Why Take Marketing 491? Ironically, the reason I took this class is due to word of mouth. I had originally enrolled myself in the course History of Economic Thought. This elective economic class was a senior synthesis class for economic majors, which I then found myself in a dilemma because I am neither a senior nor am I an economic major… So after the initial shock of being in a class where I do not belong, I found myself researching alternative courses to take. I happen to stumble upon Marketing 491 through a friend. They recommended I take the course. I read the course description online and thought the social media and word of mouth marketing strategies would be beneficial to learn because it is important to understand the current environment we live in, the current environment of a fast pace technological generation.
Thoughts & Reactions From The First Five Chapters:
Organic Word of Mouth: After reading the first five chapters of Word Of Mouth Marketing, I really liked how the author, Andy Sernovitz, described word of mouth marketing as being a simple, natural conversation between real people. I also like and prefer the term organic word of mouth-word as opposed to amplified work of mouth. For example, organic word of mouth marketing is word of mouth that springs naturally from the positive qualities of one’s company (Sernovitz 4). Whereas, Amplified word of mouth is forced conversational campaigns. In my opinion, I agree with Sernovitz that nothing is better than customers taking it upon themselves to support a business that they just love (4). For example, I had a restaurant assignment given in my accounting 301 course last quarter that required my team to set up an appointment with a manager and research the internal controls of that company. When I called the restaurant’s general manager at Barrio, the manager was friendly, flexible, and enthusiastic to do the interview. The next week, I found myself praising Barrio to my friends. The Barrio experience was memorable and worth talking about. Also, the manager was passionate about his business and passion is contagious.
Make It Easy & Be Interesting: The four rules of word of mouth marketing include: 1.) Be Interesting, 2.) Make It Easy, 3.) Make People Happy, 4.) Earn Trust and Respect. Applying the rules reminded me of Voodoo doughnuts in Portland Oregon. Voodoo doughnuts is a tiny hole in the wall doughnut shop in Portland, Oregon that will have lines around the building of people waiting for 45 minutes to purchase a pink box of doughnuts. Voodoo doughnuts are fun and interesting because they are super-simple, creative, and funky doughnut names/recipes. For instance, a huge glazed doughnut is named Tex-ass. In addition, the number seven word of mouth marketing manifesto stood out to me: Be interesting, or be invisible (57). This is a simple statement but a simple statement that carries a huge punch because if you are not interesting and you bring nothing to the table, why even be in business in the first place?
The Real People: Furthermore, I really liked the quote “Great advertising doesn’t fix a car that constantly needs service” (43). I like this quote because it illustrates the importance that a great product or service is not based on advertising but the ongoing process of maintaining functionality, quality, and customer service. One cannot hide a bad product behind a grand media scheme. Consumers come in all shapes and sizes and the newly empowered consumer voice will find dishonest companies and products. This empowered voice can be looked upon as being thrilling and intimating. For example, a consumer blog can live forever on the Internet. Consumer’s messages can be beneficial or tarnishing to a business’ name. However, it is important to view negative word of mouth has an opportunity to listen and learn from it (57). In conclusion, this new consumer voice of empowerment is important because it enforces immediate feedback and forces the marketers to focus on us, the real people.
-Connie Rae Shobaken
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