When promoting any product and service, many marketers recall such a popular way of advertising as word of mouth. What is its feature, what can be pitfalls? Is it beneficial to business or, conversely, to the detriment? First, let's look at what is at stake, as well as how you can use word of mouth for the benefit of the company and the promotion of goods and services.
What is word of mouth?
Initially, the love of the fair sex was so skeptically called to share with each other their impressions of some new product, service, company. Since women are more inclined to transmit information during the discussion, they described this method of distribution according to the classic form of women's clothing - sarafan. Although it is worth noting that when it comes to technology or cars, men are not much inferior in this matter.
Now many people call it a way of transmitting information about a product or service by word of mouth.
Gossip or a source of reliable information?
Partly word of mouth can be called the source and method of spreading rumors and gossip. It all depends on how well the person who reports the information is familiar. Often, such an effect is just needed by sellers of goods and services. The psychology of people is arranged in such a way that we tend to trust the information received from a person whom we know well and who has great authority in our eyes. Buyers believe, and not always in vain, that the seller is interested in selling his product, so he may deliberately keep silent about its shortcomings. Therefore, the opinion of other buyers who have already purchased and tested a product or service is considered more valuable and objective in the eyes of other potential customers.
How did this term appear?
Dictionaries define the meaning of this phrase as “rumors and gossip,” however, the exact time and author of this expression is reliably unknown. The phrase is regularly found in literary works of the last century, but authorship, apparently, belongs to the people.
However, this is not so important. Today, the effect of word of mouth is actively used as part of marketing promotion, as an addition to the main, more traditional methods of advertising.
Examples
It is for the purpose of safran radio that advertisers engage in fabulous celebrity fees for filming commercials. Fans of stars are more likely to begin to imitate the lifestyle of stars and buy some products that their idol positively commented on. Many manufacturers provide celebrity clothes and gadgets for free, so that only those in it appear on the street and fall into the frame of the paparazzi.
Also, the so-called decoy ducks were used more than once, when in public places people either read certain magazines and catalogs (for example, in the metro or buses), which aroused the interest of fellow travelers. Indeed, many learn from boredom who reads from their neighbors.
Some companies form an artificial interest in their products. One of the classic examples is the story of a girl who went to bars and nightclubs, portraying an important person, and asked to pour a certain type of drink. When it was not available, she loudly resented and said that since they had no better option, she would not order anything.This was done intentionally loudly in order to attract the attention of surrounding visitors who, out of curiosity, also wanted to try such a drink. This is a classic word of mouth. Marketing likes to use such methods of increasing demand - to make people want something that they did not hear about five minutes ago.
An amazing way was taken by a writer whose books sold very poorly. In desperation, he placed an ad in a newspaper with the following content: "A young and handsome millionaire will meet a girl who looks like the main character of such a novel." As it should be assumed, within literally several days the entire circulation was dismantled.
The world of sales knows such unique advertising tricks, but to repeat them means to doom yourself to failure. Each impromptu should be inimitable, sometimes even shocking.
Sometimes even a negative review can help. Examples include sweet sodas and fast food restaurants. How many hundreds and even thousands of articles were written about the dangers of a particular drink, as well as the dangers of fast food, but sales are steadily growing. Amazing result. After all, sometimes the main thing is to maintain the interest of customers. It is for this purpose that marketers invent any kind of informational occasion to remind themselves of their products over and over again. And to do it in such a way as to surprise and even amuse consumers.
How to start the word of mouth effect?
The principles of word of mouth have long been well studied by promotion experts. It should be noted that not the least role is played by the high quality of the product or service. Word of mouth instantly spread the experience of a satisfied client who is ready to recommend the company where he liked. In order to run this option, you need the client to leave satisfied. Many companies use this method called “Bring a friend” and promise customers who have managed to attract their friends and acquaintances to receive big discounts, bonuses and gifts.
Another way is to attract influential and authoritative people to their side, whose opinion has weight for the target audience of consumers. Now very often, popular bloggers are attracted for this purpose, offering them to try for free a product or service and write a positive comment about it. They are often used as word of mouth. Feedback from top bloggers can form the necessary image in the eyes of buyers.
Pros of word of mouth
This method of advertising has indisputable and obvious advantages. First of all, word of mouth can be practically free for business owners. With proper construction of sales or the provision of services, customers themselves will give recommendations to their friends and acquaintances. If you provide the consumer with a convenient forum on the site, business cards and other promotional products, the effect can significantly exceed the results from regular advertising or public relations.
Possible disadvantages
The most important disadvantage of word of mouth is the inability to control it in any way. Being launched - by the customer himself or by customers on his own - he becomes uncontrollable. There is a risk of information distortion on the principle of a damaged phone, and the result may not be what the customer was counting on.
In our century, a person receives a huge amount of information every day that needs to be processed. People need to constantly give occasion to talk about a particular product or service, otherwise interest in one topic quickly fades away. What was spoken lively about a week ago, now they may not even remember.
Tips
There are various techniques on how to properly use word of mouth on the Internet. Before contacting opinion leaders, it is necessary to find out in detail the experience of their statements and reviews about other goods and services, as well as the audience’s reaction to these reviews.A carefully thought-out strategy will bring tangible results, while an incompletely developed plan can damage the company's reputation and sales of the product. After all, there is nothing worse than a client who felt cheated. And people leave negative reviews much more readily than positive ones.
The psychology of people is such that people do not share their positive opinions more often than when they are angry and unhappy. All companies need to carefully work with all negative comments in order to try to eliminate them and make changes to the product or service, if necessary.
People have always discussed and will discuss each other, goods, services, successful purchases and places with low prices for the right thing. So we are arranged, and this is an indisputable fact. If the manufacturer does not use this fact for his own good, then his competitors can take advantage of this, so you should not give up word of mouth as well. The main thing is to do it reasonably and competently.
