Unleashing the Buzz: Word of Mouth in the IT Marketplace
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
If you're not thinking about Word of Mouth, you should be. CMOs have grabbed on to this new phrase and are thinking and testing new ideas which may impact your customer marketing, reference or relationship management program. Check out a recent article by the Phelon Group in the CMO Council's MarketingMagnified Newsletter
Unleashing the Buzz: Word of Mouth in the IT Marketplace
By Promise Phelon
http://www.cmocouncil.org/Marketing_Magnified/ 2005/MM_newsletter_6.html#buzz
Shhhh. Listen... can you hear it? It's a growing buzz about buzz agents, and about word-of-mouth and viral marketing. You've probably heard it through the clamor of an overwhelming number of articles and books on the topic. But the buzz about "buzz" is going to get much louder now thanks to the recent founding of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), a professional society chartered with developing standards and creating demand for word-of-mouth marketing. Representatives from over 300 companies - from Intuit and P&G to MTV and Disney - heard the buzz for themselves at the first WOMMA event in Chicago this April.
Promise Phelon, Partner
promise.phelon@phelongroup.com
Captured: A Few More B2B Referencing Best Practices
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Did you catch The Wall Street Journal's recent article titled, "Name Droppers: Tech Ads Tout Users" by Brian Steinberg? In it, Steinberg talked about how B2B tech firms are moving away from print ads that focus on features and benefits toward those that focus on what high-value customers do; thanks, of course, to partnerships with the tech firms footing the bills. Examples: e-Bay using Sun Microsystems; 7-Eleven using Oracle; Cendant using Cingular; and HP using SAP and SAP using HP.
The article is interesting in and of itself, but what captured my attention were the few best practice gems in it that might help you improve your customer-centered print campaigns:
- Avoid reader confusion by not using featured customers' logos; let readers know your company is the "star" of the ad.
- Prepare an exit plan in case a company featured in your ads makes the wrong kind of headlines - the ones you wouldn't want your company to be associated with.
