First day of class

Even though our first day of class was only a week ago, I'm having difficulty remembering exactly what we discussed. What stuck out to me the most was the video we watched on Orabrush. Considering that I'm a movie lover, it does not surprise me that what I remember most was a video. Also, I think that this video stuck out to me because it was an example of what an actual small business is doing to market its product. Orabrush does not have much money for advertising, and the marketing team's use of YouTube is quite impressive. I said this next point in class, but I'm going to repeat it here. I particularly liked how the marketing director, the recent graduate of BYU, said that in order to market this product, he had to think not like a marketer, but like an everyday internet user. He also talked about how a YouTube campaign will never work if you do not make your videos in such a way that people will want to look for them. His tactic is to make them funny, but at the very least they need to be interesting. This leads me to Andy Sernovit's book, Word of Mouth Marketing.

In his book, Sernovitz discusses the four rules of word of mouth marketing. Rule #1 is that you have to be interesting. Rule #2 is that you have to make people happy. Orabrush understands both of these rules. Not only do they have an interesting product, but they have an interesting marketing campaign that also makes people happy. How do they do this? By making them laugh. This is the most surefire way to make people happy. Make them laugh, and they will keep coming back for more.

Moving on, I'm going to look further into the first five chapters of Word of Mouth Marketing. I'll start by saying that I read this entire book in one sitting yesterday night, and I loved every page of it. Of the first five chapters, my favorite has to be chapter one. This chapter outlines the entire book, and if you were only going to read one chapter, read this one. The rest of the book springs from the ideas presented in this chapter. Ideas such as the four rules of word of mouth marketing, the three reasons people talk about you, and the five t's of word of mouth marketing are all overviewed in this section.

Sernovitz also looks at the ethics behind word of mouth marketing. In this portion, he overviews the do's and don'ts of word of mouth marketing. The three big ideas here are honesty of relationship, honesty of opinion, and honesty of identity. In other words, clearly say who you are working for, do not lie about your opinion, and do not pose as a consumer. These are all ways to torpedo your company. Follow these honesty guidelines and no consumer will have a reason not to trust you.