Over the past several years, I’ve had the good fortune to be able travel around Europe. I’ve taken tens of thousands of pictures.

I love this shot below.

Terra cotta roof tiles, and lush, greens hills a patchwork alternating vineyards and olive groves. This is Vinci, Italy. Where Leonardo was born and grew up – you know – Leonardo da Vinci (of Vinci).

However, in the middle of this great shot – is a mark of the late 20th Century – the satellite dish. You can also see mid-century old-school antennas.

[Fig. 1 Vinci, Italy View]

You can click the image above for a larger view. Take out the tv equipment, convert to black and white, and you’d enjoy the same view from over 200 years ago.

Environmental Integration

While it’s not perfect, I spotted this solution to disguise dishes in Amsterdam. They’ve covered the dishes with a “picture of brick” to blend into the building. This is an apartment building above our grocery store. While not perfect – the dishes aren’t as obvious.

[Fig. 2 Amsterdam Dish Disguise]

This reminds me of the “environmental integration” being used to conceal cell and communication towers are being decorated to look like trees.

[Fig. 3 Faux Phone Pole Pines]

I’ve had that Amsterdam shot in my pictures folder for a while – waiting to share it with you. Thought you’d find it interesting. However, there are business lessons these disguises and concealments may teach us. I’ll post another article tomorrow! Until then, take care.

No. 4. The final of a 4 Article Series

Welcome to my final article about word of mouth. I’ve spent this week “debunking the bunk” surrounding WOM. It follows a podcast interview I took part in last week.

Today’s topics are…

• (7) How do you intentionally create WOM?
• (8) What are some WOM Best Practices for small businesses?

(7) How do you intentionally create WOM?

Let’s think about what word of mouth really means. It means people talking about you… spreading the word, making remarks. It means you’re worth remarking about – that you are REMARKABLE. You have to do remarkable things to be remark-worthy. Word of mouth is the term we’ve called for being so remarkable people are willing to talk about you. (Duh, I know…)

It is bigger than a marketing program and takes support of your whole organization. It isn’t easy. But it is worth it.

What are some ways to do it? Well, you can create a Purple Cow, you can Wow!, you can Zag!, you can find your dominant selling idea…

You’ll also need a champion – someone to manage this idea across your organization.

(8) What are some WOM Best Practices for small businesses?

Realize You Don’t Control Remarkabiltity – Your Customers Do

Being considered remarkable is like creating an Oscar wining movie. All the writer, director, actors, and crew can do is the best they can. It is up to others to decide if it is award-worthy. It’s a title that is earned and bestowed, not self-labeled. Remarkability works the same way. You can simply declare that you’re remarkable. You have to demonstrate remarkable behavior, and hope to be recognized.

You can, however, engage in activities that make it easier for those who want to talk to know what to say. The book, Creating Customer Evangelist by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, does one of the best jobs outlining how to set yourself up properly to get people to spread the word about you.

1. Customer Plus-Delta: Continuously gather customer feedback.
2. Napsterized Knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
3. Build the Buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
4. Create Community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
5. Make Bite-Size Chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
6. Create a Cause: Focus on making the world, or an industry, better.

If you don’t yet own their book, check out The Customer Evangelist Manifesto to sample the brilliance of their thinking, before you buy.

Create Micro-Scripts

To build word of mouth by being remarkable, I’m a big fan of Bill Schley’s book Why Johnny Can’t Brand. (You can read about it here). He helps you come up with that big idea that helps to make you remarkable.

Bill’s latest work is The Micro-Script Rules. Bill helps us craft micro-scripts, similar to a TV jingle or tagline, that put your message into a bite-sized chunk.

I recommend you download his free e-book as a preview to the launch of the full book.

Act Big/Stay Small

I think the best lesson to small marketers is to act big, act professional. This doesn’t mean trying to deceive or pretend you have scores of employees when you’re a one or two person shop. It does mean being professional with the basics like the big brands do it. Things such as…

• Have a clean, professional website.
• Create (or have created) professionally crafted materials with consistent branding.
• Create and use consistent branding (color scheme, fonts, logo, mission/value statement) across all you create.
• Use clear, meaningful language that describes the benefits of the benefit, not industry jargon or empty, overused buzzwords.

The Whole Tour

Day 1

• (1) What is Word of Mouth?
• (2) Is WOM taking back seat to social media?

Day 2

• (3) Is WOM diminished as a marketing discipline?
• (4) Is social media durable as a marketing and WOM tool?

Day 3

• (5) What’s the role of social media in creating WOM?
• (6) Has the focus of Social Media had a negative effect on the Customer Experience?

Day 4 (Today)

• (7) How do you intentionally create WOM?
• (8) What are some WOM best practices for small businesses.

I hope you’ve found these ideas helpful. If you did, please re-post this article, link to it, or talk about it on Twitter. Print it out, or (save a tree and) forward it to people at work. Spread the word if you find it worthy.

If you didn’t like it or are underwhelmed – let me know. Part of being great (remarkable) is continuous improvement.

No. 3 of a 4 Article Series

Welcome back! This week I’m talking about Word of Mouth (WOM). Last week I contributed to a discussion with John Moore (from Brand Autopsy) hosted by Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot. We “debunked the bunk” surrounding WOM, and had fun doing it.

This week I’m sharing stuff that didn’t necessarily make the podcast.

Today I answer:

• (5) What’s the role of social media in creating WOM?
• (6) Has the focus of Social Media had a negative effect on the Customer Experience?

(5) What’s the role of social media in creating WOM?

You could say there are two parts to WOM – the analog and the digital.

• Analog is person to person… face to face. I’ll also put written and print media into the analog category.
• Digital WOM is converted and stored in a format that can be sent and re-sent electronically.

Social media refers to tools that allow us to easily spread the story electronically, digitally. Like a pyramid marketing scheme I tell my network, and they tell theirs, and they tell theirs… Social media tools (blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc) make the spread easy.

In fact, I may have to contradict my statements from Tuesday (the first article in this series) indicating that Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin are the father’s of word of mouth.

The REAL Originators of Word Of Mouth

I think the folks who wrote the Faberge Organics Shampoo commercials in the 80s invented it.

Do you remember those ads?

If you tell two friends about Faberge Organics shampoo with wheat germ oil and honey, they’ll tell two friends, and so on..and so on…and so on…

Sorry about the poor quality – this is all I could find.

(Feed Link For Faberge Commercial)

(6) Has the focus of Social Media had a negative effect on the Customer Experience?

I’ll say potentially, YES. Marketers dazzled by the shiny object that social media is, may think they’ve solved their communication problem – or are engaging in a ‘meaningful’ way because – for example – they’ve created a Facebook Fan Page for their business.

False Sense Of Security

Let me pick on one of my favorite brands, Starbucks Coffee, as an example. Specifically, their “My Starbucks Idea” website. Through this site, Starbucks welcomes everyone to submit product, program, design, service, or ANY idea.

The My Starbucks Idea home page declares:

You know better than anyone else what you want from Starbucks. So tell us. What’s your Starbucks Idea? Revolutionary or simple – we want to hear it. Share your ideas, tell us what you think of other people’s ideas and join the discussion. We’re here, and we’re ready to make ideas happen.

Starbucks thinks they are listening.
Customers think Starbucks is listening, and taking action.
Starbucks thinks they’ve “checked the box” (to some extent) in being a social media player by having this site.
Power to the people!

However, if you look at the “milestone” of the 50 Ideas Launched and Still Counting! – celebrating customer ideas implemented – Starbucks has technically only implemented six (6) ideas submitted by customers. If you dig into it – as John has on his Brand Autopsy site in his Tough Love For Starbucks post – you’ll see that most ideas were already in the works, would have been done anyway, or aren’t even customer-facing ideas (e.g. Employee discount on work clothes).

A problem with social media is that companies may think – simply by participating in the trend – that they’re meeting customer need. Starbucks has invested in this suggestion site and believe they are checking the “we care and listen to customers” box. They think they’ve fulfilled the portion of their strategy, that supports the objective: to “Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.”

Starbucks isn’t being as democratic with ideas as they claim (and think) they are. It really isn’t “power to the people.” Social media (or maybe improper use of social media) is giving Starbucks a false sense of security.

Social media isn’t for everyone. To “engage in meaningful conversation” may actually mean a conversation. A face-to-face, human-to-human dialogue. For example, the kind a barista can have with a customer at Starbucks.

Where We’ve Been

Tuesday I wrote about these ideas:

• (1) What is Word of Mouth?
• (2) Is WOM taking back seat to social media?

Yesterday I shared my thoughts about these:

• (3) Is WOM diminished as a marketing discipline?
• (4) Is social media durable as a marketing and WOM tool?

Where We’re Going

Tomorrow is the last installment, I’ll talk about:

• (7) How do you intentionally create WOM?
• (8) What are some WOM best practices for small businesses.

No. 2 of a 4 Article Series

This week I’m talking about Word of Mouth or WOM. What it is, how to create it, etc. This is following a podcast hosted by Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot featuring John Moore (from Brand Autopsy) and I.

I’m taking you through information that didn’t necessarily make the podcast.

Yesterday I shared thoughts on these ideas:

• (1) What is Word of Mouth?
• (2) Is WOM taking back seat to social media?

Today, I address these questions:

• (3) Is WOM diminished as a marketing discipline?
• (4) Is social media durable as a marketing and WOM tool?

(3) Is WOM diminished as a marketing discipline?

The question is really asking, “With the social media taking all the spotlight, is WOM going away?”

Heck, no. Word of mouth is here to stay – and we have no control over it. All we can try to influence it. It’s been around since the first caveman told the other caveman about a better watering hole… And WOM will be behind the comparison of living conditions in the various space colonies and types of jet-pack suits.

I mentioned yesterday social media tactics are popular right now because they are simple to implement, trendy, and easy for people to track and measure. WOM is not simple, nor necessarily easy.

(4) Is social media durable as a marketing and WOM tool?

<rant> Before I continue, may I be really open with you? I’m so tired of hearing about ’social media’ and search engine optimization (SEO). Are you? It is confusing people. Like blogs were a few years ago – people are being told they’re ignorant if their business isn’t into social media and optimizing their websites. This isn’t necessarily true. </rant>

The biggest chunk of bunk is that social media is the solution, or the objective… It is just one of many possible tactics – methods to reach potential audiences. Social media tools effectively reach those connected to the internet with an I.V.

There are groups of people – whole masses of people – believe it or not – who use the internet only as a phone directory, to Google something, for a stock quote, the weather and news headlines. *GASP* Social media doesn’t reaching these folks. It is okay, however, there are other forms of media.

The worst mistake a company can make is think their implementation of a few social media tools constitutes a comprehensive WOM strategy.

It follows the problem I call: Tactic Lust. Where we love a tactic so much – we’re convinced it is the magic bullet and immediately want to implement it. However, if you start at the strategy: “to create meaningful conversations with our customers” – there may be a chance your resulting tactics have nothing to do with using a computer. (If you want to read more about tactic lust, you may enjoy my article Tactic Lust I wrote for the Marketing Profs Daily Fix blog.)

Tomorrow and Friday I’ll continue this series on WOM and address…

Thursday

• (5) What’s the role of social media in creating WOM?
• (6) Has the focus of social media had a negative effect on the Customer Experience?

Friday

• (7) How do you intentionally create WOM?
• (8) What are some WOM best practices for small businesses

What are your thoughts? And, hey… Thanks again for stopping by and reading.

No. 1 of a 4 Article Series

Last week I was flattered to be part of a discussion about word of mouth (WOM) marketing and social media. John Moore (from Brand Autopsy) and I, spoke with Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot.

Link to podcast → Power To The Small Business: Debunking Word-Of-Mouth Bunk.

Jay let us know ahead of time what types of questions he was going to ask. Time didn’t permit me to share all of my thoughts. I thought I’d share them this week in a series of articles about word of mouth and how to be remarkable.

Here are the questions, and the schedule:

Tuesday (today)

• (1) What is Word of Mouth?
• (2) Is WOM taking back seat to social media?

Wednesday

• (3) Is WOM diminished as a marketing discipline?
• (4) Is social media durable as a marketing and WOM tool?

Thursday

• (5) What’s the role of social media in creating WOM?
• (6) Has the focus of social media had a negative effect on the Customer Experience?

Friday

• (7) How do you intentionally create WOM?
• (8) What are some WOM best practices for small businesses

(1) What is Word of Mouth (WOM)?

WOM has become the term for information (good/bad) about you, your product/service, company, or brand that is passed from a person to a person (in various means) with the result of an action being taken.

It is the opposite of mass advertising. It is generally understood that is is a person not associated (employed) with the source of the WOM. (Else they would be considered a spokesperson, not a WOMer). However, a spokesperson can provide tidbits of information to help make it easier to spread the word.

In our interview John mentions Malcolm Gladwell’s 2000 book The Tipping Point. Malcolm explains how ideas spread through: Mavens, Salesmen, and Connectors. John sees this as the birth of the idea of Word of Mouth as a tool.

I don’t think people realized the business application for WOM until around 2003 as a result of the December 2003 HBR article “The One Number You Need To Grow” by Frederick Reichheld. He says the best (and only) question you need to ask customers (to gauge satisfaction) is:

“How likely is it that you would recommend
our company to a friend or colleague?”

Companies began to focus energy around the idea… “What do we need to do (tools, process, mechanisms) to help people recommend us?”

As the article points out… “When customers recommend you, they’re putting their reputation on the line. And they’ll take that risk only if they’re intensely loyal.”

Since then, we’ve been trying to find ways to reach these potential promoters directly to tell THEM about our services, product, and company.

The History of WOM

We humans are good at WOM…

In grade/high school it is called gossip:

• “OMG, did you hear homecoming king, Simon is dating cheerleader Paula?”

As adults, WOMers are called busy bodies.

• “OMG, did you hear Simon is cheating on his wife Paula with Ellen, the Blizzard girl at Dairy Queen?”

Water-cooler talk the morning after a Seinfeld episode or American Idol show is WOM.

• “OMG did you see the way Simon dissed Paula’s vote of Sanjaya?”

It’s the tag we’ve stuck on people talking to people with a message that isn’t controlled by the source.

Trying to foster WOM as a marketing strategy is our way of trying to create a script for that conversation. To provide bullet points, helping the informant with their facts, (and our propaganda).

We’ve always relied on WOM for things like babysitters, finding a good accountant, or a restaurant recommendation.

Generating WOM is the way that babysitter, accountant, or restauranteur does things in hopes of word spreading faster, more efficiently, or with “the right” information.

(2) Is WOM taking back seat to social media?

Creating WOM isn’t as simple as ringing your agency and asking for a press release or an ad in the Sunday newspaper. Furthermore, it isn’t something assigned to a single person. WOM happens when the whole organization is working together in a way that provides a remarkable experience for the customer.

Social media tools make it easier for people to connect on a one-to-one basis, for a ‘conversation’ to happen, and for them to share that conversation with others.

Social media tools are quick and easy for us to access – I can set-up Facebook, Twitter, or a blog in minutes. Furthermore, they’re easy to track. See how many friends, followers, re-tweets, and comments I receive. My numbers are up from last month to this month – I must be doing better.

For all these reasons, social media is appearing to be the “thing.” It is important to understand that creating WOM is a strategy, and social media tools are a few of the many tools to help with that strategy. People talk about social media tools as the magic bullet to successful marketing. However – like any tactic – you must first determine if they are the right tactic for you to connect with your customers.

What are your thoughts? I’d love to get your reaction.

I hope you visit tomorrow for part 2 of this 4-part series.