You know a campaign is working when people are talking about it at the water cooler, or if the hype makes you go out and buy a product. That’s why, says Mark Hughes, CEO of Swarthmore, PA-based agency Buzzmarketing, word of mouth is key to every brand campaign.
Hughes should know. As the chief marketing officer of Half.com (Nov. 1999 to June 2002), he used tactics such as renaming a town in Oregon "Half.com," which “Time” magazine called "one of the greatest publicity coups in history." Moves like that helped grow Half.com's registered user base from zero in June 1999 to 8 million less than three years later.
Hughes, whose book "Buzzmarketing" was released in July by Penguin/Portfolio, shared his insights and knowledge of word-of-mouth marketing with the CHIEF MARKETER editors:
CHIEF MARKETER: Word of mouth may well be the oldest form of marketing on earth. But should it be the basis of every brand campaign, or a goal and result of a campaign?
Hughes: Word of mouth really needs to be integral to every brand campaign. Going into the campaign, you need to ask yourself, Will this component of the campaign get people talking at the water cooler? If it be radio, billboard, or an entirely new phenomenon, you've got to ask yourself every step of the way, Will this get people talking? The end result is word of mouth, but you can't leave it until the end; it really starts at the beginning, woven throughout.
CHIEF MARKETER: How does word of mouth tell a brand or an agency how effective its marketing is?
Hughes: If it makes it back to you--e.g. your cousin, your uncle, your friends, your co-workers come up to you and say, "Hey, I saw it"--then you know it’s working. You can also do other forms of measurement by simply asking people, "Did an advertisement make you buy today?" [Computer manufacturer/marketer] Gateway asks this question and knows that more than 50% of its customers come in from a friend or family-member referral.
CHIEF MARKETER: Is television still the best media marketers can use to create a buzz?
Hughes: It all depends on the situation. For new brands that have never used TV, it's possible, but it all depends on what you put into the TV spot. A crummy TV spot will always be a crummy TV spot. Most of them are. You've got to look like no other TV commercial, and not look like a TV commercial at all, in order to get noticed. Getting noticed is half the battle. But most companies and most CEOs are not risk takers. Put a vanilla ad on TV, and I'll show you a company pissing its money away. To say that TV is the best media marketers can use is too simplistic.
CHIEF MARKETER: In a recent interview with “USA Today,” you say that “American Idol” can "teach American businesses a truckload." Could anything else on television be a guest instructor?
Hughes: “Lost” on ABC. Its buzz was created through secrets and the Internet, and it’s a great product. Thousands of people are online discussing this show--it's amazing. Great buzz for “Lost.”
CHIEF MARKETER: Your book is required reading for business students at Stanford University. Did this come about as a result of buzz marketing?
Hughes: Well, it came out of the blue but as a result of the buzz we created. Stanford actually called before the book was published. They had heard about the book being discussed online by people who had received advance galleys. They called me and asked me to FedEx them a hardback. I sent them the only hardback copy I had left; I guess they liked it. Buzz is about creating a pull vs. pushing stuff on people. This came from a pull!
CHIEF MARKETER: Can word-of-mouth marketing backfire for a brand?
Hughes: It can if it's not honest and authentic. Fake marketing or misleading marketing will always backfire. Word-of-mouth marketing works best, in my opinion, by creating a pull vs. a push.
