Buzz Marketing (Semi-extended Outline)

My goal in this outline is to define a clear structure of the final paper I will write about Marketing Word of Mouth (Buzz Marketing). I wont get into depth of each point but I will express the concerns I can have about the final project. This structure could be sensitive to changes if I think it is convenient while I write the final paper.

1.     Introduction

a.     The need of not conventional ways of marketing

In today’s world, consumers are saturated with publicity, and spots, and there is so much information they can reach that there is sometimes some skepticism created around the conventional ways of marketing. This is when buzz marketing appears. The key factor that involves this technique is simple: TRUST. This is the sensation transmitted when someone close to us gives us the opinion they have about a product.

This is why in buzz marketing the relations between people, users and consumers are not just important but also necessary. Furthermore this is the main way of communication and transmission of information.

b.     What is Buzz Marketing?

The Buzz Marketing is a technique based on the rumor extension or the exchange of information from a person to another one. This information is usually recommendations and also general information someone can give us but in a more informal way than in the communication media or traditional marketing. The Marketing Word of Mouth is normally referred to spoken communication, but Internet dialogs, like blogs, chats or e-mails are also sometimes included

c.     Why is Buzz Marketing so effective?

There are different studies that indicate the importance that have the recommendations of family members, friends or experts when a consumer is thinking of buying a product or service.

2.     Body

a.     Spreading the Buzz

The success of a Buzz Marketing Campaign depends on two main factors:

                                               i.     Its just necessary a credible and simple idea to provide consumers a reason to talk about your product or service

                                             ii.     Find the adequate spreading media to start it and extend the buzz quickly

To create a buzz, marketers have to find prospects capable of starting a chain reaction and that they feel comfortable talking about to product and the company. Then, they have to boost “interested opinions” with “alternative” media and using the right language. Finally, providing a “flow of information” between influential persons and potential consumers is also a key factor.

b.     The incompatibility of Buzz Marketing with other Marketing Techniques

Obviously Buzz Marketing has an effect that is that it can’t work without the dispensing of other strategies or marketing techniques. This is why in some countries companies pay people to talk or spread the information.

This is where technology comes into the field as it also has importance in this communication or marketing techniques. Today, bloggers are getting more and more significance when they talk about a product or give their opinion about it. As we have already said, the Internet is the main actual way of transmitting information.

c.     Buzz Marketing among college students

I still have to do more research about this point. Anyway, college students are a specific and wide segment that have many points in common (regardless of their diversity) and are the best target for this technique. We have to have in the top of our minds that college students are the segment of the population that are more into innovation and (usually) also have a wider social activity among their group of friends, known people, or class mates, sharing opinions and concerns which is the fastest way of using this technique.

In this point I have some concerns about how much specific information I can get and if I should try testing this technique spreading a buzz.

d.     Examples of Buzz Marketing techniques

In the paper I will put some examples of companies using buzz marketing or publicity campaigns that have focused in this technique. I will also share some links to interesting posts or podcasts of authors as Mark Hughes talking about the topic.

3.     Conclusion

a.     An old technique that marketers now are taking advantage of

Buzz Marketing is a communication technique that does not come from a new concept. In a natural way has always been manifested as an exchange of opinions or recommendations among consumers and know marketing experts are taking advantage of them to develop elaborated messages to achieve a wider diffusion and publicity of their products.

b.     What I have learned from this study

                                               i.     Learning about the technique itself

                                             ii.     The advantages marketers can take from them

                                            iii.     How to best apply it among college life

My concern in this point is if I will really learn the best way of taking advantage of this technique and use it among college students. My really concern actually is if I will stay among the ways students already use the word of mouth or I will really understand the best way to spread the buzz.

c.     Application to Customers Insights

How understanding this technique and especially among the college students can offer a deeper understanding of customer insights and how can marketers use this to improve the customer experience. In this way also how companies can use this information to build a better brand image and awareness. 

Spain and the US: Differences in the Electoral Campaigns

The topic I’m going to talk about in this blog is the differences there are in the approach to voters on the electoral campaigns in Spain and the US. The two last chapters of the movie The Persuaders talked about how marketing influences the campaigns and that facet made me think about how different it is in Spain so I decided to make some research in the topic.

The first point we must have in mind is that in Spain people where more concern about how was the last American Campaign going since the economical situation we are living in the last times. There where a lot of expectations about it and I remembered an article about Pablo Pardo, a Spanish journalist of El Mundo (one of the most redden newspapers in Spain) who talked about why USA electoral campaigns are so spectacular comparing with Spain. Well, the answer is triple:

·      In the US politicians have to convince people to register in the electoral register and vote, while in Spain voters only have to go the day of the elections and vote,

·      In Spain is not that important for voters the image of who is elected but all the team it follows, and here an image and message is created involving one candidate, and

·      The electoral fight in the US is made in a huge country where the elected candidate usually wins by a minimum advantage.

What happens is that in Spain, the political party’s tend to copy the electoral marketing of the US but only in the form and not in the content. They put videos in YouTube or send text messages to voters, but this are not used to mobilize people. After thinking about it, the reasons of these differences are always come to the same point; cultural differences so differences to approach the insights of the potential voters.

Here in the US, the electoral campaigns post their electoral program in the internet and then try to be more generic repeating six or eight key messages once and again. In the latest example we can see how Obama repeated this six messages using “change” as reference and with a clear message: “Yes, we can”. In the other hand we have the Spanish style, where there are more politics interests for the history of the different regions of Spain. Instead of being or democrats or republicans, there are more political party’s to support although there are the two main ones where about the 80% of the population vote in the general elections.

This is why the candidates have to try to capture that minority attention what makes the difference on the end. The two main parties, with their message and program, target two differentiated segments. Anyhow they can’t make such a strong image around them because they also have to attract the attention of other minority segments that are not their potential voters and are trying to decide which party to support depending on the changes in their program and possible alliances with the minor existent parties. They give to the content of the program a much bigger significance than the one they give to how to say it.

Getting to a conclusion, there are many cultural differences that make it different to approach the insights of the population. Differences in communications, that is how they use television or internet; differences in the content of the program and how to segment the population; and finally, there is a big difference that I haven’t gone into depth but is really significant that is the money collected for the campaign. The length of the campaigns and the high investment they have to make in them makes that the money spent in the US looks like an astronomic quantity comparing it to the amount spent by the Spanish campaigns.

 

 

 

The Reptilian Code

Dr. Rapaille is a market research guru who has been contracted by a large number of companies to figure out the hidden desires of consumers. Companies like Accura or Boing have commissioned him to break the code on luxury for example. He says that most of the time people have no idea of why they are doing what they are doing; he says as well that they are going to try to make up something that makes sense. This is why he explains in the movie that he doesn’t believe what people say.

As a former psychiatrist he explains that there are unconscious associations for barely any product we buy deep in our brains. The first time we imprint the meaning of a word we create a mental connection. He says that there is a code behind every individual decisions and this is why he has developed a 3-stage technique to find out what patterns drive people to consume. The stages are the followings:

1.     Past reason

2.     Through emotion

3.     To the primal core (where interesting decisions really lie)

In the first step, the past reason, he lets people say what they think about the topic that is luxury in the example of the video. He actually doesn’t care much about what they say but does it because he says that like to show how intelligent we are. In this way, the attendants to the focus group go to the break thinking that they made a good job about the topic they where talking about as Dr. Rapaille has just listened what they said.

Then, after the break, he tells to the focus group members to tell him a story. Doing this, he pushes the crowd into the emotion. They are mindset different in this step, they stop being logical or intelligent to just play the role Dr. Rapaille has asked them to play. In this step the focus group members don’t understand anymore what they are doing, and that’s what he is just trying. Now they are more vulnerable and open.

The third and last step, Rapaille is hunting for the primal urges (the reptilian hot buttons that compel us to actions). As he says, the reptilian always win, he try’s to take people to a stage in where they are not thinking anymore, they are not trying to be intelligent, they just take from them the inner code that was imprinted in their minds. He wants to take out the mental connection people have to a specific word or idea.

Summing up the 3-stage technique, the objective is to reduce consumers to the primal impulses. An example of Rappaile findings could be the difference to sell cheese to French or Americans. For French people, the cheese is alive and that is why they don’t put it in the fridge. In the other hand, for Americans cheese is dead. You can’t approach to both consumers the same way and that’s why they have to wrap up in plastic something not imaginable for French consumers.

About the experience Song airlines is trying to create I think it’s a good idea but they take it a little bit to far. They tried not just to create a brand and a product but also a life style around the name of Song. One thing they did well was how to make the image out of their brand and how to sell it to their target market. People, as they say in The Persuaders movie, respond very well to de advertising and feel identified with it. In this way they get people attention. But there is a really negative part in how Song sell themselves to their prospects, as although identifying with the brand a lot of them didn’t know what they where talking about. Possible consumers didn’t identify Song with an airplane company. Another thing they could have done better is the part of the TV advertising media. It’s a good way to get to consumers directly and it took them a little bit too much time and money to take it to the small screen.

To conclude, I just want to mark out that we must have in the top of our heads that the final objective is to sell a product, and if the product doesn’t penetrate in the minds of the consumers there is no point in trying to create a specific branding or lifestyle around it. 

Kenna’s Dilemma

The chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Kenna’s Dilemma” shows with a real example how difficult is to reach the insights of the customers that are targeted in some markets. We know that music industry, as every other industry, is moved from a business approach so us, as marketers, must have this in the top of our heads in the moment of gaining insights of potential customers and launch a new product into the market.

The first example of the chapter, Pepsi’s Challenge, is an illustration of how difficult it is to find out what people really think. I will go further in this adding that apart of the difficulty of getting into people’s insights, marketers can influence directly on this thoughts and change their perception about the products. To explain myself I will use the example of Pepsi and Coke. As the author explains, when tests are made people prefer Pepsi to Coke, and actually regular customers can’t really distinguish them when a triangle test is made. Even though, Coca-Cola is the leader beverage company in the world and there are lots of Coke loyal customers reject to drink Pepsi, not because they don’t like it but because they have a strong belonging feeling to the Coca-Cola brand.

Staying in the same subject, if marketers find the way of creating link between a need in the consumers and their product they can make that this same consumers think in their product among another one that they might at first impression like better. For example, the brand Kleenex, at least in Spain, has such a brand notoriety that when people think about paper tissues directly talk about Kleenex although they don’t really care which brand to buy. Another example is the sport shoes. In Spain there was a brand when sport shoes started to commercialize that was cold Bamba’s. Now this brand don’t even exist any more but people still refer to sport shoes as ¨bambas¨, I think something similar happens here, in the US, with the Nike’s. The point is this brands have made a link between the need of using the sport shoes to the brand on the beginning of the product life cycle that unconsciously customers think on this brand when they talk about the product.

Now, I would like to talk about the second issue I think can be instructive when thinking about gaining costumers insights that I have extract from Kenna’s Dilemma, which by the way is closely related to the first lesson. How knowledge give first impressions resiliency or what is more, not just consume the product but think about it when consuming.

Usually we don’t stop and analyze a when we are about to consume it; we just proceed to do what our unconscious or our experience push us to do. This is why, as showed in the lecture, there are products which we could rank better or worst depending if we take our time to think about its components or if we just give our first impression. As happened with Kenna, experts think that his music its outstanding because they have a lot of experience and knowledge internalized, so they see how good is his music by hearing it once. In the other hand, in the mass market people don’t think about music that much when they hear about it and that’s why in the different surveys it appeared that Kenna’s music wouldn’t be a hit.

Marketers should have always in their mind that is different to target expert people or regular consumers. In my personal case, and as I know it happens to many people, when I don’t know much about a product I’m very open to suggestions about friends or sellers about that product. In another way, I would buy what others tell me is the best option rather than choosing one by myself. In the other hand, if I have knowledge about something I want to buy I tend to buy what I have in my mind from a beginning. What it’s more, as I always ask to sellers if they give me an information I think it’s not correct what would happen is that it would create a skeptic thinking in me about the store. So the only thing that can happen is to create in my mind a negative linking.

Getting to the end of this blog, there are some markets, as the music market can be in this case, in which everyone (both experts and the mass market) have their own impression and thinking of the product. Us, as marketers, shouldn’t try to tell costumers what they should think but we should strengthen our products by using marketing tools so as to improve the perception consumers have about those products.

Buzz Marketing or Marketing Word of Mouth

Our generation lives in a world where the media, understanding media as TV, internet or radio, involves us 24/7 and this can sometimes led us to be saturated about it. This saturation and the reiteration of spots can generate among us, consumers, a high level of skepticism and resistance to the messages marketers want to give us. This is why traditional publicity loses efficiency and appears the Buzz Marketing or Marketing Word of Mouth.

The Buzz Marketing is a technique based on the rumor extension or the exchange of information from a person to another one. This information is usually recommendations and also general information someone can give us but in a more informal way than in the communication media or traditional marketing. The Marketing Word of Mouth is normally referred to spoken communication, but Internet dialogs, like blogs, chats or e-mails are also sometimes included. Who would we take in consideration more than a friend or a neighbor, right?

I think it’s a really interesting topic, as the word of mouth is the most antique way of doing marketing and there aren’t many companies that know how to take advantage of it. We are constantly interacting with others and we make our own thoughts or ideas about products (in this case) from the experiences of others, among other things. That’s why if a marketer it’s not afraid of dealing with some taboo topics sometimes, he can make the buzzmarketing a very powerful tool to catch the attention of the consumer.

There are some authors that have talked and written about the Marketing Word of Mouth. Of them, the one that has cached my attention is Mark Hughes former vice president of marketing of eBay’s Half.com who has written the book Buzzmarketing: Get people talk about your stuff. The following link is an article of the USA Today that explains what if buzzmarketing giving special attention to Mark Hughes book:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/reviews/2005-07-25-buzz-marketing_x.htm

I have also chosen this topic because I think I can connect it in many ways to the subject as the word of mouth is all about understanding customers insights and reach consumers in an informal but really effective way. To show how this topic is connected with consumer experiences, what a better way than using a reference from the article mentioned before which I think that hits the nail on the head of how to create a buzz:

To create buzz, you need to know how to push the right buttons. They include: the taboo (sex, lies, bathroom humor); the unusual; the outrageous; the hilarious; the remarkable; and secrets (both kept and revealed).

There are also some questions I make myself about the word of mouth. Questions like: How effective this marketing really is? How can we quantify its impact? What is the best way to make customers talk about a product? Would they recommend it? Is it a bad buzz of our product better than not having a buzz at all? etc.

This is why, in my opinion, the Buzzmarketing is a really interesting topic to get into depth and compile as much information as I can. It can be really effective if we, as future marketers, understand our product and the consumer we target. As I already said in this blog, the word of mouth is the oldest and more effective form of marketing so lets learn how to use it. Lets start spreading the buzz.

The Phenomenon of Social Network

In today’s world, in which we are all involved in a let’s say difficult economic situation that has cached up the concern of everyone. There is a latent phenomenon that let’s people worldwide stay 24/7 in touch and from which companies are starting to take advantage of: Social Networking.

As we have talked several times about, a characteristic that today’s generation has is the amount of information which is reachable for us. This situation is linked with the appearance of tools as Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 or Tuenti (this last one in Spain) in our everyday life. Not so long ago, the only way for knowing about others was being physically in the same place or making calls from the only fix telephone everyone had at home. Today if we don’t have the option of talking whoever we want and share our thoughts immediately we think we are disconnected of the world. Of course this worldwide connection influences in our way of being as customers.

The social network we are involved in lets us share our thoughts about any product or service we consume with people rather than we know or that we are linked with for being consumers of the same product. This is why (linking this blog with last weeks topic) we don’t only have a large wide of choice in our daily consuming decisions but we can also build our own thoughts from the experiences of others. In some way our customer insights are totally generated for a social living experience stimulated by the world of mouth.

With the more information we have it decreases the uncertainty when we consume. This, in consequence reduces the risk we have when we take a decision as a customer, which is a fact that people is starting to appreciate more and more because of the worldwide situation.

Big companies are becoming aware of this situation and are starting to take advantage of it. Big brands are using these social networks to let people share their opinions about their products and in this way get a better approach to the segment they are focused in. To give a concrete example Pepsico has created the group Lays which has more than 500,000 people in it, all usual potato chips consumers, and with this they approach to the sensations of actual customers. It looks like an easy, direct and fast way to know what consumers think about a new flavor, a marketing campaign or even the new display of the products at the university/school cafeteria.

Anyway, the social network it’s becoming an essential tool in our life’s as it is the cell phone today. If we focus in the segment of college students, almost everyone checks Facebook daily or use their blogs often to share their latest concerns. This is why companies should find the way of reaching to their customers through these tools. To show the importance that social surfaces are gaining, I was watching the all-star NBA game this evening when a facebook advertising appeared. Marketers should have in mind the impact it has as the all-star game is watched by millions of people all over the word.

But this is not only a way of approaching from companies to customers or customer-to-customer, it can (and actually is) a way of connecting companies between them. There are networks as Ryze (which is a social network for entrepreneurs) or LinkedIn that are doing it, but I’ve read some articles in which actual CEO’s are skeptical about the actual utility of social networking as I recommend you to read in the following link:

http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-6240543-1.html

In any case, the social network phenomenon is present in our lifes and increasing rapidly. We have to be concerned about it and I strongly think that if companies find the way of taking advantage will have a competitive advantage among their competitors and will reach more efficiently to their customers insights.

The paradox of choice

The podcast about ‘The paradox of choice’ of Barry Schwartz lets some interesting ideas related to what he calls the ‘official dogma’ of thinking that having a lot of choice it’s better than not having that much choice. He talks several times about freedom, welfare, expectations, etc. and this is why (before going further in the topic) I would like to give the definition of freedom that gives Jorge Bucay, a famous argentine writer, which I think it’s appropriate:  freedom is the capacity of choose in between the possibilities we have, over what is possible.

It’s a fact that in today’s world we have a lot more options, related to products or services, than the ones we had years ago. And this is one of the reasons of today’s consumerism, the whole branch of things we can purchase and with some help of the communication media the consumerism has been spread worldwide. But in the other hand having too many choices it is true that affects to our satisfaction in the consuming experience. As Mr. Schwartz says in the podcast, having some choice it’s better than none, but its not true that having more must be better than some.

With this word the author is relating to how having so many choices to make affect our decision when we purchase, and definitively affects to our satisfaction once we have consumed the product/service itself. When we don’t have many options where to choose from we just take the decision and feel good with the consequences, like in the examples of the jeans that is given in the video. When we have a lot of choices to make, apart from making the decision harder, creates in us some kind of anxiety that makes us feel worse although the decision taken is correct, having too many choices makes the decision hard (paralysis).

In this way, a lot of times having many choices or decisions to take makes us not even taking the choice. If you start to think in your last purchases, it is true that a lot of times the ones you feel that were the best ones where those you made forced for many reasons. I like the paradox B. Schwartz makes about everyone needing a fishbowl, because for us to make a decision, we need some rules to follow or at least some barriers inside which to be free to make our choice.

As personal experience of being a victim of the paradox of choice, comes to the top of my head the one I experienced just a few weeks ago when I got to the room where I was going to live during the next 4 months as an exchange student in Austin. We (my roommate and I) realized that we didn’t have sheets on our beds so we decided to go to Target and buy our sheets. The problem came when we got to Target and there were 4 corridors full of different kinds of sheets. After deciding that of course the size mattered, we thought going to the cheap ones could be another good idea of deciding which ones to take but there were about 20 different types in the same range of money to spend. What happened at last, is that after half an hour thinking which ones to buy we finally went with the ones we had seen first and when we got to our room with our brand new sheets we realized that we had mistaken with sizes…

Finalizing this mix up of ideas, it can be true that having many choices between to choose from can increase paralysis, and it’s this paralysis the one that decreases the satisfaction we have. Anyway, I don’t share with the author that the secret of happiness is having low expectations because in a punctual experience can be true that it works, but it’s the freedom we have to make our own expectations and how we deal with them afterwards what makes us truly satisfied in the end.