Word-of-Mouth Planning: Don't forget the Story

The Keller Fay group serves up smart questions when thinking about WOM. Story+Influencer+Tools+Impact. When brands don't have a story, they can always invent. Like Zuji, an online travel division of Travelocity.

Any thoughts on a pithy acronym? (SITI probably doesn't stick).

1. What’s your story – why should consumers talk about your product?
2. Who will tell it – who are your influencers?
3. How can you facilitate the conversation – what tools can you create?
4. What’s the impact – does WOM lead to positive outcomes for my brand?

Addendum: AdAge 6/5/09 issue interviews CMO of Mtn Dew, who believes having relationships with the right people are the keys to all brand plans today:

"We clearly have moved from impressions as the primary determinate of whether something's successful to answering the question, 'Are we building relationships with the right group of people?'" Mr. Cooper said. "Whether it's a blogger at these events, influencers talking about it, those are more indicators of whether we're reaching the right consumer."

Word-of-Mouth Hoopla

Social Marketing. Buzzworthy, both in the ad biz and culture (Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show is spoofing Twitter). It's easy to get caught up in the hoopla but forget that conversation is as old as man. At last month's ESOMAR conference in Europe, Ed Keller (Keller Fay Group)reminded attendees about the basic dynamics of WOM, and the impact traditional media plays.

WOM is mostly face to face
76% of marketing related conversations take place in person and another 16% on the phone.

WOM is mostly positive
65% of brand references by WOM are positive

Traditional media play a big role in driving WOM
48% of brand conversations refer to marketing and media
15% led by TV
11% led by internet
10% print
20% of all WOM include a reference to advertising

Not all consumers are created equal
Influencers account for 1/3 of all WOM(10% of the US pop are influencers)
Influencers are more actively engaged. They talk more than others, having 80% more conversations than average and are more likely to have more brand conversations
Just this month, the Harvard Business Review reports that 10% of Twitterers account for 90% of the Tweets.

Customer Social Value
Targeting a certain customer may be more profitable based on their effect on others, and this remains a key challenge for the analysis in new media environments

Consumers talk about a lot of different categories with food and dining ranking number one.

Interestingly, Isabelle LeRoy, a French media exec, said something that has been bantered about lately among my colleagues:
"Those who understand the full communications process are becoming a rare beasts---there are very few media practitioners these days who have had broad media experience in a full service agency environment. We are in danger of becoming an industry of narrow specialists."

In my mind, being labelled a "narrow specialist" could be almost as bad as the term "dinosaur."