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Slide 1: THE NEW WORLD OF WORD OF MOUTH
Slide 2: w w w. c u l t b r a n d i n g . c o m CREATED BY aaron shields DESIGNED BY melissa thornton ©2009 The Cult Branding Company
Slide 3: “ The mad men shout: Help! I can’t reach my drones with my message; they’re talking on their own! ”
Slide 4: “ It took me 3 spots to reach 80% of women 18-49. Now it takes more than 97! ”
Slide 5: “ I can’t buy first weekend gross— bad word of mouth drowns out my $35 million advertising budget! ”
Slide 6: “ I’m lost in this new world. My budget no longer controls the drones! ”
Slide 7: Sorry Mad Men. THIS WORLD ISN’T NEW: You just haven’t been paying attention.
Slide 8: “ Consumer skepticism has become a to advertised brands. REAL THREAT ”
Slide 9: “ Consumer skepticism has become a to advertised brands. REAL THREAT —BusinessWeek 1939 ”
Slide 10: “ Do you know that 85% of ads don’t get looked at?...They ignore us...We’re right about everything, but nobody looks. ”
Slide 11: “ Do you know that 85% of ads don’t get looked at?...They ignore us...We’re right about everything, but —Bill Bernbach 1968 nobody looks. ”
Slide 12: SO WHAT’S CHANGED?
Slide 13: TECHNOLOGY has given people larger bullhorns to drown out the messages of advertisers. larger &
Slide 14: Casey Neistat’s iPod battery dies but Apple’s battery replacement costs as much as a new iPod. Casey posts an anti-Apple video and sends it to a few friends.
Slide 15: A few days later his website has 40,000 hits. By the end of the month it has over 1,000,000 hits.
Slide 16: Apple changes its battery replacement policy.
Slide 17: So how do you get the ENABLED CONSUMER to talk about your brand?
Slide 18: You can’t unless you want to be another RAGING COW.
Slide 19: Dr Pepper/Seven Up hired people to blog positively about Raging Cow, leading to consumer outrage and the failure of the product.
Slide 20: Dr Pepper/Seven Up hired people to blog positively about Raging Cow, leading to consumer outrage and the failure of the product. “ This website is FAKE. When you are advertising under false pretenses and not being up-front about what you’re doing … that isn’t just wrong, it’s immoral and disgusting.
Slide 21: POLLUTES the word-of-mouth stream. Mixing your message with the consumers’ authentic opinions
Slide 22: HARNESSING the power of word of mouth isn’t about telling people what to say or giving them incentives to talk.
Slide 23: It’s about giving them something to talk about. THEY WANT
Slide 24: So why would they naturally want to TALK ABOUT YOUR BRAND?
Slide 25: THE CRUX OF WORD OF MOUTH People talk about brands because it benefits them.
Slide 26: NEW, VALUABLE INFORMATION By talking about your brand, people provide to their peers.
Slide 27: People who provide valuable information gain STATUS in their communities.
Slide 28: Amazon provides a place where people can come together, give their opinions on millions of products, and achieve status as a top reviewer.
Slide 29: People only want to achieve status in relation to brands that play a CENTRAL ROLE in their lives.
Slide 30: Harnessing the power of word of mouth starts with learning WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS TRULY WANT.
Slide 31: Once you know, you can design your brand to play to what’s MEANINGFUL to your customers.
Slide 32: “ The philosophy we’ve taken from the beginning is if you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful. —Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com
Slide 33: EXPERIENCE But the most companies provide isn’t the one their customers want.
Slide 34: 80% of companies think they’re offering a superior experience, BUT ONLY 8% OF CUSTOMERS THINK THEY DO.
Slide 35: “ You must decide what you stand for, and then you must align every one of your systems to reinforce it. You RECRUIT FOR IT, you SELECT FOR IT, you ORIENT FOR IT, you TRAIN FOR IT, you REWARD IT, you PROMOTE FOR IT, and you TERMINATE THOSE THAT DON’T HAVE IT. ” —John Young, former EVP, Human Resources, Four Seasons
Slide 36: Most hotel chains promise superior service. AT THE FOUR SEASONS, part of the employees’ orientation program is geared towards helping the employees understand how they can delight their customers.
Slide 37: A superior customer experience fosters a between the CUSTOMERS and the BRAND. SENSE OF BELONGING
Slide 38: POWERFUL BRANDS provide platforms for their customers to come together and form communities...
Slide 39: ...and provide their customers ways to STAND OUT and WIN PRESTIGE AMONG THEIR PEERS.
Slide 40: If your product only lives up to the hype, there’s no reason for people to talk about it. TALK-WORTHY BRANDS KNOW HOW TO EXCEED THEIR CUSTOMERS’ EXPECTATIONS.
Slide 41: “” Very good isn’t enough to generate talk.
Slide 42: WOW! Talk-worthy brands establish a new level of
Slide 43: These brands allow customers to discover some of their best features on their own. THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE gives customers something to talk about.
Slide 44: Zappos often surprises its customers with free overnight delivery upgrades.
Slide 45: “ Our goal with every interaction is for the customer to walk away saying, Wow that was the best experience I ever had. ‘ ’ ” —Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos
Slide 46: THE HOLY GRAIL OF MARKETING is not attained through manipulation. GREAT BRANDS become talk-worthy by serving their customers better than anyone else.
Slide 47: REMEMBER, people only shout your virtues when two conditions are filled:
Slide 48: REMEMBER, 1) people only shout your virtues when two conditions are filled: When providing information about you gives them status in the eyes of their peers.
Slide 49: REMEMBER, 1) people only shout your virtues when two conditions are filled: When providing information about you gives them status in the eyes of their peers. When what you supply is meaningful to them. 2)
Slide 50: LISTEN to your customers before they’ll be willing to talk about you. Never forget, you must
Slide 51: visit the word-ofmouth learning center @ www.cultbranding.com/wom
Slide 52: from the creative minds @ www.cultbranding.com join us