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Word Of Mouth Marketing Isn't Effective If Your Product Sucks
from the just-saying... dept
Way too many people seem to think that "word of mouth marketing" is about getting others to spread your marketing message. That is, they think it's about putting words into the mouths of others. But that's not true at all. Real word of mouth marketing is about building a great product, and then letting your customers pass on the news however they see fit. If there's anything to do on the "marketing" side, it's merely to enable the tools for your biggest fans to spread the word, and then get the hell out of the way. However, it appears many marketers still don't understand this concept.
Reader Aaron deOliveira writes in to point out a story about Hollywood studios apparently giving up on word of mouth marketing campaigns targeted at "faith-based" audiences promoting certain messages that the studios hoped would resonate with folks who are religious. In the article, they toss up all sorts of reasons why such campaigns haven't done all that well, but deOliveira points to a blog post by Ben McConnell where he makes a different assertion: perhaps all those word of mouth campaigns failed because the movies just weren't that good. It's just that the studios are so sure of their product that they never even noticed it. So, once again, it goes back to this: word of mouth marketing is never going to make a lick of difference if your product sucks. Rather than focusing on such things, concentrate on making a good product first -- and then worry about the marketing campaign. And if the campaign fails -- recognize that maybe it's got something to do with the product.
Reader Aaron deOliveira writes in to point out a story about Hollywood studios apparently giving up on word of mouth marketing campaigns targeted at "faith-based" audiences promoting certain messages that the studios hoped would resonate with folks who are religious. In the article, they toss up all sorts of reasons why such campaigns haven't done all that well, but deOliveira points to a blog post by Ben McConnell where he makes a different assertion: perhaps all those word of mouth campaigns failed because the movies just weren't that good. It's just that the studios are so sure of their product that they never even noticed it. So, once again, it goes back to this: word of mouth marketing is never going to make a lick of difference if your product sucks. Rather than focusing on such things, concentrate on making a good product first -- and then worry about the marketing campaign. And if the campaign fails -- recognize that maybe it's got something to do with the product.
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CUstomers
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=x9HSaVGnCzM
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anecdote
The only reason I own "I am Legend" on HD-DVD (yes I know) is because of proper word of mouth. I saw the trailer for it and I thought it was just another serious movie, like "The Pursuit of Happyness". I never would have seen it if it wasn't for my manager telling me what the real story line was.
The exact opposite could be said. In the past I have passed on quite a few movies whose trailers looked good but people I knew said it sucked.
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Word Of Mouth Works Both Ways
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word of mouth works in all cases
if your product or service is great, it works to your advantage as people spread the word that it's great.
if your product sucks, it works to your disadvantage as people spread the word that your product is junk or that you company is a bunch of thieves.
in either case, it worked, and people got the message.
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its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
This is why MS lobbies so hard and pushes so much marketing, why open source barely has to advertise at all, etc.
The better you are, the more quality and long-term you seek to improve a company, the less word of mouth is actually necessary....people can continually find referrals to increase business and only minimally have to put in effort to continually increase a customer base if a product/offering is good, in any business.
AKA the reputation precedes itself.
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Re:
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Would you
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Ferengi Rule of Acquisition
#44 Never confuse wisdom with luck.
#57 Good customers are as rare as latinum; Treasure them.
#69 Ferengi are not responsible for the stupidity of other races.
#82 The flimsier the product, the higher the price.
All are applicable in this instance.
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Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
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It's funny and sad...
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Re: It's funny and sad...
Marketers almost have no choice but to believe in the Hypodermic Model of communication. Their paychecks depend on telling their employers "I said good things about your product; people went out and bought your product." They are locked into one directional communication.
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Re: anecdote
Because serious movies, you know.... suck.
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Re: Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
thank you for remaining objective
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Re: It's funny and sad...
They seemed to blame everything from a shrinking market to piracy but never attached the real reason - all of those movies were terrible, and most people don't buy DVDs of movies they don't like. Notice how mainstream Hollywood's doom and gloom stories are conspicuously absent this year now that good movies are appearing. Spidey 3 - terrible reviews, disappointing box office. Iron Man - glowing reviews, exceeds expectations. It shouldn't be so hard to see the connection.
This all applies double when your movie is aimed at a close-knit niche audience (as the "faith-based" movies mentioned in the article were. By their nature, "faith-based" will put off a lot of people who aren't part of that faith. If you also insult that audience by making poor product, you won't see profits unless you have a clever marketing campaign. "Word of mouth" ain't clever unless you have a specific hook (e.g. Blair Witch Project, which a lot of people didn't enjoy but still made a lot of money. I did enjoy it, for the record).
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Re: Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
Heh, that's pretty funny.
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Re: Ferengi Rule of Acquisition
IIRC, it's #47,
Faith can move mountains...of inventory.
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Bad wom spreads the fastest
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Re: Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
Wait a minute...that's not top notch, it's a mistake. Just wait for Windows 7. Now THAT will be top notch!
Perhaps you mean Microsoft's newly minted, bought and paid for ISO standard OOXML. Now THAT's top notch!
So top notch that not even Microsoft can make a real product that supports it. You just can't get any more top notch than that!
ttfn
John
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Word of Mouth Marketing
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Word of mouth marketing
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Word of mouth marketing
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Those were the days when financial news occupied the gray back pages of newspapers.
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film
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Agree
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