Word Of Mouth Marketing

(WOMM)

What Is Word Of Mouth?

Positive or negative communication of products, services and ideas
via personal communication of people who have no commercial
vested interest in making that recommendation
- Silverman
In Simpler terms:
Word of mouth is what everybody is taking about.
Word of Mouth is the act of consumers providing honest
information to other consumers

What Is Word Of Mouth

Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff, and making
it easier for that conversation to take place.
Marketing?
-Andy Sernovitz

Art and science of building active, mutually beneficial

customer-to-customer and customer-to-marketer
communication.

The trick of getting your customers to talk

about you. One of the most inexpensive and
effective ways of marketing.
C2C communication happening online/offline by
phone conversations, gossips, blogs, social
media tools, emails, etc.

So.. What Is Not?

Stealth Marketing
Shilling
Infiltration
Comment Spam
Falsification

Word Of Mouth Communication

Pattern

Traditional Marketing VS WOMM

Word Of Mouth Marketing

Traditional Marketing

Where Does WOMM Fit?

When a product, service or concept is (or perceived as):
Expensive or a significant investment
Complicated or complex
New or innovative
Mature with new ideas

Or when a product, service or concept requires repositioning

Organic VS Amplified WOMM

Word of mouth is not created, it is co-created. People will only spread your
virus if there is something in it for them.
-Hugh MacLeod

Organic WOM

occurs naturally as a
result of the product/service on its
own

Amplified WOM is generated

by marketers from a special
marketing effort.

Practices that enhance Organic WOM:

Practices amplifying WOM activity:

Focusing on customer satisfaction.

Improving product/service quality.
Responding well to concerns and
criticisms.
Earning customer loyalty.

Developing tools that enable

people to share their opinions.
Identifying & reaching out to
influential
individuals/communities
Researching & tracking online
conversations
Motivating the talkers to
promote

How Does WOMM Work?

WOMM is based on the principle that uses influencers to spread a
message- online and offline. Activating online word-of-mouth is
not free any more than activating word-of-mouth in the offline
media. Key to WOMM is how many important influencers the
company reaches not how many people/customers.

5 Ts Of WOMM
WOMM campaign is built on top of the
FIVE Ts
because marketing guys like to make things formal!

5 Ts of WOMM
Talkers: Who will tell their friends about
you?
Topics: What will they talk about?
Tools: How can you help the message
travel?
Taking Part: When and how should you
join the conversation?
Tracking: What are people saying about
you?

Topics
Be remarkable or be inv

Tools
Make is easy to
talk.

Positive & Negative WOM

Positive word of mouth: 1 happy customer might tell max 5 others

Negative word of mouth: 1 unsatisfied customer may tell 10

others

Impact Of WOMM

Case Study: Obama Campaign

Repeatable messages
Multiple occasions
332 electoral votes

What is Viral Marketing?

An attempt to spread marketing message that
spreads quickly and exponentially among
consumers to increase brand awareness.
Video clips, Flash Games, Images, E-books
Viral marketing is a strategy that allows to
spread marketing messages and ads, over
many different types of social media sites.
These messages or ads multiply rapidly and
are sent to thousands of people, just like
viruses.

What is Viral Marketing?

A promotional method that is of the
customers, by customers, and for
customers

Like viruses, take advantage of the rapid multiplication to

explode the message to thousands or even to millions

Differences

Advantages
Accessed by millions of people per day
Quicker way of reaching the customer
Saves on advertising costs within companies
Customize the message to your preference
Can easily be directed to your exact target market
Sometimes gives the company a good reputation

Disadvantages
Can be annoying and be considered as spam
Only benefits the company if an actual sale is made from

the ad
Focuses more on short term success
Many competitors can easily imitate the viral marketing

techniques and steal the market from other companies

Can put out a negative impact on the company, in the

same timing that it puts a positive impact on the company

Examples
Hotmail - When Hotmail launched, much of its early
success was due to the virality of the sigline that it
attached to every outgoing email inviting the recipient
to join. One of the earliest examples of viral marketing
on the internet.
Will it Blend - One of the most recent best viral
marketing campaign examples, Blendtecs will it blend
video series shows scientists testing if various
household items will blend in their super-powerful
blender. This campaign leveraged the popularity of
online video sharing sites.

Examples
Simpsonsize Yourself - Created for the
Simpsons movie, this site allowed visitors to
create an avatar of themselves as a
character from the cartoon.
Mentos/Diet Coke - Another wacky scientist
schtick, these guys got famous by making
art out of the explosions caused by mixing
diet coke and mentos.

Viral Marketing Mistakes

Failing to make it interesting enough to
pass along
Failing to provide incentives to
encourage people to pass your message
along
Focusing on a single viral piece rather
than a viral process
Failing to test and track the results
Not recognizing it is different from wordof-mouth marketing