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