Positive and negative word of mouth is an effective way of marketing for companies and individuals to influence and engage potential clients. It is dependent on trust and social networking. People are generally more inclined to listen and be targeted subconsciously by family and friends within their social network. This could be for an exhibition they have visited and found interesting or even a new product on the market. Word of mouth communication happens a lot in or society whether it is to introduce something which makes life easier or more exciting, it doesn’t matter
Recent research indicates that people are likely to trust resources outside of their comfort zone, in the form of online reviews and blogs. This is known as electronic word of mouth or online word of mouth. People read these blogs and reviews online and trust the reviewer’s opinions and comments. People assume the reviewer has more knowledge then they do, for example product reviewers have insight into these products, as they own them already. In comparison would you listen to a random stranger on the street talking about a product he has had that was good/poor? Probably not. Would you listen to a salesman? Yes but you are inclined to think he is just trying to make a sale and is brainwashing you, in a way. Whereas a reviewer has nothing to gain or loose from the situation, they are just pointing out pros and cons.
Miroblogging is a new type of electronic word of mouth, which involves social networking sites such as twitter and facebook. Microblogs are only about the length of a newspaper heading plus its subheading. Short and snappy lines draw attention as people are more inclined to read them over a bulky text. Microblogs contain exciting snippets of information that expresses attitudes and opinions. This is a modern form of word of mouth.
Companies are so concerned about this type of electronic word of mouth as it can affect the branding of their company in a good light or a bad. Research has indicated, “Over 19% of microblogs have some form of a brand”, only half of this 19% gave the company a positive outcome.
Microblogging could have influenced the way we as consumers feel about branding. We all have brands we recognise and trust. word of mouth communication is involved and to blame for this kind of brand dis-satisfaction/satisfaction. This diagram is taken from the journal and explains why branding is so important. firstly people have a brand attachment and awareness which by word of mouth then becomes brand trust. This is because you hear people in and out of your social network drawing you to this brand. Over time you learn that they are trust worthy which then is in turn passed onto someone else which creates a future purchase of these products or service.
Word of mouth marketing
Primary word of mouth marketing begins with a marketer who puts an idea into the public domain. This is 'business-consumer-consumer' marketing. The consumer then hears what this business is about/producing and passes it onto a friend or fellow blogger.
This form of word of mouth marketing is relatively new. Word of mouth marketing is a natural progression of speech between people, what is new is how marketing have used this connection for promoting their business/ products. It is a new way of getting your views heard in a subtle way. This form of marketing has occurred from 'anecdotal to actionable', something that has occurred recently to something you can change. Word of mouth marketing has become popular as we have the opportunities to use it, in social networking and blogs. With this comes customer service. If a customer is happy with the experience you gave them they might advertise your business to friends or write a review about you.
People spread word about new exciting, interesting products that attract the eye. Boring things don't draw enough attention you have to be up to date on your competition and technology. Good customer service leaves happy customers who in turn might recommend you to a friend who will then pass the information onto the next person, almost like a huge game of Chinese whispers! This word of mouth progression doesn't happen overnight, you need to start the trend by providing good service and produce to your customers.
"The five T's of word of mouth marketing", Talkers, topics, tools, taking part and tracking. These are the basic factors needed for a business to spread through word of mouth. You need someone to start the link of by spreading this information, this can be done by having a microblog which is very precise and to the point. Topics are impoartain also as they have to involve a certain age range? and also the kind of person to be browsing the internet, you need a target market. The author Andy Sernovitz has studied a vast amount of word of mouth successes and every success leads to these five T's.
Opinions on both texts.
Through reading both my journal and my book I learned a lot about word of mouth progression and how it affects branding and marketing. I found that Bernard Jansen’s journal was very factual containing relevant resources backing up the ideas he was trying to put on the table. I found it really easy to read as it is clearly laid out into relevant sections. I think his research is very interesting because he is explaining how electronic resources influence businesses through electronic word of mouth. Although a lot of the information in my journal was irrelevant I found it was a very good source as it contained mention of word of mouth that has been taken from "the law of the few" in "the tipping point". I found it interesting seeing how much of branding is connected to this progression and how influential and crucial it is for business and marketing. It was shocking to me how 19% of blogs contain a mention of branding, branding which makes or breaks a company or business. If there is negative comments about your products or your opinions that isn't good in the business world. Microblogging is interesting as it is actually more effective than a full text of information. It is short and to the point and draws attention. I found this interesting as people are less inclined to read pages and pages of complicated articles when they prefer to read a short and to the point snippet.
Through reading word of mouth marketing by Andy Sernovitz i found it was more of a self help book than a heap of irrelevant information. I found it odd at first as he was almost directing me into how i need to achieve success in my future career. the five T's of marketing for example almost tells you how to become noticed. you need to have these skills and be able to achieve certain thing to get people talking about you and that is what he is trying to achieve. I find the book good as it relates well to the tipping point and also interior design/ design in general.
I find that both texts are easy to relate to and contain a lot of factual and opinion based evidence and resources to back up their points. As i couldn't find a book during this process as someone had mysteriously taken out all the books i had wanted to use! i stumbled across this book and i feel like it really worked well in explaining how word of mouth works and how to get noticed. Both books explain how everyone is a connector, a maven and a salesman In how people pass on information to friends and also people outside of their network range over facebook, blogs or twitter.
Biblography
Duana,w.,Gub,B & Whinston, A,B (2008).' Do online reviews matter?'
Jansen,J, Bernard, 'Twitter power: tweets as electronic word of mouth', Journal of american society for information and science and technology, volume 60 issue 11 pages 2169-2188, 2009.
Sernovitz, Andy, ' Word of mouth marketing: how companies get people talking', Chicago : Kaplan Pub. , c2006.
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