Like Fame, Word of Mouth Costs

Posted on November 29th, 2007 by Virginia and currently 4 commenting.

As I was reading Tuesday’s Online Spin review of a review of PQ Media’s Word of Mouth Marketing forecast, I was reminded of Debbie Allen’s words in the opening credits of Fame. But before I give you the link to a video of that 80′s gem (what did we do before YouTube?), I’d like to explain how I got there. In the article, Joe Marchese, president of a media company, shared his understandably media-centric takeaways from the PQ WOM forecast. Among them:

‘Most would…say that these people (friends/peers/consumers/influencers) will lend you their mouths for free. I would take exception…

• Treat word of mouth as any other media buy/channel. Agencies can activate word-of-mouth for you if you treat it as a paid media channel with dedicated budget.

• Consider the consumers/friends/peers/people you hope to be your word of mouth channel as the equivalent of any other media channel you hope to spread your message through…’

I disagree with almost all of what is quoted above, except that word of mouth is, most assuredly NOT free.

The actual PQ Media report does indeed recognize WOM Media, but identifies it as only 1 of the 4 types of content & service practices within Word of Mouth Marketing. Per the report, WoM as media is the area where the growth rate of marketing expenditures is actually decelerating instead of accelerating. This deceleration is credited to brands progressing from dipping a toe in Word of Mouth Marketing to employing it more strategically. Opening up a conversational, 2-way relationship with your customers is far more involved than treating people as ‘any other media channel you hope to spread your message through’. To open a dialogue is to kick off the training wheels of WOM media, but it is the only way to realize the full value of Return on Community. If you approach word of mouth solely as a push media channel, why would you expect to see returns that are different or better than any other push channels?

Creating a conversational community with your customers is definitely a serious investment:

• WOM dialogue costs time ” truly listening to what consumers want to tell you takes time & resources – you may even need help from an agency, researcher or technology monitoring company to make sure you are hearing everything.
• WOM dialogue costs ego ” you have to be willing for customers to say things about you that you will not like. For community benefits to spread beyond marketing to product development, you have to be willing to be told that your baby is ugly. This can save millions in the long run, but bruise egos in the short term.
• WOM dialogue costs money ” once you open a conversation with your customers, it is very difficult to simply turn it off if there is a reorg or you want to cut in-quarter costs. Plan to invest in your relationship with customers over the long term.
• And finally, WOM costs sweat ” your conversations will grow and change as your company, offerings, and customers do. Recognizing those changes and rolling with them is hard, rewarding work. Hit it, Debbie:

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