Buzz Marketing This Report Attempts

Buzz Marketing

This report attempts to provide insight and to characterize the four major promotional methods in terms of what each accomplishes, when they should or should not be used and how effective each is if used properly. The report will also try to explain how traditional Word-of-Mouth promotion works. And finally, the report reviews and gives opinions on recent articles about Buzz Marketing and Word-of-Mouth marketing. The opinions will attempt to answer if this type of marketing is ethical since marketers attempt to conceal their identity and intentions.

Traditional Word-of-Mouth

Organizations the world over are just now beginning to understand the idea that they may be able to control the powers of Word-of-Mouth marketing. "But buzz is no longer a hit-or-miss proposition used exclusively by fringe marketers. These days, plenty of big players are trying hard to systematize buzz techniques." (Khermouch & Green, 2001) the odds are good that almost every product is more influenced by Word-of-Mouth marketing than any other marketing form including television and radio advertising. Businesses have traditionally worked on the idea of saturating the markets with marketing materials, events, and salespeople but the facts show that how consumers talk about a product or service with each other is really what decides if it is bought or not. "Word of mouth is the reality that intervenes between your communication and sales." (Silverman, 1997)

The Internet has become the biggest marketing spectrum in the history of man because of the communication advances of email and chat. The internet is as important an invention as the printing press because both of these mediums provide an ability to pass on opinions and other word-of-mouth marketing ideals. For example, one would think that the idea of promoting 'Intel Inside' would be a boom for computer sales. The Intel brand name is by far one of the most successful technological products. But the concept of Word-of-Mouth made the 'Intel Inside' an instant nightmare in the early 1990's. The company had produced a chip that was supposed to be the fastest yet and everything was going well. But some computer geeks found a problem with the chip and they did what they felt was their civic duty. They brought the problem to the company's attention.

The company chose to ignore the issue and moved along with their new product's scheduled release. What Intel could not have imagined was the power of the Internet and the Word-of-Mouth. Those two computer geeks had the entire world laughing and criticizing Intel because of the problems associated with the new chip. Ironically, in 1999 the company again discovered a problem with a chip with an expected release date. "In a stunning last-minute change of plans, Intel has postponed the launch of its highest-performance PCs, previously scheduled for Monday. Calling system vendors on Thursday night, Intel acknowledged memory problems associated with the Rambus memory design in its 820 chip set. Intel reportedly found a "memory bit error" that curtails top memory capacity and speed. Intel has declined comment on the situation. (Spring, 1999) Intel did not hesitate to recall the problem chip because of the lasting power of Word-of -Mouth on the company. They were not going to go against its power a second time.

A major secret of word-of-mouth marketing is the ability to speak face-to-face with consumers which adds credibility to a product or service. Consider that face-to-face marketing has a consumer's undivided attention and therefore does not compete with any other advertising media. Word-of-mouth marketing is more often than not considered totally credible makes a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member's opinion about a great movie, product, or service completely believable. Word-of-mouth is much more effective than any print or television ad because consumers are overly saturated by those other mediums. This makes word-of-mouth more important now than at any time in the past. Current 'get out the vote campaigns' for the recent Presidential election, the buzz around the movie 'Fahrenheit 911' and the new 'Sponge Bob' movie are some good examples of just how credible and effective word-of-mouth marketing can be.

Four Major Promotional Methods