The document discusses how brands can leverage word-of-mouth marketing in the digital age. It notes that only 22% of word-of-mouth is sparked by advertising, so brands need to focus on providing memorable customer experiences. It provides examples of brands like Southwest Airlines, Maker's Mark, and Sendik's that create experiences worth sharing. The document recommends that brands overdeliver on customer experiences, be unexpectedly deviant, and focus on experiences versus just marketing messages to encourage positive word-of-mouth sharing.
A New Era for Word-of-Mouth Marketing - video: http://shar.es/5CYqW
1. A New Era for
Word-of-Mouth
Does Your Brand Get It?
Created by Bader Rutter
as part of the Fast Forum series
2. Success is creating
experiences worth sharing.
Old-school marketing is the price for being
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unimaginative. It relies too heavily on
management of manicured messages that
tell customers what to think about your brand
and banks on buying attention with volume Only
and frequency. percent
This model’s days are numbered. In the digital of word-of-mouth is sparked by advertising.
age, messages served by a brand aren’t as
believable when online customer ratings and
The rest is something else.
peer reviews will tell the real story, as told by
real people.
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3. So what does a brand need to do to realize true potential? Change the game. Compel customers to talk
about you because they love the experience they have with your brand. In turn, customers are more
inclined to reward you with a review, pin, like or share. Before you know it, their peer network knows
about you and the phone starts ringing — a big reward for doing nothing more than giving customers
an experience worth sharing.
Ready to see how word-of-mouth can work for you?
Greater
What you’ll get: understanding of
why delivering
memorable
experiences is
Ideas for getting good business
people talking See brands that are
about your brand creating an advantage
with word-of-mouth
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4. People have
an average of
130 Facebook® friends.
No one shares an average
customer experience.
At its most basic level, word-of-mouth is the story your customers share with peers about
their experience with your brand. The marketing part is when you intentionally focus on providing
customers an experience worth sharing.
Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.
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5. Word-of-mouth marketing is not a new concept. Restaurants are famous for relying on peer
recommendations. BtoB marketers are now in a service economy where, just like in restaurants,
product features aren’t enough. It’s increasingly difficult to sustain a position of actual product
differentiation. A longer-term approach is to act differently by providing memorable experiences
that spark word-of-mouth.
Social media now empowers a consumer who has
Studies show that
had a remarkable experience to reach hundreds customers will share a
of followers. Likewise, studies show that customers
will share a negative experience with more peers negative experience
than a positive one. These facts make word-of-mouth
more important than ever because conversations
with more peers than a
about your brand move faster and to a much larger
group today.
positive one.
Marketers who don’t focus on providing meaningful customer experiences won’t get talked about —
no matter how many tweets, ads and direct mail you send. If it’s average or boring, it’s not worth
sharing and it’s a lost opportunity for the brand to differentiate.
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6. Take command
of the customer experience.
Word-of-mouth is really very easy to understand. If people like
your work and trust you, they will tell their peers to do business
with you. The recipe is the same as building any solid
relationship: participate, rectify, engage, entertain, satisfy,
support and surprise.
So why doesn’t your marketing team have a focus on
word-of-mouth right now? Control. When a brand puts out a
marketing message, whether it’s contained within an online ad
or a direct mail piece, marketers are in control of the message.
When you’re allowing customers to talk about your brand, you
Client story: Make it memorable and extend it online.
have to trust that they’ll say what you want — something with
which traditional marketers often struggle.
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7. 80%
of word-of-mouth
happens offline.
Plus, it’s relatively easy to put together an email
marketing campaign, but it’s much more difficult
to influence someone’s experience and reactions,
for many reasons. Marketers who successfully gain some command of
• Marketers don’t traditionally have influence over
other touch points create a huge advantage for their
service and sales interactions. brands. Word-of-mouth is an untapped opportunity
• sking for a customer experience budget isn’t easy.
A for most, and simply focusing on creating more
• Marketers have to re-evaluate the role of familiar
shareable customer experiences helps move the
mass channels. brand forward through differentiation.
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8. Thousands of FREE YouTube® views for
Leverage what you
flight safety instructions and beef jerky.
Your brand isn’t
already do better. too boring to spark
Is there something your brand can’t avoid doing well?
word-of-mouth.
Influence what people say about your brand when
you’re not there by leveraging what you naturally do
differently or better than your competition. Note that this
shouldn’t be focused on a product feature because your
product doesn’t need to be different to act differently.
It’s all about:
• Your brand personality
• ow you interact with customers
H
• Your unique tone in the marketplace
YouTube is a registered trademark of Google Inc.
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9. Southwest
Airlines
Southwest Airlines is a great example of this. It does
service better and it has woven shareable
experiences into multiple customer touch points.
It allows its flight attendants to get creative, whether
that’s by rapping the in-flight instructions or adding
a little dance to the seat belt and life vest
demonstrations.
Southwest Airlines extends its unique experiences
beyond customer service by getting on the customer’s
side with “Bags Fly Free” and by putting the word
LUV next to its airline acronym SWA on the
Departures monitor. Its stock symbol is NYSE:LUV.
Unique advertising also can spark word-of-mouth.
The “Messin’ With Sasquatch” campaign by
Jack Link’s® Beef Jerky offers an entire
experience for snackers, complete with
television commercials, events such as
“Sasquatch Sightings,” an online game
Jack Link’s
and a Six Flags® roller-coaster ride.
Jack Link’s is a registered trademark of Link Snacks, Inc.
Six Flags is a registered trademark of Six Flags Theme Parks Inc.
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10. Overdo and overdeliver.
“I would make sure that
it’s over the top. You want to create
an experience, not just an event, to give
them something they can take home and
remember for the rest of their lives.”
- Greg Cannon, Mycogen Seeds
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11. Going above and beyond expectations is one way to get
noticed by your customers and ensure the chatter about
their experience is shared with peers. Now, there’s no
need to overdo everything. In fact, the simpler, the better. Maker’s
Break the routine by changing your packaging, service
or a customer event.
Mark
Maker’s Mark, for example, treats its customer like old friends in everything it does. These friends then
have the chance to act as ambassadors for the brand and receive a variety of special perks, such as their
name on a barrel of bourbon and the ability to track their barrel’s progress.
Sendik’s Sendik’s, a local specialty grocery, offers
distinctive and durable red bags that are
Bag useful long after carrying food items home.
As a result, every customer has the potential
to be a walking billboard.
Our client Mycogen Seeds also has done a fantastic job
of creating a peer event and online community that fosters
conversations among customers and prospects — all
without a push from sales. It adds over-the-top elements
to its customer events by taking participants to a Monday
Night Football® game or having a quirky, custom
Mycogen Seeds song sung to the tune of “Rocket Man.”
Anything that breaks routine is a good
candidate for word-of-mouth.
Monday Night Football is a registered trademark of National Football League.
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12. It has to be
unexpectedly
deviant.
Provide an experience
that’s truly worth sharing.
Customers expect great products and services, so you must find a way to be unexpectedly deviant
or clever. Ask yourself, “Would anyone share this experience?” If it doesn’t challenge what’s
normal, chances are no one will want to talk about it.
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13. Never think
your product Any change or challenge to the norms will be
is too mundane for this type of found as weird by a few. That’s exactly what makes
experience.
them shareable! Here are a few ways to be more
shareable:
• ecast the rules of the marketplace. Think
R
“Bags Fly Free.”
• Find the edges of customer service and take
things further.
• he pleasantly unexpected is definitely
T
For example, our senior digital strategist, Grant shareable.
Thekan, expects that when he stays at a Four • uild marketing into the customer experience
B
Seasons hotel, the staff will be helpful. However, versus just surrounding the product with it.
during a recent stay in Chicago, he didn’t expect
a housekeeper to go above and beyond by
brushing his daughter’s American Girl® doll hair,
putting her in her pajamas and gently tucking her
into bed. It was a moment that truly delighted his
daughter and compelled him to tell his peers about
the extra special effort. The Four Seasons gets it.
Even though a hotel seems like the perfect place
for word-of-mouth, you should never think your
product is too mundane for this type of experience.
BtoB company WindsorOne sells lumber to builders
and puts T-shirts with funny slogans in every shipment. Take a fresh look at your shareability.
Customers can’t wait to open another box!
American Girl is a registered trademark of American Girl, LLC.
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14. For every dollar we’ve spent,
we average a
$10return.
Word-of-mouth pays.
Today, real online product reviews and social media comments trump marketing messages, and
media consumption is at the point of saturation. Because of these unique challenges, word-of-mouth
marketing may be the answer for your brand. It’s an untapped opportunity for many.
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15. “How likely is it
that you would
recommend this
to a friend or colleague?”
Word-of-mouth forces you to focus on making decisions
that are good for your customer first, and it makes
understanding and improving your customer touch points
a priority. Let word-of-mouth marketing be the catalyst for
a conversation about customer satisfaction metrics, like
the Net Promoter ® Score, which is based on one question:
“How likely is it that you would recommend this to a friend or
colleague?”
People are now putting a higher value on honesty and
transparency. Provide that by letting your customers help
you tell your story. Invest in experiences worth sharing,
Client story: Word-of-mouth can work very quickly.
and you’ll activate the most compelling message and
medium you have — your customers!
Net Promoter is a registered trademark of Satmetrix Systems, Inc.
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16. Check out these great
word-of-mouth examples
from brands that get it.
• Krispy Kreme gives its customers a reason to share their experience by providing
a behind-the-scenes look at how its donuts are made.
• outhwest Airlines lets bags fly free, something airline passengers are sure to tell their
S
fellow travelers.
• irgin America’s safety video has 600,000+ views.
V
• endik’s, a local specialty grocer, turns customers into walking billboards by offering
S
durable red bags that customers will be sure to use again and again.
• Maker’s Mark treats all of its customers like friends by offering an ambassador
program and hands-on tours.
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17. These word-of-mouth
resources inspired us.
Links: Reading List:
WordofMouth.org 1. Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart
Companies Get People Talking
Word of Mouth Marketing Crash Course
2. Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff
People Love to Talk About
We enjoyed expounding on the opinions aggregated
in this publication from other word-of-mouth leaders, 3. urple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your
P
events we have attended and our experiences in Business by Being Remarkable
helping our clients find success. If you are inspired
4. verything I Know About Business I Learned
E
to read more about these topics, check out the
From the Grateful Dead: The Ten Most
recommended reading list. The authors are all
Innovative Lessons From a Long, Strange Trip
amazing minds who “get it” and share wonderful
ways to spark conversation. 5. Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead:
What Every Business Can Learn From the Most
Iconic Band in History
6. inchpin: Are You Indispensable?
L
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18. Thank you to Greg Cannon for sharing his word-of-mouth story.
Shot on location at General Mitchell International Airport, Miller Park
and Bader Rutter HQ by the BR video team.
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