• Speaking of WOMBAT 2

    Posted on June 28th, 2006 by and currently 6 commenting.

    Spike’s previous post made me re-visit my notes from WOMBAT. So, I’ll throw my two-cents worth in the mix.

    Ed Keller of Keller Fay threw out a bunch of interesting numbers but one really caught my eye.

    Who is an opinion leader today? 68 percent of respondents of the Edleman survey said: ‘A person like yourself or your peer’ as the most credible spokesperson about your company.

    Why did this get my attention? Working on a recent project we asked this same question to potential brand ambassadors. It became a heated discussion, most of it centering on the like or dislike of Oprah. Just four short years ago this was not the case we had almost unanimous consent on the same exact discussion.

    Gary Stein. Ammo Marketing.

    Commandment #2: ‘Sweateth the small stuff.’ Like taking things out of the box. We recently got a new 17inch MacBook Pro laptop at BOF (Virginia secretly hates the thing) when it arrived Justin ran over to witness the opening of the box because he loves that Apple smell.

    Jackie Huba. Church of the Customer.

    I’ve been fortunate to see Jackie and Ben present quite a few times. And she knocked this one out of the park. Jackie took WOMBAT on a tour of YouTube and the Snakes on a Plane phenomenon.

    Finally who do I always enjoy seeing present? Ted Wright of Liquid Intelligence. Ted is a storyteller and the Tiger beer story is a great one.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Spike

    G,

    Who is an opinion leader today? 68 percent of respondents of the Edleman survey said: “A person like yourself or your peer” as the most credible spokesperson about your company.

    That makes me want to revisit the whole idea of “finding the influentials.” I think that definitiion is changing and the WOM strategy of focusing on the most influential customers needs to be revisited. What do you think?

  • http://brainsonfire.com Jennifer

    Almost everyone wants to think of themself as a leader, right? So maybe the challenge is less about finding those magical people who are the most influential, and more about empowering ANYONE who loves you to exercise their influence. (Of course… first you have to deserve to be loved…)

  • VeeDub

    Geno- I’ll come out and publicly say that I hate the MacBook. Using their 1-button interface is the computing equivalent of playing the piano wearing oven mits.

  • http://www.brainsonfire.com Geno

    I think Jenn hit the nail on the head. Its hard scary work for a brand to get out the RV and hit the road to talk to their customers. I happen to think its alot of fun and very rewarding.

  • paul

    I dig where Jenn and Geno are going. (And I’m not a band geek, per other post, but hey, I do have a lot of musician friends and a big cool jazz collection…)

    It seems — as a result of cultural shifts, mass availability of tools and luxury, availability of choices, self-serve environments — many more people DO have at least the perception of an active voice, a say-so, a sense of personal expertise in the marketplace (of their world). It’s a strong wave now, even as many people in fact feel LESS powerful to affect changes in some important areas of their lives. An interesting rony, methinks.

    Sharing an opinion or belief, or persuading someone else that they might want or like something you like, provides a sense of personal power (key word: ‘sense’). And we all are subject to the experience that by evangelizing we interact with powerful emotions. And a sense of influence. Crucial to our existance and survival in an information age.

    Smart companies, and their agencies, seek to capitalize on the emotional currents that run through all human psychic needs and desires (whether the offers, products or USPs are understandable or valuable is another thing, right?). But Maszlow, Freud, Jung, Adler, et al. provide an important basis for seeing how and why we buy what we buy, why and what we really desire, what happens when those desires are repressed, etc.

    I think waves or Tipping Points can’t in fact really be created, but think rather that they instead follow patterns that rise and fall in the conscious (or unconscious) public – affected by all kinds of forces we’re not even aware of. It’s our jobs to see them, and use them though, eh?

    It’d be interesting to ask deeper, personal questions of respondents to determine things like:

    > How do you feel when someone takes your suggestion and buys the product you suggested to them?

    > How do you feel when they don’t? Do you try hard to understand why not? What reasons do you think affect the person having a different experience?

    > What words and stories did you use when you were able to convince your friends to buy or do X? Why? Why do you think this was successful?

    > What about X product or service makes you feel good? Why do you think that is, or what problem or issue does it address in your life?

    …excuse me, I have a 2:30 meeting with my shrink….

  • http://brainsonfire.com Geno

    Paul, great points. And I love what your saying about digging deeper. We are starting to see first hand with the fiskateers program that when they recommend a product they believe in, they believe it is really going to make that person’s scrapbooking life better. The cool thing here is the client is not playing brand police here. If Fiskateer #1 loves a non Fiskars brand embossing system she says it. It has to be that way for authentic conversations when your empowering your customers to speak for your brand.

    I think your question #2 is deeper and gets to the hard part. Rejection. When we developed the plan for RAGE a youth anti-smoking movement. We knew when the teens went out in the real world they would face harsh words, rejection, and worse. So we tried to bring them to understand the many views that they would face. It’s not about preaching, as a RAGEer told me once, I’m just educating them to be able to make the right choice for them. If I get one of my peers to think about their choice I’ve done my job.