Why Word of Mouth is Now Your Biggest Media Channel

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Word of mouth has always been the most important marketing platform. It is the reason why so many businesses have exploded and stuck.

Whatever research you look at you will see that word of mouth marketing has had the biggest impact on business growth. Here are some numbers:

  • 67% of the US economy was driven by referrals (McKinsey & Co, 2001)
  • 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust unknown users, 27% trust experts, 14% trust advertising, 8% trust celebrities (Econsultancy, July 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics)
  • 92% have more confidence in info found online than they do in anything from a salesclerk or other source (Wall Street Journal, Jan 2009).
  • 75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements (Yankelovich)
  • 70% consult reviews or ratings before purchasing (BusinessWeek, Oct. 2008)
  • 7 in 10 who read reviews share them with friends, family & colleagues thus amplifying their impact (Deloitte & Touche, Sept. 2007)
  • 51% of consumers use the Internet even before making a purchase in shops (Verdict Research, May 2009)
  • 45% say they are influenced a fair amount or a great deal by reviews on social sites from people they follow (46% say reviews in newspaper or magazine influence them.) (Harris Poll, April 2010)

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Why Copying Poster Child Campaign Like Old Spice Will Hurt Your Social Media Strategy?

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The Old Spice campaign became the poster child for social media and selling to The Mobile Consumer. Yet, after the initial word of mouth marketing explosion, when you look at the Old Spice engagement after the campaign there is a huge let down.

I went and looked at Old Spice after some conversations I had regarding South African brands that have bought into the Social / Mobile idea. They initially embraced the idea, hoping for some word of mouth marketing and then got quite badly burnt.

Burning Money On Poor Social Media

Many have spent a lot of money on building FaceBook pages, twitter profiles and so and got marginal returns on from these mobile / social strategies. And if there is one thing that marketers want to see is a return on the investment, or else they wind up in the dog box.

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Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto

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I sat down to write a word of mouth marketing manifesto. It was going to be a few chapters long. Then I found Andy Sernovitz’s Manifesto.

He simplified the idea down to a page – and his english and grammer is a lot better than mine. And he was happy to share*. (You can find the original document here on is website, wordofmouthbook.com).

So here is the …

Word of Mouth Manifesto:

  1. Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.
  2. Marketing is easy: Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free. [Read more...]

A Case Study On How Bad Profits Can Destroy Your Business

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Business is about profits. Yes, we all agree on this. Yet what we won’t all agree on is that some profits are really bad. To see the truth of this you just have to look at how some companies go about their business — and the way they treat their customers, how they make them feel and the negative word of mouth generated.

To put this into context I have put together a mini case study. I was inspired by the pain, frustration and anger I saw my wife go through with ADT Security and my absolute pleasure in dealing with Amazon.

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Why Your Competition Is Your Customer’s Expectations

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We tend to think of our competition as the person who is selling the closest product and services. Banks look at other banks, cell operators look at other cell operators. You know how this work but things have changed.

You are no longer just selling a product or services.

Let me use an example to put this into context.

I live in South Africa and if I order a Kindle from Amazon.com in the States I will get it (at my front door) within three working days. Brilliant. Mind blowing and superb service and customer care.

Yet when my Blackberry breaks and I take it to a MTN service centre in Northgate for repairs. Here is what happens. I wait close to an hour (or two) to see a consultant, it then takes over two weeks to swop the hand set and get it back to the service centre. And when it gets back to you its still broken. [Read more...]

Is Nando’s Advertising Is Broken?

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Nando’s are really good at getting us to talk about their advertising. They are quick to respond tactically and produce funny, witty adverts. It gets the word of mouth buzz going.

In this case they responded by taking a poke at Cell C with their other CEO – chief customer officer campaign with Trevor Noah. And yes I laughed. In fact I almost wet myself.

But here is the real rider:

Are you going to go and buy Nando’s because of this advert? I know I am not?

What is the point of advertising?

I am always reminded of David Ogilvy’s words when it comes to advertising. Sales, Sales Sales and yes, Sales.

Anything less is creative masturbation. It’s about a bunch of creative genius getting their creative rocks blown off at your expense. They are having fun but when the sales don’t come in, your board room discussions is anything but that.

I would like add another aspect to this –loyalty.

Conversation and Loyalty

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