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September 26, 2005
Word-of-Mouth Marketing – New Wrapper on an Old Package?
Imagine getting hundreds – or thousands – of passionate, influential young people with good communications skills to buy into your value proposition, study your key messages, go out on your behalf to talk about you to others, and then report back to you on who they talked to and what the feedback was.
Sounds pretty compelling, doesn’t it? That’s what a new breed of companies called word-of-mouth (WOM) marketers is selling.
The fundamentals make sense. After all, the concept of targeting the pioneers, early adopters and influencers in a systematized manner is just good strategy. However, some of these “new” WOM marketing specialists are going as far as implying that expenditures on other forms of communications – advertising, publicity, online, etc. – should be shifted to this new form of “buzz” generation.
A voice of reason in the buzz over buzz marketing (sorry, couldn’t resist) is Anthony Schweizer, business development manager for BzzAgent (www.bzzagent.com). Speaking at the Worldcom Public Relations Group meeting last week, (www.worldcomgroup.com), he acknowledged the need for WOM marketing to be part of the mix, as opposed to a replacement for any current tactic. In fact, the WOM concept is one of the oldest tactics in the book for anyone with experience in grassroots or influencer-based public relations programs.
Whether you think it’s the “next big thing” or just a new wrapper on an old package, WOM marketing ought to be part of many of your communications strategies. To get an overview, check out the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) at www.womma.org.
p.s. – that little example at the start of this posting? I think it’s safe to say it’s the strategy that’s used by pretty much every faith-based organization in existence today…
Posted by Matt Kucharski at September 26, 2005 11:28 AM