Download Understanding Word of Mouth Marketing

Understanding Word of Mouth Marketing
Sept 08
WHITE PAPER No 1
Grd Floor, 255 Riley St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010 Ι abn: 97 131 210 805 Ι t: (02) 9212-0710 Ι f: (02) 9211-8997 Ι [email protected] Ι www.contagiouscomms.com.au
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Contents
Introduction
pg 2
Brands can bind relationships with word of mouth
pg 3
Why is word of mouth marketing so relevant now?
pg 3
A clear definition of word of mouth marketing
pg 8
Word of mouth marketing does not mean losing control
pg 9
Is word of mouth marketing face-to-face or online?
pg 11
Shilling is not word of mouth marketing
pg 12
The strongest brands have embraced word of mouth marketing
pg 12
The Net Promoter Score
pg 13
Measurement Techniques
pg 14
Conclusion
pg 15
Sources
pg 17
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Introduction
It goes without saying that the power of recommending a product or service by
word of mouth is enormous. In fact it’s generally accepted that recommendation
through word of mouth is the most effective form of communication to influence
consumer purchasing behaviour.
That said, there is considerable debate about how genuine word of mouth is
achieved through marketing techniques & strategies. The principles of word of
mouth have been around for centuries but it’s only recently that marketers have
focused on specific marketing techniques designed to create organic word of
mouth to promote their brands. Furthermore, there is not any one single definition
of word of mouth marketing which has led to much confusion surrounding what it
entails, and what the tangible outputs are.
This white paper provides an analysis relevant to the Australian market, where we
examine the key social and technological influences that may have resulted in the
recent acceleration of word of mouth marketing strategies. We delve into the effectiveness of marketing strategies designed to achieve word of
mouth, including an analysis of measurement techniques. We also examine
misconceptions surrounding this new method of marketing.
Ultimately, the purpose of this paper is to provide marketers with a clearer
understanding of word of mouth marketing.
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Brands can bind relationships with word of mouth
According to internationally acclaimed professor and social psychologist Robert B
Cialdini, friendships are based on ‘similarities’ between two or more people. Cialdini’s theories have proven that most people will agree with a product or service
recommendation from a friend because they already trust and value that persons
opinion.1 In effect, the product or service (and it’s recommendation) can create
‘emotional currency’ that binds a relationship together. Word of mouth marketing is based on this principle and results in brands and
products (and their recommendation) becoming part of the glue that holds a
relationship together. The sharing of a brand experience creates an emotional
connection that can strengthen (or weaken) human relationships and can in turn
increase purchasing intent. Conversely, a message or recommendation from a
source of no direct relationship (i.e. traditional advertising, TVCs, radio, press etc)
has much less ‘emotional weight’ and is therefore less likely to result in a sale.
Marketing strategies and techniques that stimulate word of mouth provide brands
with an opportunity to become ‘emotional currency’ between their consumers and
ultimately increase advocacy and sales as a result.
Why is word of mouth marketing so relevant now?
Three key influential factors have resulted in word of mouth marketing becoming
more relevant than ever:
1. Consumer connectivity…has changed the world. Consumers are
communicating with each other like never before
2. Advertising saturation…is increasing, ‘reaching’ consumers is becoming
progressively difficult
3. Consumer scepticism…of advertising messages is growing, mistrust
of ‘one way’ brand communication is prevalent
Consumer connectivity is arguably the most recent and topical trend to occur. As a
result of this we analyse consumer connectivity in-depth in this paper.
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We also touch on advertising saturation and consumer scepticism – both of which
have been increasing over the past 5 years.
Consumer connectivity and Web 2.0 are inextricably linked. The explosion of Web
2.0 applications has resulted in a shift away from consumers receiving a one-way
communication from a brand whereby the brand dictates a message (i.e. TVC ads,
branded websites, radio ads, press ads) to an environment whereby consumers are
communicating with each other en masse about brands and forming their own
opinions and recommendations (see image 1.1 below).
Image 1.1 Communication Shift
THEN
brands
NOW
brands
consumers
Web 2.0
consumers
This has resulted in a consumer revolution. Web 2.0 provides a new platform for
consumers to talk to each other on a global and local scale. It provides a rich
creation environment where the consumer becomes both an online producer and
an aggregator of content.
Consumers are no longer passive recipients of brand messages; they are active
participants. Consumers have gained more control and can now further influence
the health and success of a brand.
One of the defining features of Web 2.0 is that ‘everyone can now be a media
owner’; anyone with internet access can create their own website, blog, community
(ning), vlog (video log), forum etc. Therefore, the power is no longer entirely in the
hands of the brands and media owners. The consumer communication environment
has been subjected to a monumental transition whereby consumers have a
newfound power over brands resulting in a need for a whole new approach to
marketing (see table over page).
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Table 1.1 Marketing Transition
Ownership
Creation
Communication
Control
Media
BRANDS
Traditional marketing environment
New marketing environment
Small no of media owners (dependant on finance, connections, technical
expertise etc)
Everyone is a media owner (consumer
generated content and co-creation)
Media/brand owners develop and
create brand messages
Consumers participate in brand
development and messages
Brands provide information to
consumers (one way communication
- broadcast style)
Consumers share information online
(two-way dialogue – interactive style)
Brands control and create content
Traditional media (TV, press, radio,
outdoor etc)
Consumers control and create
content
New online media channels (social
networks, content sharing sites, blogs,
communities etc)
CONSUMERS
POWER SHIFT
Furthermore, the recent emergence of social networking provides new digital
channels for consumers to talk to each other with more ease, frequency and en
masse deepening the level of consumer connectivity.
There is a misconception that this level of consumer connectivity is prevalent in the
U.S and Europe and has not yet hit Australia however statistics show that this is not
the case.
Image 1.2 illustrates the proliferation of social media and the explosion of consumer
created content in Australia.
Over half of online Australians have a social network profile and more than a
quarter are sharing their opinions and commenting on brands in the online
environment. 77% have watched videos online, 29% have uploaded videos to a
share site, 62% read blogs, 26% regularly share their opinions on blogs and 12%
have created their own blog.
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Image 1.2 social media in Australia2
16.3 million internet users
79.4% market
penetration
51% have a social
network profile
77% have watched
videos online
28% have uploaded
videos to a share site
62% read blogs
29% have commented
on a blog
47% have uploaded
photos on a share site
26% write their opinions
on products and brands
25% have subscribed
to an RSS feed
40% have
downloaded a podcast
Social media has provided consumers with the ability to connect to more people
than ever before which in turn has increased global word of mouth. This is due to
two key factors:
1.  More efficient management of friendship networks
It is now easier than ever to connect with every single friend you have ever
had on a global level. Social networking sites provide a way to centralise and
categorise your friends, to meet new friends and to maintain an ongoing
relationship with them.
2.  Mass dissemination
Social media has made it easier to contact large groups and networks of
friends with minimum effort. It is now relatively easy for people to share their
opinions and make recommendations to a large number of people in one hit,
maximising the effect of word of mouth. As Amy Shuen states in her book ‘Web 2.0: A strategy Guide’, “Social networks
can make or break a product by spreading positive news of its existence to other
potential users or by recommending a competitor”. 3 Consumer recommendation
sites such as Yelp also provide online forums for consumers to share their opinions
en masse.
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Essentially, consumer connectivity means that consumers now have the power to
talk to each other about brands quickly, frequently, easily and on a local and global
scale. Therefore a huge opportunity now exists for brands to harness their existing
and new customers to stimulate word of mouth about their products and services.
As discussed earlier, the second key influential factor impacting the relevance of
word of mouth marketing is ‘advertising saturation’. Consumers are constantly
being bombarded with advertising messages. The average person is now subject to
over 1500 advertising messages every day so there is a huge need for brands to find
new ways to cut through to consumers.4 Word of mouth marketing provides a new
way by approaching consumers in a non-commercial, interactive, conversational
way.
Furthermore, increased ‘consumer scepticism’ of traditional advertising messages
has resulted in a new desire for a more honest relationship between brands and
consumers which we discuss further in the next section of this white paper.
To re-cap – the 3 key factors that have made word of mouth marketing more
relevant than ever before are:
1. Consumer connectivity
2. Marketing saturation
3. Consumer scepticism
As a result of these changes to the consumer landscape brands need to:
listen to consumers in the new online social media environments that
they are frequenting, interact with them and provide ways for them to
converse about brands

avoid becoming just another ‘lost piece of communication’ amid the
multitude of messages that consumers are being bombarded with every day

connect with consumers in a deeper more meaningful way to ensure
that the unique values and properties of their products and services are
communicated

Word of mouth marketing can provide the solution to the above challenges.
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A clear definition of word of mouth marketing
Word of mouth marketing is a whole new marketing approach that essentially
involves developing strategies and solutions that result in positive conversations
leading to brand advocacy and sales.
The word of mouth marketing association provide the following definition:
Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it
easier for that conversation to take place.5
This definition clearly demonstrates that word of mouth marketing is not a set of
off the shelf solutions but is a strategic discipline and focuses on creating word of
mouth advocacy for brands and/or their products through a wide variety of bespoke
solutions.
There are two key word of mouth marketing approaches:
1.  Giving influential consumers the opportunity to ‘experience’ a brand’s product
or service in order to create advocacy and recommendation
2.  Creating branded platforms and initiatives that encourage consumer to
consumer conversations and brand advocacy (focusing on creating an honest,
meaningful relationship between brand and consumer rather than a dictatorial
broadcast approach)
A key strength of word of mouth marketing is that it ‘harnesses the consumer to
organically promote brands’. Word of mouth marketing does not involve brands
broadcasting messages about their products to consumers. Instead it brings to life
the unique values and properties of a brand that are conversation worthy in an
interactive environment so that consumers are pre-disposed to talk organically
about that brand.
It is important to note that specific word of mouth marketing channels are selected
depending on each individual client objective. In order for word of mouth
marketing to work effectively the focus must remain on the desired ‘relationship’
between brand and consumer.
Below are examples of potential word of mouth strategies and or solutions:
•  Harnessing ‘influential’ people and networks to create grassroots buzz
•  Developing tools to help make it easy for people to talk about a brand
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•  Utilising existing social media to promote brands
•  Creating guerrilla marketing strategies to drive grass roots awareness and
connectivity
•  Promotions or campaigns that invite consumers to ‘create’ alongside brands
•  Developing forums for consumers to share their opinions with each other
and brands
•  Providing further opportunities for consumers to work alongside brands
(‘consumer poll voting comps’)
•  Creating branded infrastructures that ignite consumer conversations
Effective word of mouth marketing involves nurturing honest and trustworthy
relationships between brands and consumers. Marketing is no longer about brands
trying to be so persuasive in their advertising that consumers rush to buy their
product regardless of how good it is. The current environment calls for a much
more ‘honest’ approach because the advent of social media means that if a product
isn’t up to scratch then there’s a strong chance that the whole world will know
about it soon after the first sale. Word of mouth marketing provides ways for
brands to develop these honest relationships and to obtain long term brand
advocacy.
The prospect of creating an ‘honest’ relationship with consumers means opening
up to the possibility that people may talk negatively about brands online for the
whole world to see and this terrifies most brand managers. The reality is that
consumers are already talking about brands, products and services, every minute of
every day. They are critiquing brands, they are recommending brands and they are
talking about them negatively. The first step is awareness. Brands need to know
what consumers are saying about them, they need to identify influential
conversationalists and the key environments where they are communicating.
As co-founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wale states:
“Word of mouth is far more important than ever before. Influencing the passionate
consumers is more important than before. In this environment, it's getting harder to
convince people with a mass blast of your brand image all the time. What's
powerful is to engage the early adopters and influencers who will go out in a peerto-peer way to sell your brand.” 6
Word of mouth marketing does not mean losing control
Many brands feel that by embracing word of mouth marketing they are losing
control over their consumers. The reality is that brands are not in control anyway, so
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the risk actually lies in brands ignoring their consumers by not engaging in word of
mouth strategies. It is when consumers are ignored that they are more likely to talk
negatively about a brand. Conversely it has been shown that if you address the
needs of your most unhappy customers they are likely to become strong advocates
and ‘shout twice as loudly’ about your positives.
Brands that provide forums for their customers to start a conversation, join in on
their conversations and take their feedback on board and make changes breed
advocates (see pg 12 where we discuss Apple and Google). These are examples of
how brands establish an honest relationship with their consumers through word of
mouth marketing.
Furthermore one quick Google search proves that consumers are already talking
about brands negatively. The first step for any brand is awareness of what they are
saying and why.
The reality is if consumers are talking about a brand negatively then that product or
service is likely to be inefficient in some way, either way the brand has a problem
and should look to address the consumer feedback. The first step is to know exactly
what the issue is and understand why the consumers are voicing their concerns. As
Microsoft founder Bill Gates said:
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning7”.
Brands can only benefit from knowing what their consumers opinions are about
their products and services, good or bad.
It goes without saying that what customers and potential customers talk about is
deeply connected to a brands positioning & reputation and social media now plays
a large part in this. It appears essential that brands listen and react to consumer
conversations and participate in word of mouth marketing strategies. As U.S. word
of mouth marketing expert Andy Sernovitz states in his book “Word of mouth
marketing; How smart companies get people talking”:
“Traditional marketing is no longer the safe way to go. It may make you more
comfortable, but it is becoming gradually less and less effective for more and
more companies. It’s time to focus on making customers happy – earning their
trust and respect and getting them talking about your stuff.”8
Dell’s ‘Ideastorm’ is a great example of a word of mouth marketing strategy
creating a deeper more meaningful relationship between the brand and consumer.
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After receiving negative feedback from consumers in the blogosphere Dell created
an interactive online platform for consumers to submit new product ideas and to
inform Dell about what they liked and disliked about Dell products. Consumers
initially submitted 7,500 ideas, 527,094 votes and 46,801 comments with an
average of 40,000 weekly hits. As a result Dell have implemented 30 new
consumer-generated ideas.8 Consumers have embraced this because they feel that
a) they have a voice b) they are being listened to and c) their opinions are being
acknowledged and acted upon. This kind of relationship cannot be achieved
through traditional media.
Is word of mouth marketing face-to-face or online?
According to U.S. word of mouth marketing pioneer Dave Balter, “80% of word of
mouth takes place offline”9 – however a vast majority of it is now triggered through
initial online conversations (many in the social media space). The digitisation of the
consumer landscape indicates that word of mouth will occur more and more in the
online environment.
According to a recent study, 75% of people who spend their time online say their
colleagues are the primary influence on their purchase decisions, and 63% consider
reviews and product comparisons to be as credible as expert reviews from
independent 3rd parties.10
In addition more than a third of consumers said that in the future they will rely on
product reviews found through forums and online networks more frequently.11 For
this reason it is vital that brands understand and utilise social media in their word of
mouth strategies.
Clearly online word of mouth is a trusted source of recommendation for consumers
and is a key ‘growth’ area that provides many wide reaching opportunities that will
surely expediate with time. The key benefit of online word of mouth is mass
dissemination – the ability for consumers to reach large networks with minimum
effort. This enables recommendations about brands to travel fast and on a global
level.
Conversely offline word of mouth marketing may begin by engaging a smaller
group of influentials – however the message will usually be stronger as a face to
face recommendation from a trusted source holds much weight and as discussed
earlier is a form of strong emotional currency.
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Ideally in order to maximise reach and strength of message, both off and online
word of mouth should be utilised.
Shilling is not word of mouth marketing
Word of mouth marketing should not be confused with ‘shilling’ – paying
consumers to promote your brand. It is this confusion that often gives word of
mouth marketing a bad name and it is obvious why.
The entire essence of word of mouth marketing lies in the ‘credibility’ achieved
through personal recommendation. Clearly this is not the case if you pay someone
to promote a brand. There have been many horror stories of brands that have
implemented shilling campaigns. A good example is Sony Ericson who hired actors
to pretend to be tourists; the actors were instructed to ask strangers in the street to
snap their pictures on a Sony Ericson camera phone in a poor attempt to promote
the new product.12 This is a classic example of a brand not really understanding
word of mouth marketing or the current consumer landscape. The potential
damage caused by consumers finding out about brands deceiving them is huge. In
this instance where a brand has pro-actively, intentionally tried to create false word
of mouth you could forgive consumers for wanting to damage the reputation of
the brand by spreading the bad news. True word of mouth marketing is the
prerogative of the brand and involves only ‘genuine’ peer to peer
recommendations.
The strongest brands have embraced word of mouth marketing Apple and Google are great examples of pioneering brands who have embraced
word of mouth marketing to drive business growth. Google has always taken a
collaborative approach by asking for feedback from consumers on its many Beta
products pre-launch. Google also places emphasis on promoting dialogue between
users with features like Google Talk, Google Groups and Google Blogger. These
tactics stimulate word of mouth among consumers and build long term brand
advocacy. A large part of the reason that Google has gone from strength to
strength can be attributed to this word of mouth marketing approach.
Apple is another great example of a brand that encourages conversation around its
brand and owns 76% of the portable music category as a result.13 Apple has
always been great at building dialogue around product enhancement and userexperience and has created a loyal community of followers eager to purchase the
next Apple product.
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Clearly there are a growing number of brands who are embracing and
implementing word of mouth marketing and utilising social media to grow their
brands very quickly and become market leaders. After 8 years in business Google
became a verb and Myspace and Facebook have become household names within
just a few years, furthermore Proctor and Gamble are huge advocates and own a
number of dedicated word of mouth marketing agencies in the USA. All of the
above are further evidence of the speed and effectiveness of word of mouth
marketing.
Net promoter score
A common tool increasingly used by businesses and brands that values the power
and relevance of word of mouth recommendation is the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
NPS is in effect a metric tool that uses word of mouth recommendation to gauge
the level of success and growth of a particular company, brand or product.
NPS is calculated by asking customers a simple question “With a rating of 0-10 how
likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
Based on the responses, customers are then categorized into one of three groups:
Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. (Please see table 1.2 NPS calculation below)
Table 1.2 NPS calculation table
Detractors
0
LEST
LIKELY
1
2
3
4
Passives
5
6
7
NPS = % of promoters - % of detractors
8
Promoters
9
10
VERY
LIKELY
Organisations then calculate their NPS by subtracting their % of detractors from
their % of promoters.
The higher the score (avg score 5-15) the better a business/brand is viewed to be
performing. Many large scale organisations such as Proctor and Gamble, Apple,
Dell, General Electric, e-bay, Amazon etc regularly achieve scores of 50+ and claim
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NPS to be a great tool to motivate their organisation to become more focused on
improving products and services for their customers.
NPS values word of mouth recommendation as the single most important driver of
business growth. With NPS globally recognised as one of the most effective
business evaluation techniques this further proves the effectiveness of word of
mouth recommendation in a brands growth.
Measurement techniques
Accountability and measurement have been identified as two of the key barriers for
brands to dedicate budget to word of mouth marketing. There are many ways word
of mouth marketing can be measured, however much of this involves throwing
away some of the more traditional measures such as awareness and recall. It also
involves proactively devising measurement tactics during the campaign planning &
strategy phase, not post implementation. Word of mouth can be measured using
both qualitative and quantitative techniques:
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Digital ethnographic measurement – what is the world saying about your
brand/promotion in cyberspace?
Pre & post campaign surveys with advocates – ask advocates how likely they
are to purchase the product before and after the campaign
Level of consumer engagement in communities/co-creation promotions –
how many members do you have? How often are they interacting/posting
comments/uploading content?
Tone of discourse – how are they talking about your brand?
Quality of communication – how deeply are they thinking about brand
issues?
Number of ‘tier 1’ conversations created – how many people have advocates
told about the product (through quantitative surveys)?
Online tracking – how many have clicked through to download your
research, purchase your product, posted a query, played your game,
forwarded a promotional link
In addition, there are a number of tests that can be implemented in order to
rigorously prove the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing, however these
measurements require the word of mouth marketing activity to take place while no
other marketing activity is present (and due to long-term ATL strategies this is often
not viable).
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There is academic evidence from 2005 that illustrates that branded communities do
result in an increase in sales. Rene Algesheimer, assistant marketing professor at the
University of Zurich and Paul M Dholakmia, associate professor of management at
Rice Universities Jesse H Jones Graduate School of Management created a year long
field experiment where they analysed the relationship between branded community
participation and brand sales. They invited a random group (79,000) of e-bay
customers to take part in the e-bay community whereby they were offered
incentives and rewards for participation. A control group of 60,878 were not invited
to join the community.
The researchers reported that “within 3 months, 3,299 (4%) of the invitees became
active community participants, posting messages, joining in discussions and helping
other members” – they named these members ‘enthusiasts’. Furthermore, 11,242
members were branded ‘lurkers’ who did not participate but read other member
posts. “Lurkers and enthusiasts won up to 25% more auctions, and paid the final
prices that were 24% higher”. Astonishingly, the increase in activity generated
approximately 56 % more in sales for e-bay during the year of the experiment.14
Conclusion
Web 2.0 has provided consumers with a plethora of new communication channels
resulting in more consumer connectivity globally than ever before. Consumers have
a newfound power as a result of this and are regularly talking about and
recommending brands to their global and local social networks.
These changes have meant an important transition for marketing strategies. The
traditional style of broadcast advertising has less relevance to cynical consumers
meaning brands need to create a more interactive, meaningful two way dialogue
with consumers in order to cut through the saturated landscape.
Word of mouth marketing can provide a way to ensure relevance in this new
consumer environment. As documented, it is important to note that word of mouth
marketing is not about off the shelf solutions or deceiving consumers through
shilling – it is about understanding consumers and building relationships based on
trust so that they will organically want to recommend a brand.
Word of mouth marketing ultimately involves identifying reasons for consumers to
talk about a brands’ products and services, and making it easier for that
conversation to take place.
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There are two key word of mouth marketing approaches - giving influential
consumers the opportunity to ‘experience’ a brand’s product or service and creating
branded platforms and initiatives that encourage consumer to consumer
conversations and brand advocacy.
However, brands must learn to accept that they are no longer entirely in control of
a brands message or reputation as consumers now have the power and ability to
create and share opinions and recommendations to a wide audience.
Brands must also understand that negative consumer conversations are occurring,
but on a positive note - they can be used to grow a brand and develop strong
customer relationships.
Measurement is obviously key and there are a number of ways to measure word of
mouth marketing, however often they involve discarding traditional measures and
embracing a new skool approach to metrics.
Ultimately, brands that have the courage to embrace word of mouth marketing in
this new communication climate have a great opportunity to grow their business
and evolve with the consumer, those that ignore opportunities to create a lasting
bond with the ‘new consumer’ through initiatives like word of mouth marketing do
so at their own peril.
This white paper was researched, compiled and written by Nick Law & Zoe Boalch. Nick is
the managing director and Zoe the strategic director at word of mouth marketing agency
Communications Communications.
Contagious Communications is a full service word of mouth marketing agency that specialises in
developing word of mouth strategies that harness the power of the new consumer. Contagious
analyse brands, products and services and find new ways to ignite consumer conversation and
recommendation through a range of on and offline initiatives.
Contact Nick or Zoe at: [email protected] [email protected]
Grd Floor, 255 Riley St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010 Ι abn: 97 131 210 805 Ι t: (02) 9212-0710 Ι f: (02) 9211-8997 Ι [email protected] Ι www.contagiouscomms.com.au
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Sources
1 - Robert B Cialdini, Influence, Science and Practice, 2000
2 - Internetworldstats.com June 2008 & Universal McCann comparative study on
social media trends, April 2008
3 – Amy Shuen, Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide; 2008, pg 100
4 - Emanuel Rosen, The Anatomy of Buzz, 2000, pg 14
5 - An Introduction to Word of Mouth marketing, http://womma.org/wom101/
6 - Jimmy Wales: Make Your Brands Authentic, 23rd Sept 2008
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/
e3i98078f6e2a02095da09aa73054d1a6ec?pn=2
7 - Michael Hill, Your Most Unhappy Customers are you’re your Greatest Source of
Learning,
http://www.customerfocusconsult.com/articles/articles_template.asp?ID=43
8 - Andy Sernovitz, Word of Mouth marketing; How smart companies get people
talking, 2006, pg 8
9 - PR Innovation of the Year,
http://www.prweekus.com/PR-Innovation-of-the-Year-2008/article/104094/
10 - Dave Balter & John Butman, Grapevine, the new art of word of mouth
marketing, 2006, pg19
11 - Larry Weber, Marketing to the Social Web; How digital customer communities
build your business, 2007, pg76
12 - Larry Weber, Marketing to the Social Web; How digital customer communities
build your business, 2007, pg 21
13 - Dawn C. Chmielewski, Microsoft Seeks to Share in Portable Music Market, 15th
Sept, 2006 http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/15/business/fi-zune15
14 - Rene Algesheimer and Paul Dholakia, Do Customer Communities Pay Off?
Harvard Business Review, vol 84, no 11, November 2006, pg 26.