The Basement

As I continue reading and learning about word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing, it has occurred to me there is a paradox facing those companies wanting to create WOM. What the kids over at WOMMA call amplified or managed WOM – as opposed to organic WOM which, as you can guess, happens entirely without the assistance of marketers.

The understand the paradox, you must first understand the motivation of the WOM marketing crowd – namely, consumers are no longer listening to traditional marketing. Why? Well, they talk about this less (understandably so) – but usually they say it's due to information overload, the influx of media options, Tivo, the internet's diffusion of attention, etc.

I would assert that the primary reason is credibility and trust. Through years of conditioning, we've all come to learn that - as Seth Godin tells us – all marketers are liars. Let's face it, if drinking a particular brand of beer really got us laid by a harem of super model, the marketing industry would have a lot more credibility – and WOM would not be on the rise.

To compound the dwindling credibility of traditional advertisement, the internet has provided us with access to multiple alternative sources of information (which we would never look at if the first message we got was credible to begin with). Generally speaking, humans are pretty resourceful – we tend to use some combined metric of credibility and convenience to select the voice to which we listen. Traditional advertising, it seems, is not particularly credible or convenient.

So the conversation probably went something like this...

Marketing Guy: No one is buying our beer. Our TV ad tells them that if they drink our beer, they'll get laid by a harem of super models. What gives?

Market Researcher: Hmm. According to our research, people aren't persuaded by TV ads. Today the most important factor is word-of-mouth, hearing about products from those they trust.

Marketing Guy: How can we get those trusted people to tell everyone else that buying our beer will get them laid?

And so the Word of Mouth Marketing movement began.

Marketing Guy is missing the point. Of course he is, he's marketing guy – he doesn't care about product – or the customer, he only cares about the sale. Think about it, how do we describe a good salesperson - “She's such a good salesperson she could sell ice to an Eskimo!” Brilliant. We praise our marketers for their ability to deceive our customers into buying products that will not meet their needs. By the way, the pitch for ice to Eskimo's usually involved getting someone laid.

WOMMA (which, by the way, I think gets it, if you are seriously interested in WOM and WOM marketing you should check them out) tell us that WOM is about the customer's voice – not the marketer's, WOM is about listening. WOM happens when a company produces a product or service that is extraordinary (extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad). WOM will happen regardless of what marketers do or do not do – and marketing can't change that.

So what can a company do? I think Hugh Macleod said it best in this cartoon from the Hughtrain. Hugh's cartoon says “Quality isn't job one. Being totally fucking amazing is Job One.” He goes on to write “It’s not about merit. It’s about faith. Belief. Conviction. Courage.” If you're a marketer and haven't read the Hughtrain do it now, it much more important that anything I could possibly write. WOM is not a new media awaiting your same droll misleading message – it's about understanding that people no longer buy your droll misleading message. If you want people to tell each other that your product is “totally amazing”, then make a product that is totally amazing. Simple. This is not about marketing in anyway that you've thought about marketing in the past. This is something different.

Second, make sure that all of your traditional marketing messages are aligned with what your product or service actually does. If not, WOM will skewer you – just ask Dan Rather.

Now, if you do these two things, very positive WOM will ensue. You can then, and only then, start a WOM Amplification Strategy in which you help your customers speak more loudly about you. What you think is good about your product is irrelevant. What your customer thinks about your product is everything.

So then, this is an effective WOM strategy:

STEP 1: Be totally amazing

STEP 2: Align your message with your actual product

STEP 3: Amplify your customer's voice

Hey Marketing Guy, please note, none of these steps include clever creative marketing crap designed to make us thing you can get us laid. I don't believe that a company can create WOM without doing or producing great things to talk about – not in any real and meaningful sense. WOM creates itself – companies can only help it along by changing the inputs or helping to amplify the voices. WOM doesn't start with a media plan, it starts with being totally amazing.

Which bring us to the WOM Marketing Paradox: you can't effectively use WOM to motivate customers unless you've already done something amazing enough for them to already be talking about you. Unless, of course, your product can actually get them laid.

[I edited this post slightly - I removed the repetitive use of the explicative from Hugh's cartoon - instead using the edited "totally amazing". After reflecting on it today, I decided it wasn't essential to make my point, and in fact might detract from it. I'm still finding my way in this medium and discover more and more everyday that good writing is harder than it looks. At least for me. -Matt]