så vad är det jag säger?

Från att ha tagit oss upp på det första trappsteget och spridit kännedom om Krönleins via Loranga Fanclub vill vi att folk ska klättra vidare. Detta genom att tänka tillbaka och minnas. Kan vi få folk att förnimma den magiska sommarkänslan, då livet tedde sig mindre komplicerat, – då mina vänner är allt möjligt.

/PC

WOMMI sta per “word of mouth marketing italia”, il passaparola italiano  e non all’italiana. Un argomento caro agli amici Ninja ed al grande Drwho. Leggo un suo post, del doctor, qui ieri ed allora mi viene in mente che se non lo condivido mettendo del mio, ovviamente, che passaparola sarebbe?

Mi ricordo, una volta, all’avvio di un corso di formazione (dove avevo il ruolo di tutor) durante il modulo dedicato alla socializzazione ed alla presentazione, l’esperto ha effettuato un esperimento sulle distorsioni nella comunicazione. Ha preso cinque allievi e li ha fatti sedere in  posti diversi, lontani uno dall’altro. Al primo, ha raccontato di un delitto mafioso con tanti colpi di pistola, in cui c’erano certamente morti, ma ancora non si sapeva quanti, il tutto era avventuo in pieno centro di una città (era successo un fatto analogo pochi giorni prima con innocenti morti nella città in cui vivo ed in cui purtroppo la mafia è ancora presente). Ha chiesto di raccontare tutto al secondo allievo, ed al secondo allievo a chiesto di raccontare tutto al terzo e cosi via. L’ultimo allievo doveva raccontare l’accaduto all’intera “aula”. Bene, il racconto è stato pieno di particolari, auto che si inseguivano, colpi di pistola per aria e cinque morti sicuri.

Cosa centra questo con il wommi? be a tutti quelli a cui ho chiesto conosci il passaparola, tutti mi hanno detto, più o meno la stessa cosa: si però ti devi fidare di chi passa la parola.

Infatti il WOMMI è la prima associazione italiana dei professionisti del passaparola e per risolvere dubbi e perplessità ha elaborato un codice etico di cinque punti che chiarisce un po’ di cose al proposito. Per il resto la parola è passata e domani a Milano verrà presentata l’associazione. Appeno ho cinque minuti mi associo … ora che ho passato la parola è il minimo che posso fare

… und ist es manchmal auch. Aktuell zeigt es gerade IKEA mit ihren Aktivitäten auf Facebook. Und weil wir hier gerade bei einfach sind, brauche ich die Kampagne gar nicht weiter zu erklären, sondern nur in alter Blogtradition das Video für sich sprechen lassen.

IKEA Facebook Showroom

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via;

Last week I attended the PRSA International Conference and had the opportunity to listen to some great seminars on the state of our industry, particularly how we as PR practitioners can leverage social media in our communication efforts.

One seminar in particular, People are the Killer APP: How to Grow Word-Of Mouth Movements With Your Brand Fans, was led by Geno Church, WOM Inspiration Officer for Brains on Fire. During the session, Church walked us through a case study of Fiskars scissors. The company sought to ingratiate themselves with the growing number of scrapbookers, a passionate and community-minded group of craftsladies (and men), who are eager to embrace the latest and greatest tools to make their memory books, well, memorable. I’m not a scrapbooker myself (my craftiest moments result in doodles during long conference calls) but I can certainly appreciate not only the creativity, but the camaraderie, that goes into the loved creations.

I was skeptical. Scissors? How is it possible to get a group so jazzed over a non-descript pair of scissors?

I, like most of the audience, was blown away at the picture of brand ambassadorship that unfolded before me. The effort seemed to have created a significant amount of infatuation for something normally shoved in the back of your gift wrap drawer. It’s not often you see such a surge of community spirit, with brand advocates providing priceless endorsement. The effort was, no doubt, incredible. When Church opened the floor to questions, one attendee asked the question I believe was on all of our minds – what kind of budget should you allot for a campaign of this magnitude? Church obviously couldn’t give client-specific numbers, but said it makes sense to assume $300,000 to half a million big ones for a effort of such magnitude.

Cue record scratch.

Many of us work with brands that simply can’t, especially in this economic climate, afford to invest that kind of money in any marketing effort. I wasn’t deflated, and marketers and PR agencies shouldn’t be either. There are many ways companies can propel off and online WOM with very little expense. I’ve put together a short list, and I welcome your creative minds to add your ideas and success stories.

• Start Talking – Joining the online conversation really doesn’t cost anything and can be a very powerful way to humanize your brand with influencers and customers. We “overheard” a blog conversation (using SocialMention) that included a client. We alerted the client who commented with a thank you and clarification of some questions. The blogger was very appreciative and responded by enabling our client to post a coupon, writing another post and including the product in her weekly newsletter with a kind endorsement. Score!

• Unofficial Official – Empower your consumers to play a role in product development and direction, and they’ll feel a sense of ownership and help you spread the word. We helped create a program inviting consumers of a natural foods company to name the next flavor of an existing product. The response was overwhelming, as entrants became immersed in the brand experience and engaged in online conversation about the contest. For another product, the company was preparing to launch a brand new product, so we helped solicit an elite team of beta testers to get the first taste and share their feedback, again, creating passionate brand ownership.

• Refer a Friend – I hate to spam my friends, but when Bluefly gives me another chance at a Chloe bag just for telling a couple friends, I’m a sellout. Incentivizing consumers to “Tell two more” can be a great way to earn a peer-to-peer endorsement.

• Team Player – When employees feel loyalty about a company, they can become both internal and external cheerleaders for your goals and mission. Kashi, a leader in the natural food space, is a perfect example of admiration built upon sheer brand passion. Employees are featured in ad campaigns and walk the streets sporting their company pride in logo shirts, as well as very honestly touting their Kashi-love on social networks and to friends and peers. It’s infectious.

What other ways can company generate word-of mouth without the big bucks. Is it necessary or smart to break the bank?

Photo credit: AComment

Wie auch schon vom Hinweisgeber angekündigt handelt es sich bei den singenden Eisfüssen weniger um einen klassischen Viral. Und das möchte die Aktion wohl auch gar nicht sein. Ich finde das Ganze ist eine sehr süsse Idee, die einen auf jeden Fall ein wenig schmunzeln lässt. Auf der Microsite kann man das ganze noch mit seinem Namen individualisieren lassen, was dem ganzen noch einen gewissen Touch gibt. Schöne Aktion von Hansaplast!

Comedian Fussionists – Die singenden Eisfuesse

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El viernes 13 a las 11:45 vino Sven Mulfinger, director general de TRND España, a visitar el Drac Novell. “The Real Network Dialogue” es la primera comunidad de Marketing Participativo de España. Lo que también es llamado como publicidad boca a oreja o recomendaciones entre consumidores. Es una cadena de recomendaciones que se propaga de manera exponencial e influencia prácticamente en todas las decisiones de compra de los consumidores. Es mi amigo, mi conocido, esa persona, quién tiene más influencia sobre nuestra decisión de compra. Le creemos ciegamente, antes que a la modelo de Danone que sale a las 9:00 PM en TV5. Nos parece más creíble aquello que encontramos en un foro donde nadie te paga por hablar y opinar. Vaya, que a primera vista no hay intereses subyacentes.  TRND potencia la idea de complementar una campaña de marketing convencional con una campaña de Word-of-Mouth para que el producto obtenga credibilidad. Según este gráfico (el que aparece en la web) gracias al WOM se aumenta considerablemente la notoriedad de la campaña y de la marca.

Está claro. Las recomendaciones de conocidos o opiniones de consumidores vía online es la forma más verídica de publicidad según el último Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey realizado con 25.000 consumidores de Internet de 50 países.

Como vemos en el gráfico un 90 % de los consumidores confía en las recomendaciones de las personas que conocen y un 70% de las personas que postean online. Y en tercer lugar también tenemos el medio Internet con las webs de las marcas (un 70% también confían en ellas). Una manera de investigar la empresa y nutriéndote de la información que te ofrece tal como tú la quieras buscar. El medio considerado más verídico, el diario, es desbancado por Internet. Un artículo que aparece de una marca en él pasa a estar en la cuarta posición, y un anuncio en él en la setena posición.

El Marketing Participativo funciona en todo tipo de clientes. Tanto belleza, salud, comida, automoción, viajes, electrónica, etc. Sobre todo resulta efectivo en esos productos donde la prueba es realmente importante para su futura compra.  Un ejemplo del trabajo realizado por TRND es para Nivea body Good-bye Cellulite. Es un producto que afirma quitar la celulitis. Obviamente es realmente necesario saber si realmente funciona o no. La empresa hizo una campaña publicitaria Word-of-Mouth donde 1.200 multiplicadoras de TRND recibieron productos de prueba e información sobre la crema para transmitir a amigos y conocidos. Los efectos pudieron ser medidos tanto cualitativa como cuantitativamente de manera satisfactoria para NIVEA.

TRND permite poner un marco y límites al inmenso mundo de Internet para poder medir resultados. Tan sólo es la muestra de la aparición de nuevos organismos que se encargan de controlar las opiniones online y de motivarlas que corrobora el máximo poder que adquiere Internet. Del máximo poder que tienes con un teclado delante y un producto en mal estado o fantástico.  Y lo máximo que una marca tiene que ofrecer a su consumidor es confianza. Entonces confiemos también nosotros en Internet.