Exploring the World of Buzz

Keeping a blog has let me explore the topic of buzz and word of mouth marketing. Instead of just writing a paper on the subject, I was able to track and discover developments in the world of buzz marketing, which is very active right now. Through doing so, I’ve realized word of mouth is everywhere, it is natural, and it is part of everything we do-if you like something you tell someone, it’s that simple. Through these past weeks I have learned a lot about the topic and seen how it relates to the world of media planning, buying, and advertising in general.
At the start of my blog I began with educational posts, then I got more into examining current events and what agencies were doing to handle the word of mouth surrounding their brands. One current controversy surrounding buzz marketing involves disclosure. Many in the business fell to be truly successful in using buzz marketing to promote your products, the consumers should be informed that they are being exposed to such and should not be tricked by other consumers that are being paid to push products on them. There is also a lot of talk surrounding buzz marketing in regards to its age and development. Many marketers are seeing the success of word of mouth marketing practices and starting to work tactics into their marketing plan. But many experts are saying this in nothing new, as word of mouth is just something that happens, even without ad dollars being spent to speed it up. One question is why marketers are just now catching on to this fact.
One thing I definitely learned while keeping this blog was that there really is a lot of growth in the area of buzz marketing, as a lot of companies are developing to try to take advantage of this natural occurrence. There is BzzAgent, Vocal Point, Tremor, Picture Marketing, Squidoo, M80, and so many others. Companies are developing just to help others with spreading word of mouth, while older companies are now trying to develop their own buzz components. Even BzzAgent, which used to just provide a service has become a viable media channel, teaming up with companies like Hershey’s to execute large portions of their media plan.
In much of my posts I wrote about word of mouth spreading without the assistance of any marketers. Word of mouth surrounding a product, service or brand is natural and happens regardless of whether or not a company has any control over it. In one post I discussed the buzz around the Volkswagen television advertisement and how VW in getting twice what they paid for-they paid for the commercial but now are getting the benefit of the commercial as well as the benefit of people talking about the commercial and spreading word about the brand. The same can be said for the KFC “subliminal” ad which got so many people talking, visiting the company’s website and trying the sandwich.
Other posts looked at word of mouth as it is harnessed and used by brands. M80, which targets fans to help promote bands and products, and Vocal Point, a program created by Proctor and Gamble to get moms to spread buzz are two such companies. Both have realized that a few words go a long way in the world of marketing, perhaps farther than any ad can go and have decided to use this knowledge to facilitate consumers in spreading the word about new products amongst themselves.
I found it very interesting that Carmex, the lip balm that has been around for decades and has only ever relied on natural word of mouth spreading is now jumping on the advertising bandwagon. The brand has seen such success without ever advertising so it will be interesting to see if the new ads bring extra sales as the company is hoping or whether they actually damage the brand image. Carmex is one great example of how successful word of mouth can be in helping to sell a product and how successful word of mouth can be when marketers don’t even spend a penny on spreading it.
Another component of the world of advertising that is tied in with buzz marketing is relationship marketing. Everyone in the industry knows that in order to make and keep a loyal customer you must go the extra mile to create a relationship with them. Picture marketing is one company that has done just so, working the actual consumer into the product message through pictures. Consumers are more likely to talk about a product if they feel involved in it and the company has taken the time to make it worth their wild. After all, buzz marketing is really about the people, for the people, by the people. This brings up the “Buzz-o-phone” that I wrote about in a previous post, describing how people could call a toll free number to talk about whatever they wanted for two minutes. The creator hoped this would let consumers voice their opinions about products because it is such an easy way to be heard. Buzz and word of mouth really is this simple, letting the consumers do the talking without any plying by marketers.
Squidoo is another example of the people taking over- creating content and spreading the word. If marketers are going to facilitate in the process, they must let consumers show them what they want, one way to do this is through sites like Squidoo where consumers educate each other on every topic imaginable.
In relation to the Audience Research class I did this blog assignment for, I’ve learned a lot about buzz marketing and media planning, buying and advertising, as well as blogging itself, as this is a great way to create and spread buzz. As I have discussed, buzz marketing is no longer just an afterthought in the media planning and buying process. Marketers see it as a viable way to get their message across and are willing to devote large amounts of their promotional budgets to spreading buzz about their products. I have also learned a lot about targeting the audience properly-sometimes websites and buzz programs work for certain audiences that would not work for others. It will be exciting to see where the world of buzz marketing goes in the future and how its success in getting people to buy will compare with that of traditional advertising.