Today, with a concomitant decrease in consumer trust of marketing messages and an increase in social networking due to technologies including the Internet and mobile phones, word-of-mouth (WOM) communication has become a highly valuable conduit for influencing consumer behavior. If we pause to think about the topics of our day-to-day conversations, most of us quickly recognize that many are product-related, even if not brand specific. Examples include references to how good (or bad) we look in certain clothes, where we recommend as a great place to eat, or why we had a bad experience in the teller line at the bank, etc.
Fact is, for better or worse (depending on your level of love or disdain for marketing), WOM communications are, in many cases, the results of branding and marketing efforts to seed those dialogs. Marketers today are embracing more holistic strategies, utilizing WOM and other tactics as economical and, in many cases, more effective approaches than conventional tactics (e.g., advertising) for engaging consumers.
These communications are often lifestyle-oriented, including tie-ins to trends in social responsibility, as is evident with the many green/eco-friendly campaigns (and viral emails) of late from not just companies but also non-profits including charities and social/environmental activists. This is a reminder that marketing is not just a tool for profit, but for communicating needs, attributes and benefits in any exchange of value.
Posted by: Colin Mangham