Word of Mouth 101

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Word of Mouth 101
Essential Ideas in Word of Mouth Marketing
Shop.org Teleseminar, October 21, 2005
Andy Sernovitz, CEO Word of Mouth Marketing
Association Virginia MiracleWord of Mouth
Marketing Manager Dell Consumer Marketing
Samantha Skey, SVP Alloy Media and Marketing
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People are talking about you

• Mass Participation
• Mass Dissemination
• Permanence

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So what is word of mouth MARKETING?
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The WOM Philosophy

• Be Worth Talking About
• Respect the Voice of the Consumer
• Satisfaction Beats Tech Support
• Earn Trust

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The tactics that generate WOM

• Buzz Marketing
• Viral Marketing
• Community Marketing
• Grassroots Marketing
• Evangelist Marketing
• Referral Programs
• Product Placement
• Influencer Marketing
• Cause Marketing
• Conversation Creation
• Brand Blogging

• Word of mouth isnt stealth
• Its open, honest communications
• with customers and community
• We oppose all deception
• and deception is always exposed
• Honesty ROI
• Honesty of Relationship
• Honesty of Opinion
• Honesty of Identity

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The Five Steps to Word of Mouth Marketing
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Three Things to Do Today

• Search the blogs, and reply
• Ask Would anyone talk about this?
• Do something buzzworthy

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Marketing is Easy

• Earn the respect and recommendation of your
  customers
• They will do the rest

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Thank You
Contact me any time Andy Sernovitz 312-335-0035 a
ndy_at_womma.org
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• Word of Mouth the Dell DJ Ditty
• Virginia Miracle
• October 21, 2005

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Why WOM Marketing _at_ Dell Inc.?

• Dell Computer Dell Inc.
• New products, New customers,
  New Marketing
• The Direct Model
• Marketing is the front line to the customer
  must impart that we are worth talking about
• Always looking for new and better ways to
  converse with our customers at every touchpoint
• To reach consumer segments inaccessible through
  broadbased marketing alone

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Dell DJ Ditty Situation Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses

• Dell brand and PC penetration
• Strong competitive positioning vs. then-leading
  flash player
• First major product for Dell at sub-100 price
  point

• Previous DJ ads leading with feature/price
  superiority have not performed well
• No sub-brand personality

Threats
Opportunities

• Entrenched market leader with ubiquitous
  marketing
• Impending product announcements

• Create a positive, unique personality for
  launching product that fits within the overall
  Dell brand
• Get the word out through non-traditional,
  cost-effective means

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Find the right people to talk about you

• Addressable Audience PC-owning music consumers
  ages 15
• Focus Audience Men 18 - 24
• Teen Influencer pre-order and seeding
• E-Mail to former Dell portable media player
  purchasers on opt-in list
• Blog Influencer outreach
• Mention in official Dell press release
• Content integration with Rockstar INXS
• Dell Direct Store Reps
• Phone Queues

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Give Them Something to Talk About Facilitate
Sharingwww.dellditty.com

• Who Are We?
• Playful
• Irreverent
• Approachable
• Spontaneous
• Fresh

Click to Forward in player
Downloadable extras
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Top 5 Learnings

• Customer experience is everything - that extends
  to viral content.
• Get to the funny (or informative, or
  entertaining) fast.
• Open yourself and your organization to feedback.
  Youve done something worth talking about, so be
  prepared to listen to and appreciate all flavors
  of discussion.
• Measure maniacally. There is no way to forecast
  so measuring intra-campaign results and
  continuing to improve them is your goal.
• BE FLEXIBLE. The best laid campaign plan should
  be one that allows you to react to the
  conversation you have started with your customers
  and keep it going.

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Word of Mouth Marketing to Millennials
Samantha Skey SVP, Strategic Marketing Alloy
Media Marketing
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Marketing to Millennials

• Todays youth audience, the Millennials, presents
  a powerful market force
• Size
• Direct spending power
• Influenced spending power
• Future spending power
• Millennial media consumption continues to evolve,
  parallel processing emerges as norm
• Lifestyle messaging / nontraditional media the
  most effective means of reaching this audience

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What This All Means

• Think Differently Millennials are multitaskers
• Must get to them from different angles
• Market Differently Traditional media is in
  decline
• Employ nontraditional means
• Act Differently The most trusted resource are
  friends
• Make it personal
• Position Differently Trial and choice breeds
  loyalty
• Make it relevant

WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING TO CREATE THE BUZZ
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FEFE DOBSON
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FeFe Dobson Engaging the Teen Market
Create relevance, traffic and conversion of sales
by offering teens a reward for message propagation
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Fefe Dobson Results

• Why this worked
• The message connected to a passion point
• Winning a performance for your school by an
  up-and-coming star, who our shoppers had chosen
  themselves
• Teens were only incentivized to propagate the
  message if they truly responded to the
  promotional offering, the reward was directly
  connected to belief in the product
• The message integrated fashion as a core
  component, without sacrificing authenticity
• What to Wear, by Fefe Dobson and Alloy.com
• Results
• Over 50,000 visits to the microsite, with over
  30,000 corresponding visits to Alloy Ship
• Increased sales of both Fefe Dobson CDs and
  related Alloy clothing

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Fefe Dobson Buzz Continues

• Buzz-factor following this campaign album sales
  scanned 250,000 units in the US and the
  following print / TV campaigns launched
• Got Milk?
• Pantene ProVoicew/ Ashanti
• Tommy Jeans w/ Christina Milian and Fabolous

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POWER PUFF GIRLS
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Power Puff Campaign Surround Strategy

• OBJECTIVE
• Drive Traffic to Retail Sites
• Increase Sales

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Power Puff Campaign

• THE RESULTS
• 13MM impressions
• 2,500 entries
• 200k votes
• 400k unique users
• 8 click through on ads
• 70 sell-through in retailers