“Heard It Through the Grapevine”

Most restaurants don’t have the resources to spend on lots of advertising or marketing.  They depend on people talking about them to be successful.  How can we get people talking about your business?

One reason some products and ideas become popular is that they are just plain better.  Another reason products catch on is attractive pricing.  Advertising also plays a role.  Consumers need to know about something before they can buy it.  Although quality, price, and advertising contribute to products and ideas being successful, they don’t explain the whole story.

Social influence and word of mouth is the best form of social transmission.  People love to share stories, news, and information with those around them.  The things others tell us, e-mail us, and text us have a significant impact on what we think, read, buy, and do.  We try websites our friends and neighbors recommend, read books our relatives praise, and vote for candidates our friends endorse.  Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions.

Word of mouth is more effective than traditional advertising for two key reasons.  First, it’s more persuasive.  Second, word of mouth is more targeted.

Generating Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is naturally directed toward an interested audience.  We don’t share a news story or recommendation with everyone we know.  Rather, we tend to select particular people who we think would find the given piece of information most relevant.  Word of mouth tends to reach people who are actually interested in the thing being discussed.

As Bonnie Raitt sings,  “Let’s give them something to talk about”.  The challenge is how do we do that?  People have embraced social media as the wave.  Most people would probably guess around 50-60% of word of mouth is found online.  Research by the Keller Fay Group finds that only 7% of word of mouth happens online.  People do spend a good bit of time online.  On average about two hours per day, but they spend more than 8 times as much offline.

To understand the power of word of mouth, online or offline requires understanding why people talk and why some things get talked about and shared more than others.

Before we can begin to develop a strategy and business plan to generate more “word of mouth” we need to understand why people share.

Basic Principles

Social Currency:  People want to look smart, rich, and cool.  Knowing about cool things.  Provide visible status symbols they can show others.  Sharing often depends how it makes people look to others.

Triggers:  These are stimuli that prompt people to think about related things.  We need to design ideas that are frequently triggered by linking your products to other relevant clues.

Emotion:  When we care, we share.  Must evoke some sort of emotion.  Emotional things get shared.

Public: “Monkey see, monkey do.”    We need to create behavior residue.  Provide a vote of confidence that an experience by customers is a great decision and virtually risk free.

Practical Value:  Message must stand out.  Highlight the incredible value of what is being offered.  Package knowledge and expertise so it can be easily passed on.

Stories:   People don’t just share information - they tell stories. Also find ways to capture the customer’s stories and testimonials.

Arousal

Rather than focus on facts, focus on the emotion of the experience.  The feelings, the underlying emotions that customers have had or will have when they purchase a product or service  This will motivate the customers to take action.

Great shopping adventures are like art, they move clients and evoke their innermost feelings.  Every piece of content from website, email, photographs, videos, text, etc must be designed to build an emotional connection.  It doesn’t require a costly ad agency or millions of dollars to get people to feel emotion.  We need to excite customers or inspire them by showing them how their lives can be filled with positive joyful emotions by purchasing a product or service.

Emotions drive people to action.  They make us laugh, shout, and cry, and they make us talk, share, and buy.  So, rather than quoting statistics or providing information all the time, focus on feelings.  Customers want to be emotionally moved.  Activating emotion will be the key to transmission.  Get customers excited or make them laugh…then they will share.

Social Proof

People imitate those around them.  They conform to what others are doing.  To help resolve uncertainty, people look at what others are doing and follow that.  Purchasing any product or service involves some risk.

Testimonials, referrals, word of mouth, and stories all play a big role in how customers make decisions based on other’s behavior.  People are not always sure how to purchase the “right” product or service.  Obeservability has a huge impact on how products and services catch on.  Observable things are also more likely to be discussed, purchased, and shared.  The more often a current or potential customer is observed the more it triggers people to take action.

Seeing someone you know will promote discussion.  If customers can see what others are choosing and doing, they can’t imitate them.  With the power of social media, photographs, and videos things that were once unobservable can be transformed onto more observable ones.

This will require design ideas that will advertise themselves.  Every time customers make a purchase it transmits social proof or passive approval because it can become observable.  Clients posting their opinions and behavior online provide behavioral residue.  Reviews, blogs, posts all leave evidence others can find later.

Generating Media Creates a Customized Solution

One size does not fit all. Our goal is to be an extension of your existing efforts. To drive business, not sit around waiting for it or spend thousands of dollars on ineffective marketing. We look to create a variety of ways to develop an publish all forms of communication. It is not going to happen overnight. It is not an easy task and takes a commitment to build an audience and repeat customers.

Happy to discuss the possibilities.

www.generatingmedia.com