CMNU914: Special Topics in Organizational Communication Word-of-Mouth, Buzz, and Viral Marketing Communication

Welcome to the class blog for CMNU914: Special Topics in Organizational Communication Word-of-Mouth, Buzz, and Viral Marketing Communication!

In this class, students will learn about the word-of-mouth, buzz, and viral marketing industry through readings of popular press books and academic journal articles, guest lectures from leading industry figures, analysis of existing word-of-mouth, buzz and viral marketing campaigns, analysis of key companies operating in the word-of-mouth space, and learning industry best practices in designing, executing, and measuring organizationally-facilitated attempts to manage word-of-mouth and consumer generated media.

Please feel free to look through some of the prior posts from the last time this course was offered (Summer I, 2006). Also, be sure to check this blog in the future for updates about the class.

If you are a Northeastern student who would like to register for this class, please use the following course registration information:

CMNU914: Special Topics in Organizational Communication, Word-of-Mouth, Buzz, and Viral Marketing Communication

Spring 2007
Key Number 000656
Sequence D (TF 9:50 - 11:30am)


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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

CMNU914: We Made It!

We made it!

We survived what may have been the first academic class specifically devoted to Word-of-Mouth, Buzz, and Viral Marketing Communication (and the brutally intensive, 7-week, 4-days-a-week, 100-minutes-per-session term).

I want to thank all of the students who made this class very special. I know there was a lot of work involved but I've heard from many of you that you found it very rewarding.

I'd also like to thank the companies and amazing individuals who contributed case studies for us to evaluate and their time to talk with each of the student groups:

- Brains on Fire -- Geno Church and Spike Jones
- BzzAgent -- Matt McGlinn
- Church of the Customer -- Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell
- Matchstick -- Matthew Stradiotto
- M80 -- Joe Muran and Dave Neupert

I'd also like to thank our incredible guest speakers, who not only were insightful, but saved the students from just having me in the classroom every day. They are:

- Steve Curran from Pod Design
- Brad Fay from The Keller Fay Group
- Brian Kenny, Alyssa Meritt, and Ann Comer from Northeastern University's Office of Marketing and Communications
- Jim Nail from Cymfony
- Dave Balter from BzzAgent

I would also like to thank the folks from Northeastern University's Office of Marketing and Communications for participating as clients: Brian Kenny, Ann Comer, Alyssa Meritt, and Bianca Whitworth (from NU Athletics).

Finally I'd like to thank my research assistant, Jenn Oles, for her wonderful assistance with the class.

And here are some things I'm taking away from this class and will consider as I teach in again in January 2007 ("Spring" 2007):

- Keep the main projects. Students loved analyzing an actual WOM marketing program and then designing their own. Many commented how they felt empowered that the clients took what they had to say so seriously. Students definitely rose to the occasion!

- Students really enjoyed the guest speakers and the practical experience they had in the industry. It also gave them a good sense of the different career options available to them. They found some speakers and topics more dynamic than others, but always learned something, even if it was what they didn't want to do.

- Students liked the flow and the sequencing of topics. The only exception was that they wondered whether we needed a special class on WOM ethics since we discussed ethical issues all the way throughout the term in the context of different kinds of WOM programs. Their point wasn't that ethics wasn't important, but just that by the time we got to the "ethics" class it was repetitive with material we had already discussed.

- Tone down the readings. There wasn't enough time to get to them all and some of them were repetitive (in an unproductive way). I was able to learn specifically which readings were the most helpful and which were less so, so I'll be able to adjust accordingly the next time around.

- Keep the class blog and continue to require students to post, but don't require so many comments. Also, build in check points for when students should have the blog entries completed by.

- Although we didn't get a lot of outside people commenting on the content of the class blog I did learn that people are reading it. When I go to presentations I'm pleasantly surpirsed when I hear that people are indeed reading it and that they enjoy what the students are thinking about and what we are discussing in class.

- Do more with the Word-of-Mouth Episode and reflection essay (where students reflected on their own word-of-mouth episodes throughout the term). Discuss this earlier in the class and make it more of a diary where students can look back over all of their WOM episodes as they look for patterns (this time around I had students enter them into an online survey but they didn't have access to what they recorded once they submitted the survey).

- They loved the room environment, so be sure to schedule the class in Behrakis again!

- I learned how to incorporate student suggestions from my teaching into my research and thinking about the industry.

- I learned more about Johnny Cupcakes than I care to admit!

- But the most important thing I'm taking away is that students felt they were a part of a new and emerging industry and that they could make valuable contributions to it. I think they sensed my energy, excitement, and passion, as well as those from our guest speakers, and they fed off of it and made it their own.

Thanks again to everyone for an amazing class. I can't wait to teach it again next Spring and make it better than ever!

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Taking it to the Next Level

One of the major principles of WOM is the freedom. In the first class consumers’ need for greater contro was identified as one of the reasons WOM is so hot right now. And it is with this in mind that I write my last blog for the term.
Dr. Carl said that he would post the top three responses to our WOM episode surveys(pdf). Well, in the spirit of this freedom, I am going to post my blog post about the WOM episodes here. Yes, it is not as official as if Dr. Carl had posted it with his approval, but that is a key part of WOM: even people who are not in control of the traditional establishment get a voice. Other people’s responses may have been more thought provoking, but that is another aspect of WOM: idiots get the same right to speak as the informed. So without further ado, here is my blog on my word of mouth episodes:

Throughout the semester, we were tasked with documenting three WOM episodes that we experienced. We would fill out a short survey (with both quantitative and qualitative components) about the episodes. At the end, we are to write a summary of our findings. These were our only real parameters.
The first thing I noticed was the diversity of the conditions surrounding the episodes. One episode was with my best friend at a restaurant, but another was with the man working the register at IHOP. It would be difficult to get a wider emotional difference between two people. I had an episode happen in the afternoon, one at dinner, and one at 3 am, so clearly there is also diversity in the times where these episodes take place. I guess the key take away point from all of this is that WOM episodes can happen anywhere, with anyone, at anytime.
There was one common tie between the three episodes: all three did occur in places of business, so maybe I am more likely to discuss products and services in such a setting.
Another finding was that my episodes were very short. When talking to strangers or acquaintances, the episode only lasted for a minute or two. When talking to my best friend, the episode was longer, about five minutes. However, when you take into account that the entire conversation I had with him was about an hour, the 5 minutes we spent talking about Al Gore’s new movie is really a small period time. So the second take-away point is that WOM episodes seem to be short.
My third observation was a bit more meta. While trying to make observations about my three documented episodes, I had trouble. I realized that it is difficult to generalize one’s WOM behavior by three specific episodes. I estimated that I have 25 WOM episodes a day, so analyzing only three over seven weeks is a very small sample. Dr. Carl explained to me that we were only to use these as a starting point, but I still see a problem with this. It is likely that we focus on WOM episodes that make us seem cool and knowledgeable, and ignore those when someone else made us feel unhip or uninformed. This is a major problem with the self-report approach. I think it is dangerous to summarize one’s WOM interactions based on just three episodes.
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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 25 Agenda: Interrogating the Ethical and Societal Effects of Peer-to-Peer Influence as a Marketing Strategy

25; The Dark Side of the Force: Why Obi-Wan Never Shilled and Yoda Never Went Stealth Interrogating the Ethical and Societal Effects of Peer-to-Peer Influence as a Marketing Strategy (Wednesday)

Learning Objective(s):
· Distinguish between ethical and unethical WOM practices;

Readings for This Class:
· Sales Pitch Society II. Kate Kaye. 2006. Pages 1-42. (Bb)
· To Tell or Not to Tell? Walter Carl. 2006. Pages 1-24. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Live Buzz Marketing. Justin Foxton. 2006. Pages 24-46. (CM)
· Suggested Reading: Stealth Marketing: How To Reach Consumers Surreptitiously. Andrew M. Kaikati and Jack G. Kaikati. 2004. California Management Review, 46(4), pp. 6-22. (Bb)

Content:
· Client presentation debrief.
· Societal and ethical implications of WOM marketing and peer-to-peer influence programs

Activities:
· Debrief the client presentations.
· What worked well?
· What could have been improved upon?
· What did you learn from this experience?
· Discuss the societal and ethical implications of WOM marketing and peer-to-peer influence programs.

To Do (for next class):
· Readings:
· Conclusion: the future of connected marketing. Justin Kirby. 2006. Pages 267-274. (CM)
· Myths and promises of buzz marketing. Stéphane Allard. 2006. Pages 197-207. (CM)
· Complete WOMES #3 entry
· For Thursday, we will take the first 20 minutes to do course evaluations and then the last 80 minutes for our 20 minute meeting with groups to discuss the project. You can leave after I talk with your groups.On Monday, during the final exam time, we will debrief how the class went, talk about the future of WOM marketing, discuss career possibilities, and have a festive celebration.

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Marketing Project Reflection

Today our class finished our client presentations for our athletics and alumni wom marketing campaigns. Watching the two alumni groups present today, I realized how much we all learned from this class. If I had been presented with the problems that the athletics department and alumni department came to us with, and was asked to create a solution, I would have taken a completely different approach. Probably something considered more traditional advertising. Or else, I would have been just completely overwhelmed and would have had no idea how to begin. However, with this class almost behind me, I (and my classmates) have such a handle on contemporary marketing (specifically word of mouth).

It was so interesting to watch the presentations today. Both groups were presented with the same problem to solve. And the presentations portrayed the learning that took place in the classroom this summer semester. Each group approached the problem from a completely different angle. I knew both projects would be different, but I also expected blatant similarities. But both groups' ideas and presentations were so diverse in their approach. After the first presentation, I thought, "That is a great idea. I'm sure the next group will do something along the same lines." However, the second group came from a totally different angle. Yet both ideas were interesting and impressive.

I think that this shows how much we learned. We learned enough to cover completely different ground with the same problem. The alumni department could hypothetically fuse both ideas and use them both, because they were so different. Both groups leveraged different wom principles. We all learned enough to pick what we think is the most important and most effective.

Further, I think this project showed us all how complex a marketing campaign is. Our group was overwhelmed with research and questions, but we pulled it together and found what we needed to make a successful campaign and presentation. This project (though a burden at times) has proven to be a valuable lesson, as well as a measurement of the amount we learned. I'm glad it is over, not only because my stress can return to normal, but because I finally got to see the finished product from the other groups. Now I can't wait to see what the other athletics group did!
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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 24 Agenda: WOM Program Presentations to Client – Day 2 (Tuesday)

24; WOM Program Presentations to Client – Day 2 (Tuesday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To display knowledge of how WOMM principles can be leveraged in an organized WOMM program design
· To apply persuasive speaking skills when presenting to a client

Content:
· Client Presentations

Activities:
· Client Presentations (Alumni)
· Alumni Group 1
· Alumni Group 2

To Do (for next class):
· Bring in peer review sheets and hand them in individually.
· We’ll spend the first part of class reflecting on the presentations and then the second part discussing ethics.
· Readings:
· Sales Pitch Society II. Kate Kaye. 2006. Pages 1-42. (Bb)
· To Tell or Not to Tell?. Walter Carl. 2006. Pages 1-24. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Live Buzz Marketing. Justin Foxton. 2006. Pages 24-46. (CM)
· Suggested Reading: Stealth Marketing: How To Reach Consumers Surreptitiously. Andrew M. Kaikati and Jack G. Kaikati. 2004. California Management Review, 46(4), pp. 6-22. (Bb)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Self-Evangelist

“Evangelist Marketing,” as defined by WOMMA, involves “Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.” Many WOM Marketers employ evangelism, notably Ben McConnell and Jackie Hubba of the Church of the Customer.
While these approaches have been effective, they all focus on the consumer. Yes, it is remarkable when someone cares enough about your product or service enough to want to become an evangelist for you, but can’t the people who make the product or service be evangelists? Isn’t someone loving what they do and make and really believing in it just as remarkable?
A few weeks ago I met Tim Fish, creator of the gay romance comic Cavalcade of Boys, at Comicopia, He was there signing some of his work, and even had advanced copies of some stuff. Even though it was torrentially raining outside, there was still a decent turnout, but I still got to talk to Fish for a little bit. I asked him about how he broke into comics, and told me that he had to publish his own stuff, working really hard on both creative and marketing levels, so that he would have to show the big companies like Marvel. He’s been self-publishing for years, not only writing, drawing, and lettering all his comics, but also dealing with distributors. He did all of this while working a day job to support himself. Fish obviously had a great enthusiasm and love for his work and medium, and was willing to sketch in each of the comics from the huge pile I brought. He even did sketches for another guy of characters that he has no affiliation with. Several customers came into the store while I was there, and ended up leaving with copies of Fish’s comics, even though they had never heard of him before.
I think he is a perfect example of Self-Evangelical marketing. He goes to conventions and comic stores and gets his name out there. For years, WOM was the only marketing he had, exposing fans to his product, and they would in turn expose their friends. Since he is so indie, he has credibility that creators linked to the large publishers lack. And just talking to him, it is obvious he loves what he does. Like other customers in the store, if I had gone in not knowing who he was, after talking to him, there is no way I could have walked out of there without buying his work.

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 23 Agenda: WOM Program Presentations to Client – Day 1 (Monday)

23; WOM Program Presentations to Client – Day 1 (Monday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To display knowledge of how WOMM principles can be leveraged in an organized WOMM program design
· To apply persuasive speaking skills when presenting to a client

Readings for This Class:
· No Reading

Content:
· Client Presentations

Activities:
· Client Presentations (Athletics)
· Athletics Group 1
· Athletics Group 2

To Do (for next class):
· No Reading
· Client presentations for Alumni group

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 22 Agenda:Workshop WOM Program Presentations, 2

22; Workshop WOM Program Presentations, 2 (Thursday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To fall and make mistakes and learn from them regarding presentations to clients
· To develop conversational, extemporaneous, and passionate speaking skills when talking about the proposal

Readings for This Class:
· No Reading

Content:
· Mock Client Presentations

Activities:
· Mock Client Presentations (students should have printed out blank PDF outline)
· “Competing” group will wait outside.
· Groups will receive 20 minutes to present. 20 minutes of feedback.
· Groups
· Athletics Group 1
· Athletics Group 2

To Do (for next class):
· No Reading
· Client Presentations:
· Athletics Group 1
· Athletics Group 2

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 21 Agenda: Workshop WOM Program Presentations 1

21; Workshop WOM Program Presentations, 1 (Wednesday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To fall and make mistakes and learn from them regarding presentations to clients
· To develop conversational, extemporaneous, and passionate speaking skills when talking about the proposal

Readings for This Class:
· No Reading

Content:
· Mock Client Presentations


Activities:
· Mock Client Presentations (students should have printed out blank PDF outline)
· “Competing” group will wait outside.
· Groups will receive 20 minutes to present. 20 minutes of feedback.
· Groups
· Alumni Group 1
· Alumni Group 2

To Do (for next class):
· No Reading
· Presentations:
· Athletics Group 1
· Athletics Group 2

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 20 Agenda: Workshop WOM Program Proposals

20; Workshop WOM Program Proposals (Tuesday)

Learning Objective(s):

• To understand elements of a written client proposal

Readings for This Class:

• No Readings

Content:

• Workshop: Client Proposals for Designing Organized WOMM Program

Activities:

• Meet with groups individually to review drafts of client proposals for Designing Organized WOMM Program

To Do (for next class):

• No Readings
• Prepare to “talk-through” your presentations.
• “Competing” group will wait outside.
• You get 20 minutes to present. 20 minutes of feedback.
• Wednesday: Alumni groups.
• Thursday: Athletics groups.

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Reflections on Dave Balter's Visit To Class (BzzAgent)

Our class welcomed Dave Balter, co-founder and CEO of BzzAgent, Inc., to campus on Thursday of last week. I have had the pleasure of knowing Dave since December of 2004 when I contacted him about collaborating on a research project regarding the similarities and differences between everyday and institutional forms of WOM marketing communication. Since that time we have also collaborated on a project about the role of disclosure in organized WOMM programs. Additionally we have been on a panel together and invited to co-present at another venue.

Students loved his presentation on integrating WOM into a broader media plan and were impressed with his degree of openness and transparency about the inner workings of BzzAgent (more on that below).

We were fortunate to be the first classroom audience to hear some of the latest details about BzzAgent's "media channel" model of WOM marketing (apparently he's only presented about it to a couple other audiences so far). He used the Hershey's Take 5 program as an example to illustrate a new kind of relationship among the client (Hershey's), the advertising and promtions agency (Arnold), and the WOM media channel (BzzAgent). He gave us some insider-access about the program, its goals, as well as how the campaign is going so far.

He also shared with us his vision of the future of WOM. Specifically he sees the media of the future as "people platforms," which he calls "Media+". Media+ is made up of segmentation + marketing + 2-way dialogue (a key ingredient missing in existing media, he argues) + analytics.

Since BzzAgent's inception they have been a one-stop shop for a WOMM campaign, providing all of the following services: client management, WOM catalyst, strategic planning, creative development, program components, project management, network access (agents), program guidelines and standards, recruitment and management of the agent network, and data analysis and reporting. But under this new model the services are different.

Dave sees the next 10 years as a marriage of marketers and people platforms. The marketers would provide the WOM catalyst, strategic planning, and creative development, while the people platforms would provide the network access, the agent management, and the data analysis and reporting. The process would work by the marketer 1) booking a media slot (much like you would a TV spot), 2) choosing the agents (based on a profile that fits with the desired campaign), and then 3) having those agents report back to BzzAgent (through "BzzReports"), and then in turn, BzzAgent would provide the analysis and measurement.

This vision of WOM's future is not without controversy (see here, here, and here for some examples) and it will be fascinating to see how this plays out over the coming months and years.

Dave was also generous enough to share some of his tips and tricks when presenting to clients. This was a special request I made before his talk since my students are busily preparing for their own client presentations as part of the Designing Organized WOM Marketing Programs Assignment (PDF). I won't post his secrets here but the students appreciated his insights. One interesting stat I will share, however, is about the process of closing a deal. Dave said that it takes 82 days on average from the time the client initially calls in to close and sign a contract. I think students were surprised that companies even calculated such stats.

Towards the end of the talk there was an interesting exchange about what could and could not be blogged about. Dave said students could blog about any part of his presentation, which caught even me a little off guard. For past speakers we've given them the option of sharing certain details of their company in class (such as what they charge for their services) and agreed not to blog about it. But Dave eschewed that idea. He feels that companies keep hidden from the public too much information about their inner workings and that they need to be more transparent. A look at the BzzAgent blog and 90 Days of BzzAgent experiment gives a sense of the opportunities and limitations of Dave and BzzAgent's vision of organizational transparency.

So, in putting the proverbial money where Dave's mouth is, I'll share some of his thoughts on the rates for BzzAgent's services for how it reflects on the current state of the WOM industry. Depending on the type of service (a BzzBlast or a full-fledged BzzCampaign) and/or the number of agents participating, clients might invest anywhere between $150K - $300K for a campaign. One of the points Dave mentioned is that BzzAgent isn't the place for $10K and $20K campaigns but instead BzzAgent focuses on larger-scale projects and clientele (he did mention that there are some other great companies where a client could go for smaller projects). He felt that setting the bar at this level, and delivering on this investment, was a move forward for establishing WOM as a legitimate and respected industry. And setting this level of investment for BzzAgent's services seems entirely consistent with their move to the media channel model.

As I've mentioned with all of our other presenters, Dave's undergraduate major was Psychology and he received his B.A. from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Dave said we could share his presentation on the class blog so feel free to check it out.

Thanks for a great class Dave!

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication BzzAgent New Traditionalists

Revision

A few weeks ago, a good portion of the students weren't feeling too great. A bunch of us had just had the mid-term for our Consultation Skills class, the one we have at 8 am, right before WOM. We'd been busy memorizing all sorts of hierarchies and models, and all of them seemed logical enough that we could come up with them by ourselves. Instead, someone else came up with them first, and so we have to spend our summer memorizing the terminology and structure they decided on. At least by our WOM class, for good or bad, the evil mid-term was over.
As part of our WOM class on that Wednesday, we were going over the levels of involvement to on-line buzz. This was a change from my consulting class: the professor who came up with these wasn't some guy I'd never meet. It was my professor. These were Dr. Walter Carl's Levels of Involvement(pdf). That alone made them more accessible, but as we talked about them, the class decided monitoring, listening, and joining in (the three levels Dr. Carl presented) may not completely cover the various levels of involvement. So we added a level between listening and joining in: responding. We then talked about how many companies are oblivious to WOM in general, so the lowest level should be oblivious. So now the hierarchy we agreed upon was oblivious, monitoring, listening, responding, and joining in.
This was not some arbitrary scale given to us by a text book and some random teachers; this was a hierarchy that we as a class discussed, worked out, and agreed upon. Instead of just memorizing what other people tell us in this class, we are coming up with out own frameworks. This is an aspect of the class I particularly like: the field of study is so uncharted, that not only are we students, but we are also teachers. Why else would people read our blog?

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 19 Agenda: Student-Generated Topic [Preparing Client Proposal]

19; Student-Generated Topic [Preparing Client Proposal] (Monday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To understand elements of a written client proposal

Readings for This Class:
· No Readings

Content:
· Workshop: Client Proposals for Designing Organized WOMM Program


Activities:

· Debrief Dave Balter’s (BzzAgent, Inc.) presentation

· Meet with groups individually to review drafts of client proposals for Designing Organized WOMM Program


To Do (for next class):
· No Readings
· Bring second draft of workshop proposal based on comments discussed from Class 19.

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 18 Agenda: Integrating WOM Into the Media Plan

18; Integrating WOM Into the Media Plan (Thursday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To understand how WOM fits as part of a larger media plan
· To consider the pros and cons of WOM as a “media channel”

Readings for This Class:
· Chapter 6: Word-of-Mouth Storytelling. Dave Balter & John Butman. 2005. Pages 115-133. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Quantifying the Ripple: Word-of-Mouth and Advertising Effectiveness. John E. Hogan, Katherine N. Lemon, & Barak Libai. 2004. Journal of Advertising Research, (September), 271-280. (Bb)

Content:
· Guest Speaker: Dave Balter, CEO, BzzAgent, Inc.

Activities:
· Guest Speaker: Dave Balter, CEO, BzzAgent, Inc. (BzzAgent Dave)
· See Blackboard for his powerpoint presentation (password protected)

To Do (for next class):
· Read through sample proposal (Bb).
· Write draft proposal.

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Reflections on Jim Nail's Visit To Class (Cymfony)

On Monday our class had the opportunity to hear Jim Nail, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, from Cymfony. Jim and I have been at some of the same WOMMA conferences but we've missed each other somehow so his visit to the class was the first chance we had to meet in person. He's incredibly sharp and a genuinely great person to carry on a conversation with.

All of the students in the class found his presentation extremely informative. His talk was called "Responding to Negative Buzz: The Whens, Wheres, and How Tos." As you can guess from the title he spoke about how to deal with negative WOM and provided some excellent suggestions about whether or not to respond to negative WOM in the blogosphere, how to respond (directly or indirectly), and the level of response required (for example, just in the blogosphere or beyond).

Among the most important points I took away was a clear set of criteria to decide if and how an organization should respond to negative buzz. For example, in order to determine whether or not you should respond a company should ask the following three questions:

1) How core is the issue to your brand, reputation, and business?
2) Is the post influential? (Jim provided various quantitative and qualitative ways to assess this).
3) Are comments defending you? How well are they making your case?

If the answer is yes to #1, yes to #2, and not very well to #3 then you definitely want to respond! Then he goes on to tell you how and where to communicate with detractors. He also discussed the importance of proactive outreach and engagement with key online influencers (including a special section on new rules when interacting with bloggers).

In addition to using numerous case studies from companies like Wal-Mart, FedEx, and Kryptonite, the students really enjoyed it when Jim spoke about his own experiences responding to negative buzz about Cymfony's Knowledge Center.

My favorite part though was when he talked about the future of WOM marketing. He actually gave a very seasoned assessment of the nascent industry and stated three things that could detract from the incredible growth of WOMM:

1) Marketers messing it up by employing stealth tactics (he also reviewed WOMMA's ROI Ethics Code).

2) Marketers' tendency to focus on where the money is (so if a lot of money is being spent on a big ad buy then that's where the attention is and not on the important communication, listening, and relationship-building aspects of the marketers' role);

3) Viewing blogs as just another channel for traditional "push" and "control" approaches to marketing.

It was clear that Jim took great care and thought in preparing this talk for my class and it was definitely appreciated by us all. It was also a preview of some new ideas that I didn't mention here because they won't be publicly released until June 19th, so stay tuned for that!

Jim's undergraduate major was geology and he attended Williams College in Western MA. Although you wouldn't know it by looking at him he graduated in 1978, 7-8 years before the students in my class were born! (Jim mentioned that he wasn't trying to hide his age -- now that's transparency!).

Thanks for joining us Jim! (And congrats on being elected to WOMMA's Board of Directors!)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 17 Agenda: Workshop: Designing WOM Program

17; Workshop: Designing WOM Program (Wednesday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To identify elements of a successful written proposal and presentation to client

Readings for This Class:
· No Readings

Content:
· Group meeting times. Professor will meet with each group for 15 minutes to finalize team’s approach.


Activities:
· Group Meeting Time (1 hour)
· Discuss written proposal and oral presentation to client.
· Identify elements of proposal.
· Run through sample oral presentation.

To Do (for next class):
· Chapter 6: Word-of-Mouth Storytelling. Dave Balter & John Butman. Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. 2005. Pages 115-133. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Quantifying the Ripple: Word-of-Mouth and Advertising Effectiveness. John E. Hogan, Katherine N. Lemon, & Barak Libai. 2004. Journal of Advertising Research, (September), 271-280. (Bb)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

WOM and Employees

While I was wondering what to post for my next blog, I began searching the web for ideas. I googled WOM and advertising, wondering if I would find our class blog. Instead, I found a blog site that relates exactly with what we are learning in class (and its by womma). The blogsite is called word of mouth vs. advertising. It immediately caught my attention and I began browsing the posts.

The blog was originated to answer several questions for those companies and individuals curious about WOM marketing. Questions like "How does WOM impact your advertising?", "How does your advertising impact WOM?", "Does advertising inspire or inhibit WOM?", "Does product experience replace marketing?", etc. All the blog posts are exactly what we are learning and more.

A thought that I found extremely inspiring was in the first post I read. It talked about treating your employees well, because they, in turn, will treat your customers well. If you treat your employees poorly, chances are they are not going to be happy employees. And unhappy employees will not reflect well on the company during customer interactions. In class we focus on having a product or service that is worth talking about. This blog post went further. It never occurred to me that employees of a company, especially in retail and other customer service oriented jobs, are the ones having all the interactions with the consumers. A positive interaction with the company through an employee boosts the experience for the entire product/service. How many times have I gone to Friendly's, where the icecream is not entirely terrible, but the service is obnoxious? It is the terrible service experience leading the reason as to why I refuse to go to Friendly's anymore. And I tell all my friends not to go there also. I spread negative WOM for Friendly's based entirely on all my awful experiences there: waiting an hour for an icecream cone (which doesn't take that long to scoop), or waiting forever just to be seated. In this case, it is not the product driving the NWOM, but the employees. Which is the point of the blog post. I never looked at it in that perspective, but its entirely true (and pertinent to me and my vendetta against Friendly's).

Anyway, I advise you all to check out the site. The blogs are relevant to class and funny.
And something I thought was clever: keeping in the spirit of word of mouth, the site has a "Tell a Friend" link, where you can email your friends, spreading the word about the site!
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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 15 Agenda: Thiscompanysucks.com!: How To Deal With Negative WOM

15; Thiscompanysucks.com!: How To Deal With Negative WOM (Monday)


Learning Objective(s):
· To understand the amplification effect for online WOM
· To learn ways to track and monitor online WOM
· To identify methods of effective outreach and relationship building with online influencers
· To identify proactive and reactive strategies to address negative WOM

Readings for This Class:
· ThisCompanySucks.com: The use of the Internet in negative consumer-to-consumer articulations. Ainsworth Anthony Bailey. 2004. Pages 1-15. (Bb)
· Chapter 13: Blogging in a Crisis. Robert Scoble & Shel Israel. 2006. Pages 197-208. (NC)
· Suggested Reading: Chapter 7: The Weird Value of Negativity. Dave Balter & John Butman. 2005. Pages 141-164. (Bb)

Content:
· Guest Lecture: Jim Nail, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, Cymfony

Activities:
· Guest Lecture: Jim Nail, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, Cymfony

To Do (for next class):
· Readings:

o Chapter 8. Robert Scoble & Shel Israel. 2006. Pages 115-131. (NC)

· WOMES #2 Due by Class 16

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 14 Agenda: But How Do You Measure It? Seeking the Holy Grail of ROI for WOM Programs

14; But How Do You Measure It?
Seeking the Holy Grail of ROI for WOM Programs (Thursday)

Learning Objective(s):
· Measure and track ROI and other key outcome metrics for organized WOM programs.

Readings for This Class:
· The One Number You Need to Grow. Frederick Reicheld. Harvard Business Review. 2003. Pages 1-10. (Bb).
· London School of Economics. Advocacy Drives Growth. Brand Strategy. 2005. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Firm-Created Word-of-Mouth Communication: A Field-Based Quasi-Experiment. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin. 2004. HBS Marketing Research Papers No. 04-03. http://ssrn.com/abstract_id=569361 (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: A 10 Point Road Map to Planning and Measuring the ROI of WOM. Lauent Florès. 2005. Pages 113-122. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: The ROI of WOM. Jeff Eisenberg. 2005. Pages 93-99. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Wharton School Publishing BzzCampaign. BzzAgent. 2005. Pages 1-4. (Bb)

Content:
· PPT: It’s the ROI Stupid! Emerging Metrics for WOM & CGM
· Group work on consulting project
· Mid-term feedback

Activities:
· Ask students to reflect on the outcome metrics that were used in the program they evaluated for the first main project.
· Brainstorming Ideas for DOWOMP Project: How would the company you analyzed build a program around the client problem? If the client went to that company, what do you think that company would have done?
· Two-minute Paper Activity for Midterm Feedback

To Do (for next class):
· Readings:

o ThisCompanySucks.com: The use of the Internet in negative consumer-to-consumer articulations. Ainsworth Anthony Bailey. 2004. Pages 1-15. (Bb)
o Chapter 13: Blogging in a Crises. Robert Scoble & Shel Israel. 2006. Pages 197-208. (NC)
o Suggested Reading: Chapter 7: The Weird Value of Negativity. Dave Balter & John Butman. 2005. Pages 141-164. (Bb)

o DOWOMP: Provide update to the client on your area of focus.

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 13 Agenda: Understanding Online WOM and Blogs

13; Understanding Online WOM and Blogs (Wednesday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To understand three different approaches to how companies are using blogs and three different levels of involvement.
· To articulate objectives that can be accomplished through blogging.

Readings for This Class:
· Chapters 1-3 & Chapters 10 &11. Robert Scoble & Shel Israel. 2006. Pages 1-45, 149-180. (NC)
· Suggested Reading: Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin. Marketing Science. 2004. Pages 1-17. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Utilizing the WOMMA Framework to Build a Syndicated Buzz Tracking Product. Jonathan Carson. 2005. Pages 71-76. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: What Motivates People to Review a Product Online. Chrysanthos Dellarocas & Ritu Narayan. 2002. Pages 77-86. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews. Judith Chevalier & Dina Mayzlin. 2005. Pages 1-30. (Bb)

Content:
· Advantages and disadvantages of blogging
· Three ways companies are working with blogs and bloggers

Activities:
· Debrief Marketing Communications presentation (15 minutes)
· PPT Presentation: Blog Marketing: From Interruption to Engagement, From Control to Collaboration
· Meet with each group for 5 minutes to discuss their plans. (20 minutes)
· Return group projects from evaluating organized WOMM programs

To Do (for next class):
· The One Number You Need to Grow. Frederick Reicheld. Harvard Business Review. 2003. Pages 1-10. (Bb).
· London School of Economics. Advocacy Drives Growth. Brand Strategy. 2005. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Firm-Created Word-of-Mouth Communication: A Field-Based Quasi-Experiment. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin. 2004. HBS Marketing Research Papers No. 04-03. http://ssrn.com/abstract_id=569361 (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: A 10 Point Road Map to Planning and Measuring the ROI of WOM. Lauent Florès. 2005. Pages 113-122. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: The ROI of WOM. Jeff Eisenberg. 2005. Pages 93-99. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Wharton School Publishing BzzCampaign. BzzAgent. 2005. Pages 1-4. (Bb)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 12 Agenda: Designing Organized WOM Programs: Overview

12; Designing Organized WOM Programs: Overview (Tuesday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To identify key decision-making factors when deciding which WOM company to partner with
· To understand how WOM fits within a broader marketing communication strategy

Readings for This Class:
· Part Three of The Anatomy of Buzz. Emanuel Rosen. 2000. Pages 133-261. (AOB)

Content:
· Guest lecture
· Group meetings with client

Activities:
· Guest Lecture: Brian Kenny, Vice President of Marketing Communications at Northeastern University
· Collect homework assignment of three ideas each consulting team has for the WOM program and three pieces of information needed from the client
· Group Meetings with Client: Groups will meet with their client contact person for 15 minutes to discuss the cases and pose questions to the client.

To Do (for next class):
· Chapters 1-3 & Chapters 10 &11. Robert Scoble & Shel Israel. 2006. Pages 1-45, 149-180. (NC)
· Suggested Reading: Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin. Marketing Science. 2004. Pages 1-17. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Utilizing the WOMMA Framework to Build a Syndicated Buzz Tracking Product. Jonathan Carson. 2005. Pages 71-76. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: What Motivates People to Review a Product Online. Chrysanthos Dellarocas & Ritu Narayan. 2002. Pages 77-86. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews. Judith Chevalier & Dina Mayzlin. 2005. Pages 1-30. (Bb)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Brains on Fire Reflection

--> As we all know, our class recently finished our first major WOM marketing project. My group analyzed Brains on Fire's Rage Against the Haze anti-teen smoking campaign. I think everyone in the group took away different things from the campaign that they considered to be the most important. We all learned a lot about creating effective and successful WOM and viral marketing campaigns.

In our group papers, we had to identify what our company had learned from the campaign. Then we had to apply what they learned to our own group's hypothetical future design of a word of mouth project. Well I would like to share what I learned from, and consider to be the most important aspect of, Brains of Fire's RAGE program.

Brains on Fire approached the project with a specific vision. The vision was to have the teens of South Carolina to spread the word against smoking to the other teens. Because as we all know, if an adult says it's uncool, it's cool. If a peer says it's uncool, then it becomes uncool. Brains on Fire identified and recruited RAGE candidates to assist the movement. By doing this, Brains on Fire identified and engaged their movement Influencers. Now here comes what I consider to be the ingenious part of the plan. Brains on Fire took their teen influencers and created a program that would teach them to become even better influencers. They taught the teens (through a top secret program) how to effectively utilize the WOM tools provided. They taught the teens how to generate buzz and increase RAGE awareness. By doing this, Brains on Fire created the necessary RAGE influencers and program environment. They took the tools they had to create a more sustainable movement. They did not just locate influencers, they made more effective ones. This is what ultimately led to the success of the movement. Their teens were pros at recruiting new members and spreading the RAGE word. Brains on Fire didn't just take what they could get, they designed a program to make what they needed.

This lesson is what I learned from Brains on Fire. Think outside the box. There are tools staring you in the face, you just have to cultivate the idea. Of course the situation changes, and the application can not always be to just train your influencers (because as we learned in class, this is not always considered ethical). However, find an aspect of the program that you can manipulate to increase your WOM program's success.
Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Reflections on Brad Fay's Visit To Class (Keller Fay Group)

On Tuesday we were fortunate to have Brad Fay from the Keller Fay Group come in to talk with us about the notion of the "influentials." In his former position at GfK NOP World Brad had done a lot of interesting work on the "Influential Americans" and the difference between social influencers versus category-specific influencers. We were also able to hear Brad talk about the new company that he co-founded with Ed Keller, the Keller Fay Group and their TalkTrack methodology.

Students got a taste of what the world of market research is all about and it served as a nice contrast to the campaign design work from our earlier guest speaker, Steve Curran from Pod Design.

Here are the four key points I took away from Brad's talk:

- Brad gave us a helpful way to identify influencers, regardless of whether they are "social" influencers, "category" influencers, or "brand" influencers. The common characteristics are: 1) a degree of social connectivity (for example, how many close friends a person has, if they are "joiners," how many e-mails you get from different people, etc.); 2) being a source of advice for other people; 3) being an information-gatherer; and potentially you can add in have specific knowledge or experience in a particular category. This will really helpful as the students think about identifying influencers in their own organized WOMM program design (we also connected it to Emanuel Rosen's handy mnemonic to identify network hubs: ACTIVE; see Anatomy of Buzz for details).

- We asked him about the 10% statistic for the "Influential Americans" and whether or not that 10% applied to influencers in a particular category. He gave the best answer I've heard of this by explaining that you have to understand influencers on a continuum. The 10% line represents a certain amount of influence, but you could also cut the line at 5% or 25%. If it's 5% then you're looking at people who might have much more influence in their social networks while if you use 25% then the level of influence might not be as strong. A company might want to define influence more broadly or narrowly depending on their goals and thus you might draw the line at different places (some company's business models might want to focus on the top 1-2%!).

- A student asked him what their major should be if they want to get into his line of market research work. He had a great response. He said it was less about the major and more about your level of curiosity. He said that market research can be a little "geeky" and that the people who can stay in it over the long term and thrive need to be the type of people who get excited about what makes people tick and what's going on in the world around them. He went on to say if you're the type of person who, when you're doing a research project, just can't wait to get the "tabs" (tabulations) back and maybe even make friendly bets about what the findings might be, then you're the type of person who is a good fit for market research. He then asked the students how many people that might be. In a class of 18 students about 3 raised their hand. He then said, "Yep, that's about right!" :-)

- Finally, I loved Brad's point about reporting results back to a client. He said that in a written proposal or a presentation to the client you want to tell a story. Clients come to market research firms with problems to be solved and Brad said that your report has to frame any report in the context of a story that presents an answer to the clients' problem.

Brad's undergraduate major was Political Science and he did his master's degree at the University of Connecticut, studying with Bud Roper, son of Elmo Roper.

Thanks for joining us Brad!

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing marketing communication market research TalkTrack Keller Fay Group

Reflections on Steve Curran's Visit To Class (Pod Design)

Last week Steve Curran from Pod Design came into speak with our class on viral marketing and branded entertainment. Steve and I had met last year as part of a panel on WOM for the Promotion Marketing Association. I knew that Pod had done a lot of interesting work for companies to engage, entertain, and stimulate pass-along among consumers so I was looking forward to his talk. In fact one of his company's recent projects (Peerflix Paparazzi game) won the top spot in the 2006 Marketing Sherpa Viral Marketing Hall of Fame. We also read Steve's chapter in the Connected Marketing book.

Students really enjoyed his talk as he used a lot of great examples and case studies. They were also impressed with the company's list of clients (Warner Brothers, Atlantic Records, Tweeter, etc.). Here are a few points I took away from his visit:

- Steve sees his company in the business of creating "conversation pieces." These could be online games, branded sites, or other online user "experiences" that lead people to conversations about the brand.

- When designing a campaign he said you have to find the "hot buttons" in culture and then "press them." They did this with a line of natural beauty treatment products for the "Making Over Mona" campaign. The cultural hot button here at the time was all the discussions about botox, collagen, and chemical peels. The point of the campaign was that you wouldn't want to use these on a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa so why do it to your own face? This campaign generated a lot of buzz for the Dr. Comenge line.

- "Porn is just one click away." Steve's point was that in the online world there are many things competing for people's attention and any viral marketing campaign that is conducted must engage and entertain people. If it doesn't then people will move on to more "interesting" things.

- And the most interesting point for me was his discussion about an ROI metric: number of minutes of customer engagement (I must be the geek in the crowd if I get excited about a ROI metric). With all the interest about engagement in the advertising industry one metric that Steve's company can show their clients is how long people are engaged with the advergame or branded site. This length of time is often significantly longer than people would stay engaged with more traditional advertising and marketing approaches.

Steve's majors in college were Visual Communications and Graphic Design with a minor in Advertising. (Students love to know this information so I ask it of every guest speaker if they don't get to ask the speaker first!).

Thanks for joining us Steve!

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication Pod Design

Class 11 Agenda: Practitioner Perspective: A Client’s View On Selecting WOM Marketing Companies

11; Practitioner Perspective: A Client’s View On Selecting WOM Marketing Companies (Thursday)

Learning Objective(s):
· To identify key phases of consulting engagement

Readings for This Class:
· A Note to New Consultants. Bruce Henderson. 1970s. Pages 1-3. (Bb)
· How to manage connected marketing. Martin Oetting. 2006. Pages 232-266. (Bb)

Content:
· Basic Consulting Framework
· Review Designing Organized WOMM Assignment
· Form project groups around case study from NU Marketing Communication

Activities:
· Presentation of cases from NU Marketing Communications Group
Brian Kenny – VP of Marketing & Communications
Ann Comer – Associate Director, Marketing Programs (Athletics; also with Bianca Glitworth who will come in on Tuesday)
Alyssa Meritt – Associate Director of Interactive Marketing (Alumni)


To Do (for next class):
· No Class – Memorial Day
· For Tuesday, reflection essay due with peer evaluation sheets. [Changed to be due on Wednesday].
· For Tuesday, come prepared with three ideas for the organized WOMM program and also three questions or pieces of information need from the client.
· Print two copies of this sheet with your name on it.
· For Tuesday, read Rosen Part 3. Part Three of The Anatomy of Buzz. Emanuel Rosen. 2000. Pages 133-261. (AOB) [Focus on pp. 249-261]

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 10 Agenda: Key Company Players in the WOMM Space and the Concepts & Principles That Inform Their Organized WOMM Programs

10; Key Company Players in the WOMM Space and the Concepts & Principles That Inform Their Organized WOMM Programs (Wednesday)

Learning Objective(s):

· To explain an organized WOM program in light of the WOMMA Terminology Framework
· To articulate how an organized WOMM program leverages WOM principles
· To apply lessons learned from evaluating a company’s organized WOMM program to designing one’s own WOMM program

Readings for This Class:

· No Readings

Content:

· Student presentations

Activities:

· Presentation order:

1. Brains on Fire – Rage Against the Haze
2. BzzAgent – Radica Games’ 20Q
3. Church of the Customer – Discovery Network
4. Matchstick – Wine Council of Ontario’s VQA
5. M80 – Family Guy

· Describe the company in terms of its mission, their clients, and the services they provide (300-500 words)
· Describe the type of WOMM program in terms of the techniques used (see http://www.womma.org/wom101b.htm; 100-200 words)
· Describe the characteristics of the WOMM program in terms of the WOMMA Terminology Framework (specifically, Participants, Venues, WOMUnits, Actions, and Outcomes; 500-700 words).
· Identify and discuss the goals of the program (100-200 words).
· Identify and discuss the specific methods and/or metrics used to measure the success of the program (300-500 words).
· Identify and discuss the WOM principles leveraged in the program to make it successful (300-500 words).
· Identify any lessons the company learned from the program and how it could apply to your group designing its own organized WOMM program (at least 2 points; 500-700 words)
· Does your group consider this program to be a success? If so, why? If not, why not? (150 - 250 words)
· From your group’s perspective what would your group have done differently with the program design or evaluation? (Identify at least two points; 300-500 words).

To Do (for next class):

· Readings:

o A Note to New Consultants. Bruce Henderson. 1970s. Pages 1-3. (Bb)
o How to manage connected marketing. Martin Oetting. 2006. Pages 232-266. (Bb)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 9 Agenda: Influentials: Fact, Fiction, Or Cultural Narrative?

09; Influentials: Fact, Fiction, Or Cultural Narrative? (Tuesday)

Learning Objective(s):

• To distinguish among social influentials, category influentials, and brand influentials.
• How to apply market research insights on influential to strategic WOM marketing programs

Readings for This Class:

• The Influentials: Introduction. Ed Keller & Jon Berry. Pages 1-25. (Bb)
• People Who Influence People: Criticism and Modifications. Gabriel Weimann. 1994. Pages 239-254. (Bb)
• Suggested Reading: The Influentials: Developing an Influential Strategy. Ed Keller & Jon Berry. Pages 279-340. (Bb)
• Suggested Reading: People Who Influence People: Opinion Leaders in Marketing. Gabriel Weimann. 1994. Pages 109-138. (Bb)
• Suggested Reading: Grapevine: Chapter 5: The Myth of the Influentials. Dave Balter & John Butman. Pages 91-111. (Bb)

Content:
• Guest Lecture

Activities:
• Guest Lecture: Brad Fay, The Keller Fay Group


To Do (for next class):
• No Readings
• Prepare for Evaluating Organized WOMM Program report and presentations



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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

FAQ: WOMUnits, Topicality, and the WOMMA Terminology Framework

As students ask questions to me via e-mail that I think will be relevant to all students I will post the questions and my responses as part of the class blog. This will be a useful way to develop a public knowledge base and resource.

Here's a question I received about the WOMMA Terminology Framework and specifically the characteristic of Topicality.

In all the FAQ posts I will make the students' identity anonymous.

Dr. Carl,

As I'm working on our group's WOMM campaign paper, discussing the campaign in terms of the WOMMA terminology framework, I'm having trouble understanding the meaning of the word topicality (as it applies to WOMUnits). Quite frankly, I'm still not convinced that topicality (much like WOMUnit) is even a real word.

Could you please provide some clarification to the meaning of this word?? The definition in the WOMMA reading is unclear and the definitions don't do much to support it.

Thanks, XXXX

And here's my response:

Hi XXXX,

While WOMUnit is clearly a "clunky" term (which refers to the message in a WOM episode), topicality is pretty straightforward once it's explained properly. Basically think about it as being a message that is "on topic." Of course, "on topic" is always in the context of a "desired" message relative to some person, group, or organization. So think about if there's a campaign where the marketer wants to get a message out about the health benefits of a product. If people end up talking about the health benefits then the WOMUnits, or messages, created by the Participants are "on topic" because they are consistent with the desired message the marketer wanted to get across originally.

What has high topicality to one group might have low topicality to another. Think about the Chevy Tahoe campaign we discussed in class. If people made videos about how cool the SUV was and all that it allowed people to do, those consumer generated videos would have high topicality from Chevy's perspective. However, many of the videos were "spoof" ads and talked about how the vehicles were anti-environment and gas-guzzlers. From Chevy's perspective the WOMUnits (the consumer generated videos) had low topicality, but from the creators' perspective that WOMUnit has high topicality because it's consistent with the message that person or group wants to get across.

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Dr. Carl

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication WOMMA Terminology Framework

Class 8 Agenda: WOM Practitioner Principles and Frameworks: Ideaviruses & Customer Evangelism

08; WOM Practitioner Principles and Frameworks:
Ideaviruses & Customer Evangelism (Monday)

Learning Objective(s):
Identify six tenets of customer evangelism
· Apply six tenets to case study analysis
· Identify principles of ideaviruses
· Differentiate two emerging industry philosophies regarding WOMM

Readings for This Class:

· The Customer Evangelism Manifesto. Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba. 2003. Pages 1-20. (Bb)
· Chapter 12: The New Mavericks of Marketing. Ben Connell & Jackie Huba. 2003. Pages 123-138. (Bb)
· Unleash Your Ideavirus. Seth Godin. 2000. Pages 1-7. (Bb)

Content:

· Six tenets of customer evangelism
· How to create an ideavirus and a purple cow
· Emerging philosophies of WOM: WOM Creationists v. WOM Evolutionists and New Traditionalists v. WOM Progressives

Activities:

· Go over details of the presentation.

· Presentation should be 10 minutes with 5 minutes of Q&A from the
audience.
· Include word count on cover page of report.

· PPT Lecture: Review six tenets of customer evangelism
· Discussion: Case study (Dallas Mavericks)
· PPT Lecture: Review ideavirus principles and Purple Cow principles
· Discussion: Philosophies of WOM:

· WOM Creationists v. WOM Evolutionists
· New Traditionalists v. WOM Progressives

To Do (for next class):

· The Influentials: Introduction. Ed Keller & Jon Berry. Pages 1-25. (Bb)
· People Who Influence People: Criticism and Modifications. Gabriel Weimann. 1994. Pages 239-254. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: The Influentials: Developing an Influential Strategy. Ed Keller & Jon Berry. Pages 279-340. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: People Who Influence People: Opinion Leaders in Marketing. Gabriel Weimann. 1994. Pages 109-138. (Bb)
· Suggested Reading: Grapevine: Chapter 5: The Myth of the Influentials. Dave Balter & John Butman. Pages 91-111. (Bb)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 7 Agenda: Viral Marketing and Stimulating WOM and Pass-Along Via Online Gaming

07; Viral Marketing and Stimulating WOM and Pass-Along Via Online Gaming (Thursday)

Learning Objective(s):

· To distinguish WOM, buzz, and viral marketing communication
· To understand principles behind viral marketing
· To understand how viral marketing campaigns are executed

Readings for This Class:

· Viral Marketing. Justin Kirby. Pages 87-106 (CM)
· Changing the Game. Steve Curran. 2006. Pages 129-147. (CM)
· Suggested Reading: Online opinion leaders: a predictive guide for viral marketing campaigns. Idil Cakim. 2006. Pages 107-118. (CM)

Content:

· Lecture on viral marketing


Activities:

· Guest Lecture: Steve Curran, Pod Design

To Do (for next class):

· The Customer Evangelism Manifesto. Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba. 2003. Pages 1-20. (Bb)
· Chapter 12: The New Mavericks of Marketing. Ben Connell & Jackie Huba. 2003. Pages 123-138. (Bb)
· Unleash Your Ideavirus. Seth Godin. 2000. Pages 1-7. (Bb)


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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

A Singularly Bad Cell Phone Service

--> Cell phone companies. T-Mobile. Alltel. Verizon. . . Cingular- "raising the bar" with the "fewest dropped calls". A short while ago, I used to be a Cingular customer. When I signed up I chose a two year contract. Worst two years ever. Two years bound to a pain inflicting company. Cingular may not drop your calls, but they sure do charge for roaming. I would rather have my call dropped and know that I had no service, than get charged $300 every month for roaming. And if I began roaming while I talking on my cell, there was no kind of warning system. No beeping or blinking of any kind to warn me to hang up because of astronomical charges quickly accruing on my account. I would unknowingly talk and roam everyday. And pay for it.
Furthermore, I would roam in places that should have gotten adequate service. I mean, this is Boston, a metropolitan city. Not middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin cow fields.

And as for this so-called bar that is being raised- I do not think it is being raised above and beyond to superior service. But rather, it is slowly being raised to where service should have been to begin with. In my own apartment, my phone would rotate between one bar and no service. Cingular should work on raising that one bar I had, to five whole bars- full service. Once they accomplish the task of literally raising customer's bars, they can use the slogan "raising the bar" and mean it.

Now that my two years are over, I have Verizon. I get service everywhere. Moreover, Verizon has no roaming. And since I've had Verizon, none of my calls have been dropped.
And that's not gossip, it's fact.
Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 6 Agenda: Evaluating WOMM Programs

06; Evaluating WOMM Programs (Wednesday)

Learning Objective(s):

· To articulate three principles to explain social epidemics
· To articulate two WOM principles to explain the effectiveness of seeding trials
· To contemplate the ethics of seeding trials in the name of “research”

Readings for This Class:

· Connected Marketing Practice: Seed to spread: how seeding trials ignite epidemics of demand. Marsden. 2006. Pages 3-23. (CM or Bb)

Content:

· Tipping Point principles of social epidemics
· Explanations for effectiveness of seeding trials
· Methods of identifying opinion leaders
· 10-point checklist for creating seeding trials


Activities:

· PPT Lecture: Evaluating WOM Programs
· Activity: Create Your Own Seeding Trial
· Discussion: Do seeding trials truly empower consumers? Is it ethical to call seeding trials “research”?


To Do (for next class):

· Viral Marketing. Justin Kirby. Pages 87-106 (CM)
· Changing the Game. Steve Curran. 2006. Pages 129-147. (CM)
· Suggested Reading: Online opinion leaders: a predictive guide for viral marketing campaigns. Idil Cakim. 2006. Pages 107-118. (CM)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 5 Agenda: Haven’t We Always Known About WOM? Tracing the History of Academic and Popular Press Ideas of WOM, Loyalty, and Advocacy

05; Haven’t We Always Known About WOM? Tracing the History of Academic and Popular Press Ideas of WOM, Loyalty, and Advocacy (Tuesday)

Learning Objective(s):

• Identify the primary academic research traditions that inform WOM marketing communication

Readings for This Class:

• Word of Mouth: What We Really Know – And Don’t. Greg Nyilasy. 2006. Pages 161-184. (CM).
• What’s All the Buzz About? Everyday Communication and the Relational Basis of Word-of-Mouth and Buzz Marketing Practices. Walter J. Carl. Management Communication Quarterly, 19(4), 601-634. 2006. (Bb)
• Suggested Reading: Word-of-Mouth: Understanding and Managing Referral Marketing. Francis Buttle. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 6, 241-254. 1998. (Bb).
• Suggested Reading: Social Hubs: A Valuable Segmentation Construct in the Word-of-Mouth Consumer Network. Andrea C. Wojnicki. 2004. Advances in Consumer Research, 31, 521-522. (Bb)

Content:

• Opinion leadership
• Diffusion research
• Social network research
• Nyilasy’s four quadrants of academic WOM research
• Loyalty and WOM (discuss in Quadrant III)
• Social consequences of interpersonal influence model
• Conversational geography of word-of-mouth project

Activities:

• Select students for lunch with Steve Curran
• PPT Lecture: Tracing the Academic History of WOM

To Do (for next class):

• Readings:

Connected Marketing Practice: Seed to spread: how seeding trials ignite
epidemics of demand. Marsden. 2006. Pages 3-23. (CM or Bb)

• Complete WOMES #1 by tomorrow

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication

Class 4 Agenda: WOM Basic Principles

04; WOM Basic Principles (Monday)

Learning Objective(s):

• To distinguish between word-of-mouth and buzz marketing.
• To articulate the implications of networked-based principles of WOM
• To apply networked-based principles of WOM to the evaluation of organized WOMM programs

Readings for This Class:

• Part One of The Anatomy of Buzz. Emanuel Rosen. 2000. Pages 2-99 (AOB)
• Suggested Reading: Where’s Debbie? How Consumers Influence Each Other and Practical Steps Brands Can Take to Understand and Harness Word of Mouth. MediaLab. 2004. (Bb)
• Suggested Reading: The Firm’s Management of Social Interactions. David Godes et al. Marketing Letters, 16(3/4), pp. 415-438. 2005. (Bb)

Content:

• Definitions of WOM versus buzz
• Rosen’s 10 Network-based Principles of WOM
• WOM Characteristics of Network Hubs

Activities:

• [From Class 03: Finish debrief of WOMMA Terminology Framework activity]
• Get update on Evaluating Organized WOMM Program Assignment. How is the research going so far? Have interviews with been scheduled yet?
• Discuss Part I of Rosen’s Anatomy of Buzz
  How does Rosen define “buzz”? Compare and contrast this definition with Newsweek’s definition, as well as with WOMMA’s definitions of WOM marketing and buzz marketing?
  Rosen argues that it’s essential to adopt a network perspective in order to understand WOM. What are the alternatives do you agree or disagree with his perspective?
• Identify Rosen’s 10 principles of networks and their implications to WOMM. Think through how each principle applies to the organized WOMM program you are evaluating.

1. Networks are invisible

2. Nodes of network are characterized by similarity (homophily)

3. Networks are composed of clusters (cliques)

4. Buzz spreads through common nodes (“small world phenomena”)

5. Information can get trapped in clusters (structural holes: “a separation between non-redundant contacts), Ronald Burt)

6. Network hubs and connectors create shortcuts (liaisons)

7. Physical proximity affects who talks with whom

8. Strength of weak ties (Mark Granovetter)

9. Internet nurtures weak ties

10. Networks cut across markets

• Network hubs and their characteristics (ACTIVE mnemonic)

• Similar to “opinion leaders” but critiques inferences associated with leaders. Hubs are defined in terms of their centrality in a network.

  Rosen’ Network Hubs:
  

  Ahead in adoption
  Connected
  Travelers
  Information hungry
  Vocal
  Exposed to media

• How buzz spreads

• It starts with a great product or service

  Energy of Participants spreading word

  Credibility of Participants (importance of third parties and competitor
  recognition)

To Do (for next class):

• Think through lunches you want to, and can, attend with guest lecturers.
• First Lunch: Steve Curran, Pod Design. Thursday, May 18th.
• Readings:

• Word of Mouth: What We Really Know – And Don’t. Greg Nyilasy. 2006. Pages 161-184. (CM).What’s All the Buzz About?

  Everyday Communication and the Relational Basis of Word-of-Mouth and Buzz Marketing Practices. Walter J. Carl. Management Communication Quarterly, 19(4), 601-634. 2006. (Bb)

  Suggested Reading: Word-of-Mouth: Understanding and Managing Referral Marketing. Francis Buttle. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 6, 241-254. 1998.
  (Bb).

  Suggested Reading: Social Hubs: A Valuable Segmentation Construct in the Word-of-Mouth Consumer Network. Andrea C. Wojnicki. 2004. Advances in Consumer Research, 31, 521-522. (Bb)

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication