Jordyn Fox
AAD 617- Marketing, Media, and Communications
Eric Schiff
February 12th, 2017
Lexicon Paper: Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of Mouth Marketing History
Word of mouth marketing goes back to the start on consumerism, as long as people have been buying products people have been forming opinions of them and sharing those opinions with other people. The concept and theory of word of mouth marketing however did not arise until the 1970’s. “A psychologist named George Silverman is most commonly attributed as the pioneer in the field of WOMM, creating what he called ‘teleconferenced peer influence groups’…” (Brysha, 2013) In 2011, George Silverman published his book The Secrets of
Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth. The book accounts some of the first research and case studies concerning word of mouth marketing in the 1970’s, and documents the changes to the field with the emergence of Web 2.0 sites and social media such as Facebook. (Silverman, 2011)
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) was founded in 2004. WOMMA conduct research about the effects of word of mouth marketing, educate and teach about word of mouth marketing, participate in public advocacy, as well as demonstrate value in word of mouth marketing. (Word of Mouth Marketing Association )
Word of Mouth Marketing Introduction
“Word of mouth marketing can be described as any sort of business action that earns a customer recommendation.” (WOMMA Defines WOMM, 2011) Ways that businesses can earn these customer recommendations can be through being the best product in the category, providing the customer with a great experience, or rewarding customer loyalty. Customer recommendations are an indicator of customer preference, which leads to the purchasing of the product by that customer, and the greater likelihood that that customer will tell others about that product. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association categorizes word of mouth marketing into 5 principles: credible, respectful, social, measurable, repeatable. (WOMMA Defines WOMM, 2011) Word of mouth marketing is more effective in products that are in “high consideration categories” meaning there are a lot of options to choose from and not monopolized. (Word of Mouth Marketing Association ) Word of mouth marketing is most effective immediately, 90% of online word of mouth, and 73% of offline word of mouth marketing’s impact is in the first two weeks. (Word of Mouth Marketing Association ) “An offline WOM impression drives at least 5 times more sales than a paid advertising impression, and much more (as much as 200 times more) for higher-consideration categories.” Word of mouth marketing also increases search activity for companies. Word of mouth marketing “drives 13% of sales (paid marketing in total drives 20-30% of sales) [and] amplifies the effect of paid media by 15%.” (Word of Mouth Marketing Association )
Lexicon Terms: Definition, Delineation, Relevance to WOMM
A feedback loop is a constant circle of communication from a company or organization to the consumer. By maintaining a constant feedback loop with customers, companies are able to see what consumers are saying, thinking, and feeling about a certain product. This is important in word of mouth marketing because if a company is able to keep the exchange positive the consumer is more likely to give testimony of the product, and increase the word of mouth marketing. If there isn’t a constant positive feedback loop a consumer may give a bad review of the product which will have a negative effect in word of mouth marketing.
Social Media consists of various platforms that users are able to chat, communicate, and post. These are often forums for opinions, which can be shared among friends or followers of people. Social Media plays into word of mouth marketing by giving people a platform to share their opinions and testimonies of certain products. This can be done in a number of ways. It could be an Instagram photo of attending event saying they had a wonderful time, a Facebook check in to a location, a shared article about ticket sales or a certain event, a Yelp review of a restaurant. Each of these are digital ways that consumers are able to share the word about a certain product or event. Social media greatly amplifies word of mouth marketing by allowing it to reach a larger audience than traditional word of mouth marketing
Affiliation is a person’s relationship to an organization or company. Affiliation can be as a member to an organization, an alumni, and employee, etc. Affiliation can be a prominent aspect in word of mouth marketing since people tend to talk and advertise for places they are closely affiliated to because they have built relationships with that company or organization. If someone works at a museum, they will often tell friends and invite them to new gallery openings or events. People affiliate with organizations they share interest with, and care about, and in turn are more likely to share information about by word of mouth marketing. Another aspect of this is other people knowing another’s affiliation with a company or organization. If someone knows a member, alumni, or an employee of an organization they may be more likely to trust that organization or be partial to it because of their relationship with that person even if they don’t have a personal affiliation. They also may be more likely to ask an affiliate for a recommendation or testimony and be swayed through that word of mouth marketing.
Social Impact is the effect that an idea, product, image, or phrase has on people. The social impact that an idea, product, image or phrase has on people either negative or positive will be apparent in how they go about mentioning it through word of mouth marketing. If the social impact of a company’s product is negative, people will speak poorly or give bad reviews which will hurt the company’s reputation. If the social impact of a product is positive, the amount of positive word of mouth marketing will increase and help sell the product.
Dissonance is a lack of harmony in message, or a tension. Word of mouth marketing relies on testimonies and personal experience of products. Dissonance happens when a negative message is being spread through word of mouth, and a positive message is being through the other types of advertising and marketing. This leaves consumers in a state of tension, not knowing whether to trust the testimonials and experience of others or the companies advertising. Dissonance can also happen when there is tension amongst word of mouth testimonials, if certain customers have great experiences and others have terrible experiences, a third customer may not know who to trust or believe. Dissonance can also occur when there is a disharmony is messages or ideas that occur through word of mouth marketing compared to other types of marketing that a consumer is seeing. It may not be positive versus negative, but different in content, for example a book is marketed as a mystery while testimonials say that it is more of a suspenseful love story.
Lexicon Terms: Relationships
Feedback loop connects to dissonance and social impact because the constant feedback loop allows companies to become aware of how their message is effecting people: what social impact it has and if there are any instances of dissonance. The feedback loop allows for companies and organizations to change what they are doing if they sense dissonance, a negative social impact, or simply an unwanted social impact. Social media is a place where dissonance and social impact is able to be detected. Social media is a place where companies and organizations can monitor dissonance and social impact, making social media part of the feedback loop. Affiliation relates to social media in the way that social media is a platform that affiliation can become known. If someone is an employee or member of an organization it may be listed on their Facebook page, or they may share articles from this organization. By having it listed or sharing on social media, others are able to see affiliation
Works Cited
Brysha, B. (2013, January 7). A-TO-Z WOM, PART 1: A BRIEF HISTORY OF WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING. Retrieved February 13, 2017, from Extole.com: https://www.extole.com/blog/a-to-z-wom-part-1-a-brief-history-of-word-of-mouth-marketing/
[Digital image]. (2015, July 30). Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://www.bigdemup.com/article/leverage-word-of-mouth-to-grow-your-business-its-honest-marketing.html
Silverman, G. (2011). Secrets of word-of-mouth marketing: how to trigger exponential sales through runaway word of mouth. Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://mnav.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Secrets-of-WOMM-2nd-ed.pdf
WOMMA Defines WOMM (2011). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
Word of Mouth Marketing Association . (n.d.). Return on Word of Mouth. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from Word of Mouth Marketing Association: http://womma.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/STUDY-WOMMA-Return-on-WOM-Executive-Summary.pdf