Smart calculator measures potential impact of word of mouth

I was honored when the Useful Ideas team invited me to provide input for a 'smart calculator' they wanted to create to help marketers gauge word of mouth activity. Our goal was to get end users to think through the fundamentals of getting a message cascade online and offline vs. claim to have a crystal ball for viral outcomes. The calculator algorithm is based on four elements:

1- Number of customers

2- Percentage of customers who would share a message

3- Average number of recommendations/customer

4- Impact of recommendations (i.e., % of recommendations that turn into purchases)

The site is full of fun, 'useful' calculators that help you figure out how addicted you are to Facebook, how you rank in work overtime, your income before and after taxes, etc. Below is the word of mouth impact calculator.

 

<div style="margin-bottom: 5px">WOMM (Kulaktan Kulağa Pazarlama) Etkisini Hesaplama, diğer tüm hesaplama araçları için hesaplabakalim.com</div>

 

Posted via email from dotwom's posterous

What Will Happen By 2015?

We know what will happen in 2011. Marketing plans are ready. Teams are staffing up for research, ideation, and launches. There will be news of acquisitions, hostile takeovers, and inventions. We will need to be nimble enough to respond to these ad-hoc changes. Yet we truly need to plan for the future, not just for today and tomorrow. We need to start thinking about how content, distribution technologies and audience behavior will change by 2015. The following are predictions on the landscape shifts that will become increasingly defined within the next five years.

Content:

1- Short entertainment will be standard on phones: Audiences prefer short excerpts to long exposes. Most people do not like to read. Many of us need to or would like to stay in the know. With the advent of tablets and mobile broadband, we will read 300-500 word stories on our smart phones. Since online video will be near ubiquitous, content providers will produce more infotainment clips and rely on visual communications to tell stories in creative, succinct ways. 

2- We will arrange the features on your favorite Web sites: We will see click and drag web sites. The content management systems will move to the front end from backend. Brands and news portals will have a better understanding of their users’ preferences and have the chance to improve on their services.

Audience:

3- CSR audiences will be more demanding: Generation G (giving) will scrutinize philanthropy and CSR efforts more closely.  Donating two to 10 percent of proceeds to a cause will not be enough. They will expect more creative approaches from brands that produce tangible results and offer meaningful engagement. 

4- Information filters and organizers will regain popularity: People will use filters to organize their ever-growing list of contacts and prioritize among them. Instead of switching to 50-people networks, such as Path.com, online audiences will defer to new group and folder features on their Facebook pages.

Distribution:

5- Facebook will turn people info into business (and it won’t be just advertising): Facebook will fight with Amazon and smaller players like Yelp to be a word of mouth search engine. The vast amount of personal information it collects will continue to help marketers map out consumer preferences based on social connections and profile details. Privacy battles and issues will continue. Users will search for experience-based recommendations and listings within their extended networks. 

6- Google will become a content distributor: Google will expand its e-stores to include music, movies and clips, creating a vast indie market online. Audience ratings on these pieces of content will be added to Google algorithms.

7- Word of mouth marketing will become more precise: Marketers will successfully target beyond the inner/immediate circle of influencers. Our understanding of second and third cycles of word of mouth will improve. There will be more sophisticated program offerings to mobilize crowds and offer innovative products/services to a wider range of influencers.

 

Posted via email from dotwom's posterous

Study Shows Social Media Has More Impact Than Paid Media on Car and Technology Sales

S. Radoff Associates, a NY-based research company, just released a report about the impact of word of mouth on large-ticket item purchases. The results remove any shadow of doubt on word of mouth’s impact on tangible business results. And we understand that social media drives sales for considerable investments in cars and technology, not just CPG products.

The study delves into large purchases made in the past year and the information sources that shaped brand choices. The results show that one-half of consumers say word of mouth was a key influencer for car (50 percent), technology and electronics (49 percent) product choices they made in the past year.

We know from Keller Fay Group that much of word of mouth actually takes place offline. Interestingly, these two categories are pretty balanced in terms of their source of buzz. In fact, online and offline word of mouth were just as likely (29 percent, respectively) to influence technology and consumer electronics purchases.

Online reviews are at the source of online buzz. Consumers say online reviews influenced nearly one-quarter of technology and electronics purchases (24 percent) and 17 percent of car purchases made last year.

The most counterintuitive factoid from the study is that consumers are four times more likely to be influenced by social media than paid media for their car purchases made in the past year (21 percent vs. 5 percent). Social media has been more influential than paid media for technology purchases as well (26 percent vs. 7 percent).

Considering the typical budget spending on advertising vs. social media, these numbers signal the need to seek efficiencies in our integrated marketing plans for 2011 and beyond. Marketers planning for automotive and consumer electronics/ technology brands can shift dollars from traditional advertising budgets to social media and focus on elevating consumer opinions and customer experience. 

Posted via email from Speaking of Social Media

Inspiration: First Step in Word of Mouth (and it's not turnkey)

I was honored to participate in a panel about non-traditional advertising at the recent Digital Hollywood conference, with a great group of seasoned marketers and creative thinkers. Much of the discussion centered on social media marketing. While we drifted into the nuts and bolts of how to identify influencers, get conversations going, there were several insights that stood out as the fundamentals we often forget.

1    1- There is no such thing as a ‘viral’ video – A producer or a team of creatives does not come up with a viral video. Viral is the best possible marketing outcome for a well-told story.

      2- The best stories inspire people. They inspire them to tell their own stories, to take action, to share, and to think how they would act if in that situation. This is the secret ingredient in word of mouth.

3- You have to have a good story AND a good product. This is especially relevant for new product launches or re-launches of products that need to be re-introduced to their core audiences. Facebook ads will bring eyeballs to your fan page. Coupons certainly help boost the number of ‘likes.’ Yet these marketing efforts need to be validated by positive consumer experiences. When brands can deliver on their promises, consumers will be moved to take action and serve as advocates. Otherwise, there will always be a discrepancy between marketing messages and consumers’ candid online stories.  

Posted via email from dotwom's posterous

Shout out for Implementing Word of Mouth!

I recently had the pleasure of participating in AMA's Marketing Power podcast series. You can download and listen to it right here. My interviewer and program manager commented on my book Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing as '...the most comprehensive guide for carrying out social media based programs that make an impact.' Thank you! It's really gratifying to know that the book's value is understood. It's also wonderful to have a venue to share my thoughts and get feedback. If you have been asking yourself 'I set up my Facebook page, now what?' or 'I really want to delve into social media, but do not know how big of a team I need?' or 'What else can I measure besides fans, followers and clicks?', then check out this podcast.

And I have to send most heartfelt thanks to Mr. Hakki Ozmorali, an expert on direct selling and a prolific writer/blogger. He interviewed me about the synergies between direct selling and word of mouth marketing a while ago. We conducted the interview in Turkish and he just translated it into English and posted it online. You can read it here. A bit of background info on Hakki: He worked as country manager (meaning regional CEO) for direct selling companies Oriflame and LR in Turkey, and as Regional Manager, North America for Lifestyles in Canada. He also wrote the first book in Turkey on network marketing. Perhaps I need to interview him for dotwom!

Posted via email from dotwom's posterous

Emerging Markets Far Ahead in Social Media

Accenture’s latest report on consumer electronics products and services is an eye opener to consumer quest for innovation, technology and social networking in emerging markets. The study referenced in the report is based on a vast sample of 16,000 from China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. The results show that innovation is more likely to be a driver of electronics purchases in emerging markets than in mature markets. Almost all (94 percent) of respondents from emerging markets consider it important to buy most innovative technologies, compared with 82 percent of respondents from mature markets. Moreover, consumers in emerging markets purchase technologies more frequently and spend more on these devices.

Emerging market consumers desire to get the most out of the latest in technology is also evident in their use of social media. Simply put, they are more likely to be active on those channels that are cast as niche in mature markets. Consistently, emerging market consumers are more likely than their counterparts to tweet, watch videos on mobile phones, write blogs, contribute to Wikipedia, play video games on the go, participate in online communities and connect with people on social networks.

Given emerging markets’ intensity of using social media, one might hypothesize that online word of mouth campaigns with appealing messages could take off faster and go further in these areas. The differences between the two groups point to the significant role culture, values, norms, and aspirations play in peer-to-peer communications.    

 

 

Posted via web from dotwom's posterous