Download Buzz Marketing: Something to talk about

Buzz Marketing:
Something to talk about
Grand Project Guide:
Prof. Falguni Oza
Faulty, MICA
Submitted to
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Postgraduate Certificate
Programme in
Public Relations and Event Management
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
By
Amrita Khurana
PGCP-PREM
(2005-06)
© Copyright by Amrita Khurana, 2006
and
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)
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Executive Summary
Keeping in mind the objective of my dissertation, i.e.: To understand the role of
Buzz marketing as an integral part of IMC we see
‘How little things can make a big difference…’
Creating buzz is a magic moment when an idea, trend or social behaviour crosses
a threshold, tips and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single person can start an epidemic of
the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push, cause a fashion trend, the
popularity of a new product, or the drop in the crime rate.
One of the secrets to buzz is that you’re speaking face–to- face, which gives you
what tons of marketers are trying to get every day: attention. Face-to- face attention
competes with no other media, grabbing unadulterated mindshare.
Another advantage of word of mouth is credibility. When you’re a friend, a
neighbor, a co-worker, or a family member tells you about a great movie, product, or
service—you believe them. They’re not being paid to pitch the item and so you give them
full credibility.
In addition to face-to-face attention, audio stimulus stays with you longer,
providing superior memory retrieval.
Why It Matters More Than Ever
Not only is word of mouth ten times more effective than print or TV, word of
mouth is more important today than at any time in the past, for four reasons:
1. The ad clutter is rising to intolerable levels
2. Traditional forms of media are rising in cost, compounding the issue of clutter.
3. We’ve been lied to so many times with advertising, it seems like the only message
we trust these days comes from regular
4. Technology is accelerating word of mouth: because of technology, word of mouth
is moving faster than ever before. Text messaging, e- mail distribution lists, chat
rooms, message boards, web sites, and blogs.
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Brand Building
When consumers start talk ing, they begin marketing your brand for you.
Marketers would traditionally look to the seven universal marketing drivers (UMD) to
provide a strategic framework for thinking about what to leverage to create demand and
grow the brand. The seven UMD’s are
1. Brand Awareness; keeping the brand name in people’s minds.
2. Emotional bond: forging a connection with people’s hearts
3. Product News: creating new relevance through news and innovation
4. Activation: encouraging immediate usage or purchase
5. Loyalty: developing customer relationships and retention
6. Product: experience enabling prospects to get to try, mentally rehearse or use a product
7. Buzz: building credibility through third party sources-word of mouth
Viral marketing certainly ticks off all principles in a way that traditional media
just can not compete with. The conscious decision of consumers to interact with a brand
from on average 4.5 minutes rather than passively witnessing most other “seen/read in
30sec” media, is surely the wholly grail of marketing/advertising.
In building a successful buzz, the source of the story or message and its delivery
mechanism needs to be harnessed. You need to identify, design and create sources, and
the delivery of WOM should be persuasive and motivating. You have to depend on the
ability of the endorsement for the brand by taking account of the consumers’ psyche,
fashion and lifestyle related to the market for the brand.
Marketers have to be clear on what they have in mind. The buzz strategy has to
have its objectives clear and ensure that it carries through to its logical conclusion. The
brand has to live up to the recommendation--getting a crucial set of people interested and
talking as faithful users of the brand. It has to be done by design and not by default.
To elaborate on the process of buzz marketing and the effect it has on brands, I
have taken examples of campaigns such as Frooti, Red Bull and Balbir Pasha, which
throw light on my topic.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Professor Falguni Oza, for encouraging me to take up this topic,
discussing the subject and guiding me at each stage of this research.
My sincere thanks to the respondents, for letting me glance into their lives and gain from
their life’s experiences.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the Academic council and management for
giving me the opportunity to explore the subject.
Last, but not the least, I would like to thank everyone who helped me through my
dissertation.
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Literature review
•
Tom Peters: Thriving on Chaos
Summary:
In the modern business world chaos is now the norm. Everywhere & every day managers
confront shattering & accelerating change: change paced by constant innovations in
computer & telecommunications technologies.
To survive & become superla tive in today's economic environment there is an urgent
imperative beyond excellence; the flexibility that can - and must - use chaos as the source
of market advantage.
Thriving On Chaos offers 45 bold prescriptions for change, targeting the five key areas of
management - Responsiveness, Innovation, People Power, Leadership and Systems For A
World Turned Upside Down - along with hard facts, case histories (of disaster & success)
and inspiring examples.
•
Emanuel Rosen :The Anatomy Of Buzz- Creating Word-Of-Mouth marketing
Summary:
The Anatomy Of Buzz is the 1 st book to show in a systematic way how the invisible
network works- and how to benefit from them. The book talks about what ‘buzz’ is
all about, how it spreads, what makes people talk and the different distribution
channels adopted.
•
Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia and Ann O'Reilly: Buzz: Harness the Power of
Influence and Create Demand
Summary:
It presents case studies from successful buzz marketing campaigns such as: Nokia,
Apple, Ford etc.. it gives the inside story on how person to person influence really
works. The book also throws light on how effective shock ads really work, how to
manipulate brand momentum, and which products or services are most likely to
benefit from a buzz campaign.
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•
Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point
Summary: ‘How little things can make a big difference’
“ These three characteristics- one, contagiousness; two, the fact that little causes have
big effects; three, that change happens not gradually, nut at one dramatic moment- are
the same three principles that define how measles move through grade-school
classroom or the flu attacks every winter. Of the three, the third trait- the idea that
epidemics can rise or fall in one dramatic moment- is the most important, because it is
the principle that makes sense of the first two and that permits the greatest insight into
why modern change happens the way it does. The name given to that one dramatic
moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once is the Tipping Point.”
•
Al Ries and Laura Ries: The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR
Summary:
You can’t force yourself into the prospect’s mind. Advertising is perceived as an
imposition, an unwelcome intruder that needs to be restricted…. Advertising people
talk about impact… the harder an advertisement tries to force its way into the mind,
the less likely it will accomplish its objective. Once in a while a prospect drops his or
her guard and the wind will win.
The book further goes on to talk about how new brands can be launched with
publicity or public relations. Of how PR allows you to tell your story indirectly,
through third party outlets, thought word-of- mouth, in turn creating a buzz.
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Table of Content
Serial No.
Topic
Page No
1.
Preface
1
2.
Introduction
2
3.
Integrated Marketing Communication
4
4.
PR & Buzz
7
5.
Undercover Marketing
8
6.
Guerilla Marketing
11
7.
Viral Marketing in relation with UCM and GM
14
8.
Word of Mouth Marketing
16
9.
How WOM can build an organization’s brand
17
10.
The “Buzz’ word
21
11.
How does Buzz work?
22
12.
Viral or Buzz Marketing
23
13.
Buzzing your Members
25
14.
Vocabulary about Buzz
26
15.
Push The Six Buttons of Buzz To Start a Conversation
28
16.
Story Categories for Buzz –Determining The Message
29
17.
Exhibit 1
31
18.
Product Life Cycle
32
19.
Buzz and Brand Building
35
20.
What’s Your Brand Mantra?
36
21.
Build buzz for your brand without getting stung
38
22.
How important is Buzz to a Business?
39
23.
Why we Talk?
41
24.
It’s a small world. So what?
43
25.
Examples
-Relaunch of Frooti- Digen Verma campaign
44
-A look at a key feature of Red Bull’s Business
48
-The Balbir Pasha story
51
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Serial No.
Topic
Page No
26.
Conclusion
56
27.
To sum it up with an example
57
28.
Bibliography
58
29.
Questionnaires
59
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Preface
Word of mouth marketing is a term used in the marketing industry to describe
activities that companies undertake to generate favorable word of mouth publicity
about products and services.
Word of mouth promotion is highly valued by marketers. It is felt that this form of
communication has valuable source credibility. People are more inclined to believe
word of mouth promotion than more formal forms of promotion because the
communicator is unlikely to have an ulterior motive (i.e.: they are not out to sell you
something). Also people tend to believe people that they know. In order to promote
and manage word of mouth communications, marketers use publicity techniques.
A very successful word of mouth promotion creates a buzz. A buzz is a highly intense
and interactive form of word of mouth. Word of mouth is essentially a linear process
with information passing from one individual to another, then to another, etc. A
marketer has successfully created a buzz when the interactions are so intense that the
information moves in a matrix pattern rather than a linear one. Everyone is talking
about the topic.
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Introduction
Through the ages, advertising and marketing techniques have adapted to fit the
changing sensibilities and needs of the masses. In many ways we have come a long
way from the days when well- groomed spokes people promised untold wealth, health,
and prosperity in the form of a cleansing bar or cigarette brand and then wrapped it all
up with a catchy jingle. In some ways, what advertisers are giving us today, is not that
far off. We still use attractive models and celebrities; we still make impossible
promises and use music to simulate memory and emotions. Though the music may be
different, the formula is the same.
The problem is that these advertisements assume a level of naïveté on the part
of the viewer or reader that no longer exists. Today’s consumers jaded and fed up
with overt distortions and one-size- fits-all attempts to influence. They are skeptics
when it comes to a big business and corporate promises. As a whole, consumers are
better educated about manufacturing, marketing, and motives. Traditional advertising
can be entertaining and sometimes informative; rarely is it the impetus for action.
As consumer savvy has gained on advertisers and their promotional bag of
tricks, advertisers have been forced to come up with new and better ideas. In the past
few years, this has taken the form of nontraditional brand- building exercises such as
sponsorships, partnership marketing, and publicity stunts.
These tactics carry risks, including the potential for consumer backslash at
overt brand splashing and the public embarrassment of large corporate sponsor gone
bankrupt or disgraced. Consumers are wise to the moneys that go into and come out
of these marketing deals. They are aware on some level that their eye space is being
bought.
For marketers, one of the most sobering conclusions to be drawn from the
study is the degree to which advertising and point of sale promotions fall flat when it
comes to disseminating information and inventing consumer desire for technology.
The internet seems to be doing somewhat better as more respondents say they get tech
information from websites. However, most relied source of high-tech product
information is word of mouth, or buzz. Advertising and point of sale performed
dismally as creators of excitement than as sources of information. In terms of media,
magazines fare best.
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The message for technology marketers is that their budgets would be better
spent on creating positive buzz and bran building than on traditional advertising,
online or offline. Identifying and reaching influencers is likely to yield a better payoff
in terms of generating excitement and, ultimately, sales.
While this selective processing of information and stimuli spell hard times for
traditional means of reaching the public, it does provide an opportunity for an
unconventional approach. Advertisers and marketers now have to focus on building
brands that make it through the filtering system. The marketers who are winning are
the ones using consumers and culture to their advantage, crafting messages with the
consumers rather than throwing messages at them. In this way, they are giving
consumers a choice about which message they can buy and which ones they can reject.
Give people something they genuinely interesting to talk about and they will
spread the word. It’s human nature.
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Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
A management concept that is designed to make all aspects of marketing
communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct
marketing work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in
isolation.
Integrated Marketing Communication is more than the coordination of a
company's outgoing message between different media and the consistency of the
message throughout. It is an aggressive marketing plan that captures and uses an
extensive amount of customer information in setting and tracking marketing strategy.
Steps in an Integrated Marketing system are:
1. Customer Database:
An essential element to implementing Integrated Marketing that helps to
segment and analyze customer buying habits.
2. Strategies:
Insight from analysis of customer data is used to shape marketing, sales, and
communications strategies.
3. Tactics:
Once the basic strategy is determined the appropriate marketing tactics can be
specified which best targets the specific markets.
4. Evaluate Results:
Customer responses and new information about buying habits are collected
and analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the strategy and tactics
4 P's vs. 4 C's
•
Not PRODUCT, but CONSUMER
Understand what the consumer wants and needs. Times have changed and you
can no longer sell whatever you can make. The product characteristics must
now match what someone specifically wants to buy. And part of what the
consumer is buying is the personal "buying experience."
•
Not PRICE, but COST
Understand the consumer's cost to satisfy the want or need. The product price
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may be only one part of the consumer's cost structure. Often it's the cost of
time to drive somewhere, the cost of conscience of what you eat, and the cost
of guilt for not treating the kids.
•
Not PLACE, but CONVENIENCE
As above, turn the standard logic around. Think convenience of the buying
experience and then relate that to a delivery mechanism. Consider all possible
definitions of "convenience" as it relates to satisfying the consumer's wants
and needs. Convenience may include aspects of the physical or virtual location,
access ease, transaction service time and hours of availability.
•
Not PROMOTION, but COMMUNICATION
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Many mediums working together
to present a unified message with a feedback mechanism to make the
communication two-way. And be sure to include an understanding of nontraditional mediums, such as word of mouth and how it can influence your
position in the consumer's mind. How many ways can a customer hear (or see)
the same message through the course of the day, each message reinforcing the
earlier images?
Marketing communication messages that are not recognizable are not related to
each other, conflict with what has already been stored, or are simply unrelated or
unimportant to the person will simply not be processed, but ignored. Communication
only occurs when the consumer accepts, transforms, and categorizes the message. The
storage and retrieval system works on the basis of matching incoming information
with what has already been stored in memory. If the information matches or enhances
what is already there, then the new information will likely be added to the existing
concepts and categories. If it doesn't match, the consumer has to make a choice, either
the new information can replace what is already there or the new information can be
rejected. If rejected, the consumer would continue to use existing concepts and
categories and ignore the new. This is called a "judgment system" in that consumers
match or test new information against what they already have and then make a
judgment to add to, adapt, or reject the new material. When consumers reject the
information or do not add or attach it to what they already have, there is a failure to
communicate. In many cases, the failure to communicate is the result of the marketer
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being unable to match his or her messages or fields of experience with those of the
prospect or customer. Consumers use the same information processing approach
whether the new data comes from advertising, sales promotions, a salesperson, an
article in a newspaper or magazine or from what their neighbor is telling them. The
marketer who presents non- integrated messages risks not having any of his or her
messages processed because of the conflict that occurs in the consumer's information
processing system. If for no other reason, than the risk of confusion, marketers must
integrate their messages or consumers will simply ignore them.
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PR & Buzz Marketing
PR is the hottest way to get buzz about a new business. So say Al and Laura
Ries in their new book, The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR. Media stories imply
credibility. "Over the years, we've noted that many brands really got started with PR,"
says Al.
Are you reaching your target? More importantly, are you reaching them with
the right message, method and image? Effective public relations is more than just
knowing who your audience is, where they are and what media they prefer. Knowing
what inspires, annoys, motivates, and what makes them happy and sad is also key. But,
wait! That's only a start. Don't forget the media. Do you know their wants and needs?
Building the buzz is a balancing act that requires campaign elements that satisfy every
side of the equation – Win, Win, Win – for you, your audience and the media.
Formulating an effective PR campaign requires finesse, experience and due diligence.
Public relations are the management function that establish and maintains
mutually beneficial between and organization and publics on whom its success or
failure depends whereas it counterpart, marketing, is the management function that
identifies human needs and wants, offer products and services to satisfy those
demands, and causes transactions that deliver products and services in exchange for
something of value to the provider. The two are intertwined and play an integral role
in promotion. One of the most upcoming tools of marketing today is Buzz marketing
which captures attention of the consumers and the media to the point where talking
about the particular brand becomes fascinating, interesting and newsworthy. It should
be a conversation starter which is essentially a pull strategy. This kind of marketing is
primarily known as word of mouth marketing. It is based on consumer’s direct
experience with specific brands or the experience others have related to them about
these brands.
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Undercover Marketing (UCM)
In order to further deepen the reader into the subject we will start by giving a
bit of deeper understanding of what Undercover Marketing is. UCM is the hidden side
of marketing and marketers wish to keep it that way due to that it does not function
under any other circumstances. This can also be one explanation as to why there is a
lack of knowledge within this field. Also magic of UCM is regarded as something that
lies in the hidden parts and that overly analyzing it will destroy this magic.
Traditional advertising has become less and less creative and more and more
filled with clutter. In its attempts at being pervasive, it ceases to be persuasive. When
people today are faced with these “ad-attacks”, they put up their defenses and ignore
the message. The birth of UCM occurred simply to evade the defenses of the people
receiving the message.
UCM is a new marketing tool. What might be new about it is that today it is
gaining attention by the academic world and the press. Stretching back in time –
reaching Shakespearian age of the theatre– English theatre companies paid a person to
sit in the audience and shout “Bravo!” during the play.
This is how old UCM really is and today, the rise of Gen Y is making it appear
again. UCM depends of Word-of-Mouth (WoM) and instead of shouting out the
marketing message to the future consumers; it whispers the message to a few
individuals. The power lies in the fact that UCM presents a product or service with
attractive “cool” features and relies on WoM for the spreading in order to make the
customer feel as he/she just “stumbled” upon the product/service themselves. Hence
chosen consumers turn into spontaneous carriers of the message.
The message can spread in three ways:
•
physically (celebrities, opinion-leaders, trendsetter can be seen with the brand)
•
verbally (the message is broadcasted in on-air an off- air conversations)
•
virtually or virally (the message is transmitted through internet chat-rooms,
newsgroups and web logs)
Naturally these ways can also be combined with each other and the message can
attempt spreading through physical, verbal and viral interaction and viral Marketing.
The growth of UCM is determined by three factors: the growing criticism of
the advertising industry in general; the growing difficulty for marketers to track down
potential customers because the audience is more and more fragmented; technological
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threats. The first factor talks about how advertising is still using the old models in
which the consumers move through a measurable mental process on the way to
purchasing a product or service. These old models do not work any longer and
therefore it makes way for alternative marketing methods. The second factor is that
the number of TV-stations, radio stations and different publications have increased to
that exte nt that it is hard to keep the attention of a consumer for a longer period of
time without them changing the channel. Finally the third factor is the existence of
personal television recorders (PVRs) and digital video recorders (DVRs). These
devices allow the user to skip or eliminate the commercials.
Apart from viral marketing (VM) the five ways of UCM are: brand pushers,
celebrity marketing, bait-and-tease marketing, marketing via video games and
marketing in pop and rap music.
Brand pushers are hired actors who approach people in real- life situations and
personally slip them commercial messages in trendy bars, music stores and hot tourist
spots by being approachable and attractive but not too attractive to raise suspicion.
Celebrity marketing is also considered a branch of UCM as celebrities are employed
to drink certain drinks and wear certain clothes without it appearing conspicuous. The
purpose of it is to inspire fans of that certain celebrity to acquire and consume the
same products and services.
Bait-and-tease marketing can be best described with Mercedes-Benz in 2002
producing a false movie trailer with the actor Benicio Del Toro being chased around
in a Mercedes.
The trailer was shown in TV commercials and in cinemas with no connection to the
car company. The viewers were encouraged to visit the site of the mock movie
“Lucky Star” where they finally found out that the trailer was fictitious and that
Mercedes was behind it.
Marketing in video games makes the brand much more intense since the user is a part
of the entertainment by interacting with the game. Unlike watching TV, video games
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are played numerous times by millions of active gamers. This can be compared to
different car companies putting their brand on cars in racing.
Marketing in pop and rap music is a method where different companies buy brand
name placement in rap and pop songs. One of the more famous examples is Janis
Joplin, with her song “Mercedes-Benz”.
Drawbacks
Moving away from the different methods and the benefits of those mentioned,
UCM has also negative sides. For example UCM does not have as much control over
the messages and their meaning as traditional marketing does. A company might not
want to have their brand associated with something bad in a rap song, just as they
perhaps do not know how an association with a violent video game will affect the
users.
UCM might be a less expensive method but it caries more risk with it. The
greatest risk for a backlash is that the customer is not simply surprised by the method
but feels betrayed and tricked which can bring upon some ethical issues.
Also, UCM is not suited for all products and while it is quite inappropriate for
things like oil, gas, chemicals, railroads, insurance and utilities; it can work well for
high- interest products because of their technical complexity, physical intimacy and
status-enhancing capabilities.
In spite of all this UCM is considered a method for the future and a method
that will grow more and more but it will never replace traditional marketing, only
become a part of the whole IMC.
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Guerrilla Marketing
When realizing that conventional marketing is not the best approach,
companies turn to alternative marketing methods placed usually beneath the single
strong name of Guerrilla Marketing. One definition of Guerrilla is:
“An aggressive, highly targeted and sometimes subversive, street-level promotional
campaign intended to create unexpected and memorable encounters between a
product and its consumers”
(Mohawk paper, 2005)
The increasing cost of traditional marketing media is leading to a more stable
hold of guerrilla marketing. Due to this, it is believed that Guerrilla Marketing is
going to be a standard approach in the future. Today the people are demanding the
ability to escape from marketing and advertising when they do not want it around and
according to Ives (2004), therefore Guerrilla Marketing and Undercover Marketing
(UCM) can prove to be an approach fit to deal with this matter.
How Guerrilla marketing can be used and its UCM connectio n
Levinson (1998) and Chacon, (2002) suggest that Guerrilla Marketing is a
good approach for small upcoming enterprises since it is almost cost-free. This means
that while large companies have the financial capabilities of advertising during the
company’s entire life, small enterprises might only have that capability during the
startup of the business. That is why many relay solely on guerrilla weapons which
result in the spread of Word-of-Mouth (WoM). They are the ones that can also
succeed the best at the mentioned attempt since they have the ability to get up close
and personal with the customers. This opinion has changed during the passing years
and now the marketing approach is in the process of being employed by larger players
who are recognizing the possibilities it brings. Guerrilla marketing differs from
traditional marketing in many ways.
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Below is a list of few features that describe Guerrilla marketing:
•
Guerrilla marketing bases its efforts on the reality that anyone can bring the
sales up.
•
The primary measuring tool for guerrillas is profits.
•
Guerrilla marketing is based on the laws of human behavior and uses
psychology as a tool to make the sale.
•
It creates a focus by first creating a standard of excellence.
•
Guerrilla marketing aims for more transactions by using customer follow-ups
and outrageously good service.
•
Guerrilla marketing does not focus on a single marketing weapon but uses
combinations of multiple ones.
•
It focuses on how many relationships they have made each month.
•
It embraces new technology as an important marketing tool.
•
Most of guerrilla weapons are cost-free.
•
Guerrilla marketing removes the mysterious nature of marketing and exposes
it for what it really is by putting the marketer in control.
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Guerrilla marketing creates drama
When you start as a guerrilla it is vital to first have a marketing plan and create
a program for it. The best way is to find the inherent drama within your offering,
translate that inherent drama into a meaningful benefit, get peoples attention, motivate
your audience to get involved, be sure you are communicating clearly and measure
your finished advertising effort against your creative strategy.
Using mini-media or no media marketing
The strength of Guerrilla Marketing is the fact that it can focus on being
personal, friendly, informal and flexible , yet still remain professional. To do so with
low production costs, guerrillas use mini- media marketing.
This can be illustrated with the help of a case study:
Burger King, using the advertising agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky, hired a person
to dress in a chicken suite and filmed him in a room performing over 400 actions.
These scenes were later placed on a website named www.subservientchicken.com in
order to illustrate the Burger King slogan “have it your way”. The visitors to the site
could type in different commands to make the chicken perform some of the many
actions. In the beginning most of the visitors were amazed as they thought this was
going on live and recommended it to many of their friends, causing a large spread of
WoM. Later a cockfight was staged using the same method, which drew a lot of
viewing visitors as well as the Humane Society of the United States which protested
again st it, asking Burger King to stop promoting cockfighting. Even this negative
piece of publicity raised awareness for Burger King. This showed that Burger King
was willing to produce a funny and informal campaign that still resulted in a large
increase in profits.
The example above is a clear picture of how Guerrilla Marketing and WoM
can remain professional yet create an informal, personal and friendly situation at a
low cost in order to attain a response from the consumers.
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Viral Marketing in relation with UCM and GM
Viral Marketing (VM) is marketing compared to a virus. One can say VM –
through creating a virus that builds networks – connects the people to the word which
is being spread. The means it uses to accomplish this is Word-of-Mouth (WoM),
which is the fastest way to spread a message in a virus resembling path. Yin (2003)
refers to VM as Guerrilla Marketing and the other way around. Here we can see that
VM thus can be looked upon as a Guerrilla Marketing approach and following that
path it becomes an approach placed side by side next to UCM.
VM is connected purely to internet. People hired by various advertising
agencies would enter a chat room and boost a product or a service to the other
participants.
Another way would be to post a blog, which resembles a diary entrance within
different internet communities. In that blog the person would write as a normal
customer happy about something he/she purchased, saw or experienced for other
bloggers to read. No matter how the marketer proceeded with his/her task the aim was
to spread the buzz and create a positive WoM. Like UCM it required the same sort of
peer-to-peer contact only the contac ts were established on the net.
An example of good VM is that of the spread of “Hotmail”, made real by
Steve Jurvetson in 1996. The strategy of Hotmail was that of a free e-mail service.
This was accomplished by getting users to recommend it to their friends where in
each private message there was a hotmail message appended that read “Get your
private, free email from Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com” (Kaikati & Kaikati,
2004). In this example it was clear to the potential users that it was hotmail that was
behind the VM campaign and they were aware as well of the marketing attempt.
Through uses such as the one above VM became a very powerful tool since it
attempted to harness the personal recommendation which is considered to be the
strongest consumer trigger. There is a much higher credibility in receiving a personal
recommendation via e- mail from someone, a potentia l user, already knows then if the
e-mail should simply be anonymous.
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How exactly does VM connect with UCM?
The above model explains how UCM aims to spread a virus by its actions,
thus one can say it makes use of the same methods as VM. While both UCM alone
and VM use Word-of-Mouth (WoM) as a tool to carry out the spreading, they do so in
different environments. This is a simplified way to clarify their connection. Since
UCM is relatively a new term and few know where to place it, then we must attach
existing terms to it. This makes it evident that since UCM has a focus on a virus like
spreading of the WoM it must use the same strategies as VM.
Kaikati and Kaikati (2004) confirm this by the sentence mentioned above
meaning that UCM is VM off- line. In this comment we can see further that VM itself
becomes a learning and a using tool for UCM.
All alternative marketing methods beneath Guerrilla Marketing such as VM
and UCM have one purpose and that is to send a message which will spread from one
person to another though consumer networks. When a message spreads on a personal
bas is it is known as Word-of-Mouth.
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Word of Mouth Marketing
The power of the human voice and human contact are the most powerful
communications tools we have. In this day of intense media bombardment, the
average person receives over 1000 messages a day. No wonder things get lost along
the way and we feel like our heads are exploding with slogans and jingles. But there is
something that can cut through the clutter. We will listen to other people - especially
those we know and trust. We respond to the human voice- Word-of- mouth.
We also believe information we hear from other people, faster than we'll
believe what is written in a brochure or seen on a TV ad. The stories we hear from
each other, the hints and tips. We are trusted human yellow pages for each otherWord-of-mouth.
Customers want and value information, but are asking for it straight up, not
packaged and polished. If we want them to do something in particular, they want us to
just ask them to do it and then leave it to them to decide. This points to the importance
of word-of-mouth as a critical component of any communications effort.
If you want to get your message out, about and heard you must spend the time
that it takes to recruit many messengers. Effective communications efforts must
include a component that strengthens the opportunity and execution of word-of- mouth
activities. Other traditional communications channels such as media and direct mail
complement WoM, but they cannot take its' place. WoM marketing increases the
response to other channels.
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How WoM marketing can build an organization's brand
We hear talk of building one's "brand.” In the end, a brand is only as good as
the number of people who will come back a second time. "Brand loyalty" may be
closer to what an organization needs. But people are loyal to other people, rather than
to a name. For non profits and community organizations this is an important
distinction. The "brand" extends to every person in the organization and how they
treat others. How they listen. How they talk and share information.
One true test of a brand is if one person recommends it to another. Referrals.
Do you ask your clients and customers for referrals? How do you follow up on
referrals? Do you ask your clients for their success stories and compliments along
with permission to share them? What are you doing to capture this information?
These are far more believable than any slogan.
Word-of-Mouth, how does it get around?
Word-of-Mouth (WoM) is based on a spread of personal recommendations
between friends and acquaintances. Spreading WoM is not a simple procedure that
follows strict rules and regulations. It is a complicated web of unforeseen events. This
can be very difficult to co ntrol yet it is exactly that control, which some marketing
companies of today are attempting to achieve.
Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople
Gladwell (2000) explains how WoM, even though uncontrollable, has to
follow certain rules and go through certain kinds of people in order to survive. The
first type of person it has to go through is a Connector.
A Connector is a person with his/her feet in multiple worlds. Connectors are
consumers as well and WoM has such a great success simply because it is consumer
driven.
The Connector is the one that spreads information, though usually it is
someone else that gathers it. These people are called Mavens. Mavens are described
as information gatherers and sharers and they do this voluntarily and cost free. A
Maven could be the guy talking about a party that will happen next month, or the girl
spreading the word that the expensive brand of jeans is having a sale next week.
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People would rather find out about something new from someone else then try it on
by themselves; hence this can be connected to Gladwell’s mavens.
A Maven exists in the beginning of a spread process, though there is a third
person, who is necessary in this chain and it is the Sales person. According to
Gladwell (2000), a Sales person is one that can convince another person to do
something. He/she has the ability to make other people want to own or do something
or even go somewhere. Hence the Sales person becomes a steppingstone for the
Connector. If the Connector does not posses qualities of a Sales person, he/she must
be in contact with one if the word is to spread.
Law of the few
“Law of the few” supports the above theory of Connectors. The law states that
it does not take large groups of people to start an epidemic spread of the word. This of
course could mean that if you only have one or two connectors they, themselves can
cause a large spread. We can say that WoM feeds on itself and ten people spreading it
can easily multiply to a hundred.
This is the effect WoM should have, though in order to start it a marketer would
require help from a handful of Connectors that have access to Maven information and
the ability of- or access to- Sales persons.
Law of context
Environment plays an important role for the spreading of the buzz. If the buzz
related to a new fashion comes from Milan, most fashionable people would make a
connection to the spread word. In this case it is because many regard Milan as one of
the world centers of fashion.
Gladwell (2000) uses an example of graphite artists vandalizing New York
subways. While the subways were spray painted they were attracting criminal activity,
such as skipping paying for the ticket or further vandalizing the wagons on the
subway trains. The appearance of the destroyed wagons spread the message that
further destruction would go unnoticed and is in fact provoked. This violence was
later kept in check by painting over and repairing the vandalized wagons, giving a
picture of cleanness, and crime control. The word began spreading how the subway
has become clean and how the violence was kept in check, thus discouraging the ones
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doing the destruction in the first place. The purpose of the example above was to
further strengthen the importance of environment when spreading WoM.
The negative WoM and the UCM connection
As mentioned earlier negative WoM can have disastrous consequences. It is a
known fact that most people spread a good event to an average of 3 people while a
negative event is spread to an average of 11 people (Silverman, 1997). This shows
that most cons umers enjoy spreading bad news more then good. Negative WoM can
be so devastating that the people spreading it adapt the negative experiences of others
and spread these as their own reaching a sort of collective wisdom.
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To sum up all of the previous view, the following figure can be derived:
The Theoretical Placement of UCM
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The ‘Buzz’ word
Word-of-mouth has been a strategy used by marketers from time immemorial,
but the art of generating word-of- mouth has grown far more sophisticated since the
early days of simple publicity stunts. Welcome to the new world of buzz marketing,
where brand come -ons sometimes are veiled to the point of opacity and where it is the
consumers themselves who are lured into doing the heavy lifting of spreading the
message.
So what is Buzz Marketing all about?
Buzz marketing is the practice of gathering volunteers to try products, then
sending them out into the world to talk up their experiences with the people they meet
in their daily lives. The idea is that the more people see a product being used in public,
or the more they hear about it from people they know and trust, the more likely they
will be to buy it for themselves.
So how and where is it different from the good old word-of- mouth?
It is, because in this case marketers plan the whole process, they create a structure
around the practice and harness and direct the flow in which the word of mouth
spreads. This benefits the company in more ways than one. The company not only
ensures positive publicity, it also has the opportunity to measure its affect on sales
once the so called campaign is complete.
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How does Buzz work?
Buzz marketing is a viral marketing technique that attempts to make each
encounter with a consumer appear to be a unique, spontaneous personal exchange of
information instead of a calculated marketing pitch choreographed by a professional
advertiser. Historically, buzz marketing campaigns have been designed to be very
theatrical in nature. The advertiser reveals information about the product or service to
only a few "knowing" people in the target audience. By purposely seeking out on-onone conversations with those who heavily influence their peers, buzz marketers create
a sophisticated word-of-mouth campaign where consumers are flattered to be included
in the elite group of those "in the know" and willingly spread the word to their friends
and colleagues.
Marketing buzz masters locate and target influential people with a message
that in someway is unique. It’s important to note that it is not a press release in any
way; it’s more like a rumor that is cool, neat, innovative, amazing, wonderful, mindblowing, or outlandish. In other words, you provide something the buzzers want to
talk about. In turn, your friends and contacts spread the word to their friends and
contacts.
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Viral or Buzz Marketing
The impetus of thinking about WOM or buzz from a strategic point of view
originated with the work of Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarfeld in their book Personal
Influence. They contrasted the power of consumer to consumer contacts with that of
advertising and other types of mass communication and postulated that the process
operated through a two step flow. The key idea presented was that the influential were
so because of their links to a community of other people who would not otherwise be
exposed to or absorb the information. The viral analogy is useful as it helps marketers
to see what the power of buzz can do for their business and that it goes beyond the
diffusion of information. Information may be part of buzz, but it is also about what
information means. It is about ways of seeing and thinking about things. It is about
the evolution of shared culture in a community. A good viral strategy is one that uses
buzz to replicate shared cultural meaning across a community of consumers. Another
way of saying this is that the brand itself must become a meme that is conveyed by
buzz. The marketing strategy that emerged was to focus on reaching influential or
early adopters who would then transmit information that eventually would cause the
others in a community composed of targeted consumers to buy the product.
Viral marketing is about the rapid, almost involuntary, spread of a way of
thinking about a product and what it means in the context of a community. However,
the bottom line of buzz marketing is the ability to turn consumers, or patients, into
ambassadors or even evangelists for your brands. There is no more powerful form of
endorsement than an individual recommendation from someone you admire and
whose judgment you trust.
Buzz marketing has many terms - word-of-mouth, viral marketing, snowballing,
mouth to ear advertising, marketing to influentials, etc to name a few - but, at the
heart of buzz marketing are three elements:
•
Endorsement - independent third party endorsement of a product sparks
people’s interest
•
Credibility - messages or endorsements received from peers or people within
your web of influence are far more credible to your target audience than
information they receive directly from a company
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•
Authenticity - messages received by your target audience via this web of
influence are perceived to be completely authentic - or genuine. The audience
believes these messages are non-commercial and it gives them a sense of
firsthand experience or intimate connection to the brand.
Buzz marketing works among fragmented audiences because it embodies a flexibility
and creativity that thus far have eluded many traditional practitioners. A marketer has
more chance of building a credible campaign at low cost by initiating buzz marketing
than by spending crores on advertising. Reason: in a world inundated with marketing
noise, consumers tend to trust recommendations of friends and family more than the
messages bombarded at them by the media.
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Buzzing Your Members
Although buzz marketing is generally used to get the message out to mass
consumers, you can use this technique to reach your membership. First, you need to
locate active groups of members you can talk to, email, fax, or snail mail with your
"buzz."
Interestingly, one does not need hundreds of people. Depending on the size of
a select group location, a few buzzers may be all you need. That’s the beauty of wordof- mouth advertising. It compounds itself by the minute - especially if your buzz is
fun or exciting.
Other prime candidates are your tellers, loan officers, and member service
representatives. They are the ones that have significant personal contact with your
members. The most difficult challenge is formulating the actual buzz. Even with the
most coordinated effort, the buzz could bust. That’s why no good marketer depends
on word of mouth advertising, and why it only works when you have an exceptional
story to tell. And although it may be a tough row to hoe, when you are successful, the
glory is worth it.
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Vocabulary about Buzz
Alpha: Alpha is a term commonly used in the animal kingdom to refer to the most
dominant member of a sex, the male or female at the highest rung of the social
structure.
Pop culture has adapted the term to refer more loosely to those members of our
species that demonstrate certain leadership qualities with regard to style, sexual
dominance, professional or social prowess. We are not unique in using the term to
refer to those consumers who lead the pack in terms of initiating, adopting, and
spreading new trends. But we are unique in our extensive characterization of Alphas
and their role in the Buzz Continuum. Unlike many marketers, who view Alphas as
the entry point for the dissemination of buzz and new trends, we believe that Bees are
the true information spreaders, while Alphas only serve as a tip -off to what is bound
to happen next.
Bee: This is the term created by Marian Salzman to describe the consumer most likely
to spread the word. The moniker works metaphorically to call out the busy, social,
and buzz-y nature of these consumers. We believe that meaningful buzz lives and dies
with the Bees. Alphas may be the first to know, but the fact that they don’t reveal
their discoveries makes them a potential dead end for new ideas. Bees deal in the
currency of information, they thrive on exchange. They live to buzz.
Creative Business Ideas (CBIs): Creative Business Ideas combine strategy and
creativity in new ways. They are ideas that arise from and influence business strategy,
not just communications strategy. They result in profitable innovation, breakthrough
solutions, and industry firsts—maximizing the relationship between consumers and
brands. CBIs typically incorporate some level of buzz, whether spontaneous or
orchestrated.
Glocalization: The strategic manipulation of messaging to appeal to consumers on
both a global and local level. Finding ways to be locally relevant even when the brand
or concept extends globally. Example: McDonald’s glocalized menu items: the
McFalafel in Egypt, McAloo in India and the McKroket in the Netherlands.
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Lunatic Fringe: The extreme faction of trend -starters ahead of the Alphas on the
Buzz Continuum. Usually so "out there" in terms of their tastes, attitudes, and ideas
that they have little relevance to marketers beyond the fact that the most palatable and
interesting of their ideas inspire Alphas, who then adapt them for a larger audience.
Momentum: When applied to the idea of buzz building and the way brand messages
are spread, the equation for momentum looks like this: Brand Buzz or Popularity =
Weight and Relevance of the Idea x Rate of Speed of the Spread of the Idea.
Momentum tracking, or knowing where your brand stands with your audience at any
given point in time, is crucial to effective brand and buzz- marketing.
Perennials: Those brands (people, products, or companies) that reappear on the buzz
radar again and again. Just when they seem to be out of the picture, they find a new
angle and remake themselves in a buzzworthy way. Perennials continuously refresh
their images and approaches without straying from their core values.
Prosumer: A new breed of consumer that is more marketing savvy and demanding.
Prosumers are proactive in seeking out information and opinions; active in sharing
their views and experiences with others; and ahead of-the-curve in their attitudes and
behaviors, while maintaining a mainstream outlook. Alphas and Bees both typically
qualify as prosumers.
Silver Bullets: Those products or brands that come seemingly out of nowhere to
reshape the way we think about a category or industry. Silver Bullet brands are often
"instant classics," new ideas or twists on an old idea that we integrate into our lives so
quickly and seamlessly that we wonder what we did before they arrived. They are
often born of creative leaps in thinking.
WORM: Our pseudo-acronym for "word of mouth," coined mainly for its
metaphorical aspects. We see the way ideas and information are spread as a kind of
worm that wriggles its way into the mainstream consciousness one person at a time,
slinking and slithering through communities, through media, into our living rooms.
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Push The Six Buttons of Buzz To Start a Conversation
Creating buzz sounds very tough. But it can be easy, if you know which
buttons to push. Time and time again, these six things push people’s buttons and start
conversations:
The Six Buttons of Buzz:
- The taboo
- The unusual
- The outrageous
- The hilarious
- The remarkable
- Secrets
Push any one of these buzz buttons, and you’ll give people the currency to start a
conversation.
Buzz through the internet
Although buzz marketing is not new, Internet technology has changed the way
it's being used. Buzz campaigns are now being initiated in chat rooms, where
marketing representatives assume an identity appropriate to their target audience and
pitch their product. Personal Web logs (blogs) are another popular media for
electronic buzz marketing campaigns; advertisers seek out authors of the "right kind
of blog" and trade product or currency for promotion. Instant messaging (IM)
applications are also being looked at as a vehicle for carrying out buzz marketing
campaigns with either humans or IM bots doing the pitching. As with all buzz
campaigns, the power of the IM model relies on the influence an individual has in an
established small network -- in this case, his buddy list. As technology continues to
facilitate the delivery of a electronic buzz marketing message easier, and software
applications make message deliveries easier to quantify, some advertising experts
predict that electronic buzz marketing techniques will become a standard component
in all cross-media advertising campaigns. Others warn that abuse of this potentially
powerful electronic marketing technique will be its downfall.
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Story Categories for Buzz –Determining The Message
The spread of BUZZ is closely linked to the mind of the individual. According
to the theory of Sigmund Freud, the human mind can be divided into three states - Id,
Ego and Superego.
Id is related to basic human instincts. It is the most primal state of the mind. It is the
ideal state for targeting BUZZ. It is selfish and seeks instant gratification regardless of
social consequences. Anything that excites the basic instinct of a person, is likely to
be retained plea surably for a long time and also likely to be repeated.
The Superego develops as we grow and learn from family, friends, teachers and other
influences. It functions as our internal representation of the values and morals of the
society in which we have gr own up. It is a potent force and comes into conflict with
the demands made by our id for the gratification of what might be anti-social desires.
BUZZ for the superego has to harp upon reassurance, the Superego is a stringent
mode that doesn’t allow brand switching or even trial. It is the reassurance.
The EGO attempts to resolve the conflict between the id and the superego and tries to
redirect our id impulses into socially and morally acceptable modes of expression.
Rationality on the part of the BUZZ marketer ensures getting this consumer into a
consumption mode.
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The table in Exhibit 1 gives a comprehensive explanation as to what message can be
conveyed to each of the 3 ego states resulting in positive WOM (BUZZ) A key to the
table is as follows:
The INTEREST Stage: The BUZZ is this case harps upon the key information about
the product / service / brand which the ego state seeks to gain.
The EVALUATION Stage: The 3 Ego states differ in their means of evaluating the
options. Where the Id state believes in trial without comparison, the other 2 Ego and
the Superego states use a more rational approach towards evaluation.
Taking this into context the message communication is behaviour-based.
The TRIAL Stage: In the Ego states the marketer’s BUZZ message centers around the
key impulse that leads to their decision.
The ADOPTION Stage: The seeds of BUZZ are sown here through the experience
communicated through the planned message.
The CREATION OF BUZZ: This is through this message that the marketer hopes to
be diffused on a one -to-one basis.
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(Source: The Buzz on Buzz Marketing)
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Product Life Cycle : A Strategy Base For Buzz
Superimposing the EGO states on the Product Life Cycle
(Source: The Buzz about Buzz Marketing)
The product life cycle models the growth and decline of a product, brand or product
category. The PLC has enormous implications for the spread of BUZZ.
Introduction
The introduction phase of the lifecycle is also the start up phase of the brand.
The brand/product category is purchased by the “ID” category of customers. This set
consists of people who enjoy being in the forefront of innovation; they are the
experimenters, the risk takers the early adopters.
The onus on the marketer is to create awareness and interest; evaluation, trial and
possible acceptance will quickly follow. The ID of the innovator is the dominant
decision maker.
It is excited about the brand/product. The ID leads the innovator to talk about
his experience to others. In this phase, marketers usually spend heavily on advertising
and promotions with a view to drive trial, in the hope that the trial will lead to future
adoption. However, this is also the right time to get people talking about the
brand/product. These in turn creates BUZZ.
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Growth
In this phase the marketer must speed up the growth of the product/brand. It
may be called the maintenance phase of the brand. The marketer spends on support
activities like advertising, regular but lesser promotions. The “EGO state, early
majority phase of adoption characterizes the growth phase. The decision making
process for this consumer consists of a longer evaluation period.
The BUZZ must now include some rationale for using the product/brand –
mere appeal to emotions will not be sufficient. The story appeals to the ID but the
EGO desires a reason for accepting the credibility and appeal of the story. Marketers
must now involve positive functional or emotional reinforces to the communication so
that the EGO state of mind does not inhibit the ID. Furthermore, in this stage it is the
BUZZ that is created out of trial by the ID that reinforces the EGO to buy, more so on
a rational basis. Also, with product innovations, brand and line extensions, redefined
consumers, the segmentation base widens, also adding the no. of ID buyers.
Maturity
In the maturity phase, the product/brand loses its novelty which was
predominant in the earlier stages. There is a need for Brand Revitalization which calls
for variations and nuances that revive the brand. With increased WOM and proven
functional benefits, the “EGO” state takes the role of a BUZZ creator establishing the
functionally strong product as a standard must. This phase sees the domination by the
assurance seeking “SUPEREGO”.
This Ego state needs to be convinced of the suitability of the brand for itself. This is
supplemented by superiority over the brand over the current one that it is using.
In this context, the revitalization of “Frooti” in the maturity phase through the
Digen Verma campaign can be seen as a n attempt to create BUZZ. The brilliant
attempt failed because the company failed to link the BUZZ with the brand.
A negative BUZZ about “Cadbury’s” (worm infested bars) in its maturity
stage would have adversely impacted the brand and led it to decline, had the
resurrection through Project Vishwas not happened.
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Decline
Decline phase is characterized by negative growth, declining profits or even
losses and low brand equity. In such a phase the BUZZ marketer aims at placing the
brand on a new product life cycle itself. This is a point of inflection calling for Brand
Rejuvenation. This implies appealing to the “ID” of a new segment of customers.
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Buzz and Brand Building
Raising the profile of a just-launched brand has always been a challenge. But
nowadays, as customers lean toward tried-and-true products, building buzz for a
brand-new business takes real smarts, creativity and persistence.
What is a brand? It's the promise you make to customers. It's the "emotional
connections that create feelings of loyalty to a product or a company," says Jim
Bolton at Ridge Associates, a coaching firm in Minneapolis. It's how you distinguish
yourself from competition and capture mind and market share. To get customers to
notice your infant brand quickly and affordably, you must stay focused. Don't chase
after huge or unlikely prospects right away. Don't squander time and resources by
broadcasting mixed messages. Keep it simple. Make sure your marketing material has
a recognizable identity, with a consistent logo, palette and tag lines.
What are Brands?
In marketing, a brand is the symbolic embodiment of all the information connected
with a product or service. A brand typically includes a name, logo, and other visual
elements such as images or symbols. It also encompasses the set of expectations
associated with a product or service which typically arise in the minds of people. Such
people include employees of the brand owner, people involved with distribution, sale
or supply of the product or service, and ultimate consumers.
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What’s your Brand Mantra?
The following are four cost-effective branding strategies suggested by marketing
experts and successful entrepreneurs:
•
Get inside the customer's mind.
Most new business owners research their target buye rs. So you likely know something
about your customer demographics, such as income and age. That's good, but not
enough.
You need a serious fix on what will propel people to buy so you can gear your
messages accordingly. "What need will you fill for the customer?" asks Scott Gold,
chief executive officer of The Brand Consultancy in Washington, D.C. Once you
know that, he suggests, "It’s easy to find the low-hanging fruit."
•
Get endorsements that ring the right bells
Expert or third-party endorsements can mean a movie star, a banker or a tech wizard.
If you have invested in characterizing target customers, coming up with personalities
who will fuel buzz should be a snap. The hard part may be getting access. You might
need special marketing to reach them.
For example, Los Angeles fashion designer Chrissy Azzaro launched My-Tee, a line
of casual wear, a few years ago. She targeted the entertainment community. So
Azzaro paid to join a special star-studded bazaar hosted by a Los Angeles company,
Backstage Creations.
Backstage charges corporations $5,000 to $10,000 (depending on how exclusive the
access) to attend behind-the-scenes gatherings at TV award shows and other celebrity
events. Marketers get an opportunity to meet and chat with stars before or after the
show. In turn, celebrities get free gift bags filled with sometimes very fancy and
expensive samples. The idea is that stars will not only wear or try the products, but
they'll be seen doing so — which will boost the company's image and sales.
Hooking up with Backstage allowed Azzaro to present her fashions one-on-one to
various celebrities. Soon, former "Friends" star Courtney Cox and pop singer Nelly
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Furtado were photographed wearing My-Tee tops. That viral marketing led to stories
about My-Tee in media like InStyle.com, the Los Angeles Daily News, Essence and
more. Azzaro got known, fast.
•
Get the attention of hot prospects
Find the industry seminars or annual shows that attract your top-of-the-line customers.
Then spend what it takes to design a snazzy booth. Or, sign up for media coaching
and pay a speechwriter and design team to develop newsworthy presentations. Or,
hire a marketing firm to create a memorable way to demonstrate your product. You
want to make a standout impression at the high-profile show.
•
Get public relations pros to open markets
Your products don't have to instantly make people attractive, guarantee weight loss or
offer the promise of eternal youth to benefit from press attention. There is a great
range of small, local or industry press and media coverage that can boost business.
But you could benefit from the expertise of a public relations agency to do the
legwork and the pitching for media placement.
Buzz and word-of-mouth marketing is a cheap and effective way to get out your
message. Fig ure out what it will take to start customers talking about your brand. That
way, every customer turns into a brand ambassador .
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Build buzz for your brand without getting stung
Everybody wants to generate buzz for their brands, but few succeed beyond a
brief shining moment, if even that. The key is to look at buzz as an ongoing dynamic
across a variety of audiences, as opposed to an exceptional moment in time.
Generating buzz is not difficult; sustaining buzz requires a more strategic approach to
creating brand reputation. Karwoski & Courage has a few guiding principles for
creating buzz:
Whatever is done should:
•Reflect and enhance the brand personality.
•Support a key strategy or initiative.
•Be meaningful to one or more of the brand's key
audiences.
•Be memorable and measurable.
•Provide a platform for additional marketing activity
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How important is Buzz to a business?
Buzz doesn’t affect all businesses in the same way. The role it plays in the business
depends on the follo wing four factors:
•
Nature of the products
Some products do not tend to produce discussion- paper clips for example will not
generate much buzz whatever one does. They are cheap, they are simple, and there is
nothing new about them. The excitement is higher in the early days of the category,
and so are prices, risks, and uncertainties. Over the years, as the novelty wears off, as
the product becomes simpler and the monetary risk lowers, people still talk about it,
but not as much. This is a natural process that completes the life cycle of each product.
So what types of products do people ‘buzz’ about? Products that somehow create high
involvement among customers:
Exciting products: such as books, records and movies. Products or services that the
consumer talks about after his/her first encounter with the product.
Innovative products: people talk about them both because these products may provide
new benefits and because people are impressed by the ingenuity of the creators.
Personal experience products: when personal experience is needed to asses the
product or service, buzz can be expected. Hotels, airlines, cars- all fall under this
category.
Complex products: software or medical products. Here the motivation derives form
the need to reduce risk. When people don’t understand products, they talk about them
in order to make sense of them.
Expensive products: computers or consumer electronics. Risk is the major motive
here, too.
Observable products: clothes, cars, and cellular phones. People tend to talk about
what they see. If the product is invisible to them, they are less likely to discuss it.
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•
The people you are trying to reach
The second factor in determining the importance of buzz to your business is the
audience. Different audiences have different propensity to talk about products. It is a
part of the culture.
Age also plays a role in determining buzz. Young people, tend to socialize more, and
be more influenced by their peers than their elders, seem to talk more about products.
•
How connected are your customers?
The more connected you are to your customers, the more depended you are on them
for future businesses. The importance of high-quality products and top service
increases, and the cumulative satisfaction of customers becomes critical.
•
The need for buzz varies according to marketing strategies
Your marketing strategy as well as your competitors marketing strategy- may
affect the degree to which one relies on buzz. For example: Pepsi reduces the need
for buzz when it cuts a deal with a high school to have only Pepsi vending
machines in campus.
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Why we talk?
Buzz is powerful because it is in our genes. Talking is not just an incidental
activity we engage in when we don’t have anything to do. It is rooted in some basic
needs that we share with other living creatures. Understanding the motivation behind
WoM is the first step in stimulating people to talk about your product. The following
are a few reasons as to why we talk:
•
We talk because we are programmed to talk
•
We talk to connect
•
We talk to make sense of the world
•
We talk to reduce risk, cost and uncertainty
•
We talk because it makes economic sense
•
We talk to relieve tension
Network Hubs
Network hubs are individuals who communicate with more people about a
certain product than the average person does. Researchers have traditionally referred
to them as "opinion leaders." In industry they're called "influencers," "lead users," or
sometimes "power users." The reward for paying attention to these people can be
huge. Not only do they further the buzz about a new product—their central position
sometimes allows them to change a message or even block it from spreading. In this
chapter I explore who they are and why they matter. The four types of Network Hubs
are:
Regular hubs : these are regular folks who serve as sources of information and
influence in a certain product category. They maybe connected to only a few other
individuals or to several dozens.
Mega hubs: these individuals have two-way links like regular hubs, but in addition
they have thousands of one-way links with the people who listen to their message via
mass media. Traditionally these people have been categorized under labels such as
‘media’ or ‘the political heavyweights’.
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Expert hubs: these are specialized and have significant knowledge of certain areas.
Social hubs: in every group there are those who are more central because they are
charismatic, are trusted by their peers, or are simply more socially active.
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It’s a small world. So what?
Some say that we are all connected by a chain of not more than six mutual
acquaintances. By talking together, presumably each one of us could find out how
exactly we are linked. So what does the concept of ‘six degrees of separation’ - better
known among social scientists as’ the small world phenomenon’- mean to marketers?
There are ten principles at work in social networks that affect buzz.
These are:
1. The networks are invisible
2. People link with others similar to them
3. People live in clusters
4. Buzz spreads through common nodes
5. Information gets trapped in clusters
6. Network Hubs create “shortcuts”
7. We talk to those around us
8. Weak ties are surprisingly strong
9. The net nurtures weak ties
10. Networks go across markets
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Examples
1. Relaunch of Frooti – The Digen Verma campaign
"Frooti has always been positioned as a drink for kids. Now, we want to position it as
a drink for the youth, especially, the college-going teenagers. We therefore went in for
a real life, down-to-earth person, who, like any college student likes to bunk classes,
is a good sportsman and is a popular figure in the college, with whom the teenagers
can actually associate themselves."
-Alka Bhonsle, Management Consultant, Parle Agrochemicals
"Our aim was to create hype around the product, so we introduced a mysterious
character called 'Digen Verma.' As our target audience is the youth segment, we
wanted to showcase their rebellious spirit through Digen Verma."
-Ram Sehgal, MD, Everest Integrated Communications
Abstract
The case 'Relaunch of Frooti-The 'Digen Verma' campaign' analyses the re- launch
strategy adopted by Parle Agro for 'Frooti' and the promotional campaign run by it.
The case discusses Parle's teaser campaign which was unusual in that it revolved
around a faceless person named 'Digen Verma' ' Frooti' was the first tetrapak fruit
juice to be launched in India. However, owing to stagnating sales, Parle Agro planned
to re- launch 'Frooti' by positioning it as fun drink for the youth. As a part of the
strategy, it launched a teaser campaign. This teaser campaign revolved round a
faceless brand ambassador who was positioned as someone whom the youth could
relate to. The teaser campaign evoked enormous public interest. As a part of the relaunch strategy, the packaging of the product was also changed and the baseline
changed to 'Just like that.'
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Who is Digen Verma?
There was no getting away from him. A poster at a bus stop in Chennai asked, "Will
Digen Verma be in the next bus?" Or, when watching a movie; there was bound to be
an interruption all of a sudden with a handwr itten message saying, 'Digen, your car is
being towed'. And, outside in the car park, almost all the cars had stickers on them
saying, 'Digen Verma was here.'
In many commercial places in metros and even far off places like Simla, there were
footmarks acco mpanied by the mysterious words 'Digen Verma was here' pasted.
There were rumours galore about 'Digen Verma' and his identity. Some thought it was
a campaign for the launch of some new fashion label, while others thought Digen
Verma he was a philanthropist.
The enigma called 'Digen Verma' was everywhere, in buses, film halls, colleges,
cyber cafes and shopping malls. 'JUST who is Digen Verma?' That's what the nation
seemed to be have been wanting to know. In the 15 days that the campaign lasted in
(February 2001), Digen Verma seemed to have become the most talked about faceless
name in the country.
The 'Digen Verma' promotion campaign was one of the most interesting and
innovative teaser campaigns ever made in India. Designed and executed by Everest
Integrated Communications Designed and executed by Everest Integrated
Communications (Everest), it was a series of teaser campaigns launched by Parle
Agrochemicals for its mango drink Frooti, which aroused the curiosity of the public,
especially teenagers.
The campaign seemed to have been successful in evoking tremendous interest.
Everyone was curious to know who Digen Verma was, or whether he was just a
fictitious character. "Just wait and watch," said Milind Dhaimade, Creative Director
of Everest, the brain behind this entire campaign.
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The Buzz about Digen Verma
“Who is Digen Verma??
A much created hype but then nothing to follow up after that and now more than
anything it's irritating and it has become a cure to change the channel quickly.
What Frooti has to do is that!
DIG-HIM and move on.... with something a bit more lasting...”
“The key problem with D Verma is that the teasers worked well to give us an good
personality sketch of who he was.
However, once we knew he drank Frooti, his reason for being was complete. Why
would it interest me to know more about him now? The campaign should have come
to a logical end with the revelation of Frooti as his drink of choice.
Prolonging the campaign, in my opinion would not serve any purpose and may
actually lead to a diminishing return.”
“Proof that if a teaser keeps on teasing for too long it ends up on the edge of
botheration and finally disgust.”
“… take a look at Digen - it was a short life! The mere mention of Digen these days
just draws negative reactions from most people in Frooti's target audience…”
“Frooti has spent obscene amounts of money creating this Brand… Though Digen
couldn't sell more Frooti’s he definitely registered in the minds of India’s youth as an
icon....now what he stands for is yet to be communicated clearly. He could be cool,
trendy, unconventional ...”
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“Digen Verma is very cool. He could either be taking guys (nerds) out to 'pu(aaaa)bs'
or could be acting cool to girls who go ga-ga over a hyped, adorned sweetish
secretion of blossoms, but secretly like the fizz in their lives.”
“Who the hell is Digen Verma? What was Frooti trying to convey or prove by Digen
Verma? It was a flop effort & a damp squib as we all would call it.”
“Digen is no more.......but of course their are people who remember and identify it
with the brand Frooti. To some extent it did leave an impression…
I would say the teaser was a hit.”
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2. A look at a key feature of Red Bull's business
‘There’s a new drink in town, and it’s created quite a buzz. Literally.’
Developed in Austria, Red Bull’s marketing campaign promises the beverage “gives
you wings.”
A drink that gives you wings? That sounds pretty powerful. So what exactly is Red
Bull? The makers call it an “energy drink.” People we’ve talked to describe it as
“stimulating,” “addictive,” even “crack in a can.”
Some observers say that Red Bull's branding is revolutionary, calling it an 'anti-brand'
strategy. The company faced additional problems in the UK where there was already
an established drink that was specifically taken as a post-illness beverage. Generations
of young Britons had drunk Lucozade as they recovered from colds or flu, so Red
Bull had to promote its brand differently.
The firm avoided usual methods of marketing, relying more on what is called 'buzz
marketing' or word-of- mouth. A brand image was created and cultivated which
associated the drink with youth culture and extreme and adventure-related sports, such
as motor sports, mountain biking, snowboarding and dance music. Red Bull's target
consumer segment began to adopt nicknames for the product such as 'liquid cocaine'
or 'speed in a can', thus spreading its 'left-field' appeal.
Red Bull then worked to ensure that their brand was visible on the street:
•
Using pick-up trucks as mobile displays, painted blue and silver with a giant
can of the drink mounted on top of the vehicle
•
Designed to be eye-catching, these devices were aimed at promoting the red
bull brand as youthful and slightly 'off-the-wall'
•
Cans of the drink were also given out free to people on the street who had
been identified as being in need of energy
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•
Red Bull was given to club DJs, empty cans would also be left on tables in hot
spots such as trendy bars, clubs and pubs
The company also set about promoting the Red Bull brand directly to Generation Y,
the so-called 'millennials': people born after 1981 who were believed to be cynical of
traditional marketing strategies. Part of this idea involved recruiting 'student brand
managers' who would be used to promote Red Bull on university campuses. These
students would be encouraged to throw parties (as if encouragement was needed!) at
which cases of Red Bull would be distributed. The brand managers would then report
back to the company, giving the firm a low cost form of market research data.
The use of this kind of marketing strategy has become known as 'viral' marketing. It is
as if a company sees no need for traditional informative or persuasive
communications, rather in Red Bull's case it used the youth 'underground' to spread
the popularity of the drink. So the firm would rather restrict the drink's supply and not
advertise it, expecting that growing numbers of target consumers 'catch the bug' and
its reputation spreads. Red Bull was a spectacularly successful example of the strategy
working even though as we see later, its branding was aided by state intervention in
countries like France and Denmark.
By 2004, the worldwide energy drinks market was worth an estimated £1.6 billion;
Red Bull had achieved a clear market leading position, with a 70% market share. The
lure of fast-growing profits in this market brought many competitors into the
functional foods sector, where health and energy drinks have seen sales double every
year since their introduction. Many competitors have tried to employ similar
marketing strategies and tactics in order to grab sales from the market leader. Not all
have been successful, of course.
The problem that Red Bull now faces is how to build on its incredible sales growth, as
it has become a mature brand within a saturated market. Among the challenges that
Red Bull faces, the following are some of the most serious:
•
The loss of its original consumer base, as the 'millennials' become working
adults. How should the firm attract a new group of 16 year old consumers?
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•
Health concerns that have emerged in several countries over problems
associated with high intake of caffeine. Red Bull was banned in France and
Denmark following the publication of these concerns. It is classified as a
medicine in Norway and until recently could only be bought in pharmacies in
Japan. As the health and energy soft drinks market has reached maturity, Red
Bull is concerned that it is unable to target mass consumption in these countries.
•
Being over-reliant on a single brand. Until 2003, the company only produced
one version of Red Bull. A sugar-free version was introduced in that year.
•
The mature market for energy drinks has attracted some of the global firms,
such as Coca Cola, Pepsi as well as Asda/Wal-Mart, with their own brands
seeking to gain a competitive advantage over the market leader
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3.
The Balbir Pasha Story
An innovative approach to reducing HIV/aids prevalence through targeted mass
media communications in Mumbai, India
The design and implementation of a hard-hitting communication campaign tackling a
sensitive issue such as HIV/AIDS in the current socio -political context of India poses
some key challenges. Until now, health communication campaign in India,
particularly HIV/AIDS communications, were largely informative/educational in
nature and rarely addressed the consumer directly. These bland approaches, which
were neither engaging nor consumer-oriented, have, perhaps complacently so, set the
standard for the limited HIV/AIDS communication work in India.
Further, HIV/AIDS communication campaigns, in general, have perpetually portrayed
the disease in a completely morbid and fearful manner. They have used scare tactics
to warn the consumer about “the killer disease,” rather than offering positive
preventive messaging. Such messages tend to further distance the consumer from the
messages as it allows people to naturally seek the security of the “it can’t happen to
me” mindset. There is a significant disconnect between AIDS and the individual
consumer, thereby rendering communication messages personally irrelevant and
subsequently not being internalized.
Campaign Objectives: Filling a need
On the basis of research pertaining to the HIV/AIDS scenario in Mumbai, program
staff determined that young men in Mumbai between the ages of 18-40, who hail from
lower socioeconomic groups and are among the highest risk for HIV infection, should
be the primary targets for prevention messages. An extensive mass media HIV/AIDS
campaign was designed, to meet the fo llowing key communication objectives:
• To increase perception of HIV/AIDS risk from unprotected sex with non-regular
partners by personalizing the message and creating empathy through identifiable real
life situations (attitudinal change)
• To generate discussion about HIV/AIDS among the target populations and opinion
leaders in order to facilitate understanding and knowledge acquisition. (changing
social norms)
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• To motivate people to access HIV/AIDS helpline and VCT services (behavioral
change)
Execution: Introducing Balbir Pasha!
•
Evolution of a behavioral role model
The bedrock of the campaign was the principle that people can learn by observing the
consequences of behaviors of others. An ‘alter ego’ in the form of a fictional character
named “Balbir Pasha” was created as the centerpiece of the campaign. This character
was portrayed across various communications channels in intriguing scenarios,
serving as a behavioral model for consumers to relate to and empathize with. Using
this character, HIV/AIDS messages were conveyed in an approachable and familiar
manner, rather than the didactic approach that previous HIV/AIDS communication
campaigns have unsuccessfully tried.
Social psychologists such as Bandura argue that observing can lead to behavior
change, especially when a behavior is reinforced by the consequences of the role
model’s actions.
Therefore, if the manufactured symbolic model of “Balbir Pasha” engages in behavior
that may put him at probable risk for HIV/AIDS, the consumer will be vicariously
motivated to avoid repeating this behavior.
•
Key consumer Insights and Campaign Direction:
In order to meet the campaign’s main objectives of increasing risk perception, three
main campaign themes were developed and pre-tested among sexually active males
from low socioeconomic groups.
§
Alcohol & high-risk behavior: “I often use condoms, but when I get
drunk, I sometimes forget.”
§
Faith in “regular” partner: “I only have sex with this one person and
hence I am safe”.
§
Failure to recognize asymptomatic carrier: “If a person looks healthy,
he/she must be safe from HIV/AIDS”
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•
Surround and Engage – Effective Media Selection
The campaig n achieved incredible visibility and reach through a strategically
developed mix of various media. Executions in the form of print ads, television and
radio commercials, and, most visibly, outdoor communication (i.e. billboards and
posters in trains and on bus shelters) were launched in five phases over a period of
four months. As each phase was revealed progressively, intrigue and ‘gossip value’ of
campaign increased akin to the way plots are revealed in a TV soap opera.
The extent to which each type of me dia was used and the placement/timing for each
message was directly related to the location and lifestyle of the target group.
•
Campaign Roll-out
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Teaser: Building Intrigue (Nov 11-Nov 30, 2002):
The first phase of the campaign was aimed at building intrigue and cutting through the
clutter of advertising in Mumbai through a cleverly crated “teaser” campaign. This
teaser campaign also served to build intrigue, and prepare the campaign for
subsequent phases. The “teaser” campaign, which ran all media channels discussed
above, depicted typical Mumbai lower and middle income men asking each other the
following question “Will Balbir Pasha get AIDS?”
Main campaign –Three Themes (Dec 1, 2002 –January 27, 2003):
The second phase was more strategic, in that it leveraged key insights about a
particular target group, specifically young men of lower SES, and comprised of three
personalized messages targeted at making these individual question their own
behavior:
Message 1
The indoor and outdoor media produc ed contained dialogue and/or text that
communicated the following line, pictured on the billboard to the right:
“Balbir pasha sometimes forgets to use condoms when he is drunk but by not wearing
a condom just one time, it is possible to get AIDS…..Will Ba lbir Pasha get AIDS?”
Message 2
This message, as with the others, appeared in newspapers as shown to the right, on
billboards, on train posters, bus shelters, and via television and radio programming:
“Balbir Pasha only goes to (has sex with) Manjula…..but others go to Manjula
too….will Balbir Pasha get AIDS?
Message 3
Balbir Pasha only has “relationships” with healthy looking people…..but you can’t
tell by looking who has AIDS. Will Balbir Pasha get AIDS?”
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Connect to Help-Line (January28- February 11, 2003)
Following this period of ‘self- introspection’, the final stage comprised the messaging
that directly approached the consumer, and asked them to access available HIV/AIDS
services.
In this manner, through the careful evolution of communication phases, the campaign
aimed to increase perception of HIV/AIDS risk through personalized messages,
generate discussion about HIV/AIDS and motivate access of HIV/AIDS services.
Creation of an icon/ brand
One of the most celebrated achievements of the campaign is the way in which the
“Balbir Pasha” icons became entrenched in popular culture, so much so that numerous
outside groups and individuals in Mumbai parodied or ‘borrowed’ elements of the ads,
and continue to do so.
For example, Amul, one of the nation’s leading dairy co-operatives, cleverly
borrowed the concept of ‘regular partner’ when advertising their butter which could
be seen throughout Mumbai. As stated in the January 14, 2003 issue of Mumbai’s
Economic Times, “to qualify for an execution in Amul’s long-standing series of
satirical topical ads, a campaign must have really made it into the city’s everyday
talk.”
Criticisms
Though the “Balbir Pasha” campaign achieved phenomenal reach, the attention
generated was not all positive. It is important to note that while the teaser campaign”
and first theme of ‘alcohol and condom use’ were more readily accepted, a few critics
strongly voices their discontent from the time the second theme of “regular partners”
was introduced. It was at this time that some individuals criticized the campaign for
its cutting-edge frankness.
This criticism was more specifically aimed at the television commercials that were
produced as part of the “Balbir Pasha” campaign, rather than the outdoor billboards
and posters and other communication media.
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Conclusion
Ignite an idea and see it spread like a wildfire--that’s the power of buzz!
Today the common denominator in this is technology--the Internet and the virtual
interlinking of consumers in all fields of business life. You have to have a message,
velocity (speed) and a mass in the right mix for a positive impact of the buzz.
You need to identify novel feature, benefits, emotions--the DNA of the brand--and
then give it to the right people, with the right message, at the right point of their
decision-making cycle. Get them to be more than just users—get them to be brand
advocates. Get them to deliver your brand claims, promises, and benefits by WOM to
others for you.
WOM is what moves people at the marketplace to talk centers around hard
information, finding and studying available options, and gaining trail for the brand.
Observing the brand in use and evaluating its performance, then communicating about
it to generate the buzz centering on the sheer experience is the task. WOM often
defies the need for market research, as it is more on instinct. Thereafter, it builds on
purchase loyalty and expanded usage, along with the brand advocates.
Are people really that easy to figure out? Aren’t we much more involved and
more intricate as human beings? Of course we are. We read books. We talk about
philosophy. We all seek a deeper level. But at the same time, we want to be
entertained, and we want to entertain others. There’s nothing new about this. The
playwrights of the ancient Greek comedies understood about entertaining to hold
people’s attention; Shakespeare understood it. Buzz and word of mouth are just as
predictable. Give people currency, give them entertainment, and discover an
explosion about to happen with your brand.
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To sum it up with an example
Now that marketers know that people are talking to each other they want to be
sure it's only about their double plus good products.
Newspeak. In 1984, it’s a vocabulary invented by Big Brother that we would
use to talk to each other, and come to eventually think in. It would affect our language,
our thoughts, our actions, even our ability to act - you can't act on a thought you can't
have.
"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In
the end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no
words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed
by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings
rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that
point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every
year fewer and fewer words and the range of consciousness always a little smaller.
Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thought crime. It's
merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any
need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect."
George Orwell, 1984
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Biblography
Books:
•
Tom Peters: Thriving on Chaos
•
Emanuel Rosen :The Anatomy Of Buzz- Creating Word-Of-Mouth marketing
•
Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia and Ann O'Reilly: Buzz: Harness the Power of
Influence and Create Demand
•
Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point
•
Al Ries and Laura Ries: The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR
•
George E. Belch and Michael A. Belch: Advertising and Promotion : an
integrated marketing communications perspective
•
Philip Kotler: Marketing management
Websites:
•
http://www.exchange4media.com/viewpoint/viewpoint.asp?view_id=38
•
http://www.indiainfoline.com/fmcg/stma/st15.html
•
http://www.hillsorient.com/articles/2005/08/046.html
•
http://www.answers.com/what%20is%20buzz%20marketing%3F
•
http://www.agencyfacs.com
•
http://www.buzzmarketing.com
•
http://www.answers.com
•
http://searchwarp.com/swa13111.htm
•
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/377966.cms
Articles:
•
Buzz-TV
•
Buzz-Relationship Management
•
Buzz- Trojan Horse
•
The Buzz about Buzz marketing
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Questionnaire 1
Research Questionnaire
1. Are you familiar with Buzz marketing/ viral marketing?
•
Yes
•
No
2. Can you recall any such campaign? Excluding question no.5
3. Do you think the campaign was a success or failure?
4. When do you think Buzz is used?
•
Launch
•
Re launch
5. Do you remember Digen Varma?
•
Yes
•
No
6. Can you recall the Brand which launched the Digen Varma campaign? If yes, name
the brand.
7. Name two ways in which ‘buzz’ helps in building brands.
•
•
8. On a scale of 1 to 5, rate the effectiveness of buzz marketing. 1 being minimum, 5
being maximum.
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Questionnaire 2
BUZZ MARKETING
Questionnaire
1. How do you do brand promotions/ what are the tools used?
2. Is buzz or viral marketing used?
3. How do you define buzz?
4. What is the importance of buzz?
5. When is buzz marketing used?
6. Have you used buzz in any of the promotions/ads?
7. What analysis went behind it?
8. What was the objective of this programme?
9. What was its USP?
10. Was the effectiveness measured?
11. If yes, how?
12. How effective do you think buzz is in order to build brands?
13. What do you think is the future of buzz marketing?
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