Detroit’s Big Three Auto Marketers Should Consider Word of Mouth Marketing

The leaders of the Big Three automakers received all kinds of negative press for flying individual personal jets to the bailout hearings in Washington DC. I’m sure if their marketing people had a say in the matter they may have done something different.

Imagine the positive word of mouth they might have created with a drive across America buzz campaign. They could have stretched the 8 hour drive over the course of several days using their most fuel efficient cars . They could have featured the men and women that work in dealerships and auto suppliers in each State along the way. They could have videotaped the trip and uploaded it to their websites, giving the public a sense of the very real people whose lives would be affected by allowing the Big Three to fail.

The marketing departments of the Detroit automakers may want to adopt a word of mouth marketing perspective especially as they begin to scale back some of their mass media programs, witness Buick ending its relationship with Tiger Woods, citing their economic situation. Word of mouth marketing cannot replace traditional marketing but it can be done more cost effectively and will be more credible.

Automobile marketers will have to find more cost effective ways to get the word out about their products and a word of mouth marketing perspective may be just what they need. All marketing should be designed to create positive word of mouth, and everyone would agree the Big Three sure need some positive buzz.

Why Should Small Business Consider Word of Mouth Marketing?

Many of today’s consumers are flat out. Work and family demands take up a significant amount of their time. On top of all this, marketers are constantly bombarding them with advertising from multiple sources- TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, direct mail, the Internet.

Companies are displaying their products, brands and logos in ever more creative ways in an attempt to cut through the clutter and get noticed. Any venue, medium or activity that attracts large numbers of eyeballs is fair game for advertisers. Its overwhelming and there seems to be no end to the madness.

To be competitive, businesses have to be in the game in some way shape or form. But their ads and messages must also get through to their targeted audiences in the right place and at the right time for them to take action.

The good thing about the current environment is this that there are so many alternatives available to marketers to get the word out. The question businesses must ask is- Which are the most effective ways to reach the markets we serve and what is the right media mix? This is an important question for the small business with a limited budget that needs to get the most bang for their buck.

Although mass media has the advantage of getting ads exposed to huge numbers, there is no guarantee it can deliver the right numbers in terms of a specific target audience, even by placing ads on mass mediums that cater to very specific target audiences-cable channels, talk radio, social networks.

Not only is it difficult getting noticed by the right customer, marketer generated advertising also has the issue of credibility. According to the findings of an April 2007 Nielsen survey, consumers place the most trust in what they hear from other consumers when deciding which products and services to buy. Some 78% of the respondents in the Nielsen Online Global Consumer Study indicated that a recommendation from another consumer is their most trusted source of advertising.

Businesses are therefore faced with the challenge of promoting their brands, products and services in a cluttered environment where fewer consumers trust the messages coming from traditional mediums. Given this set of circumstances, word of mouth marketing makes sense for small business. It should be included in the marketing plan as an additional tactic, especially for businesses that receive a fair share of new customers through referrals.

If you’re getting most of your new customers through referrals then you probably have the necessary components in place to begin a word of mouth marketing campaign.

Word of Mouth Marketing- A Boon for Small Businesses

Small businesses don’t have the resources to spend on mass media advertising. That’s why they get most of their business through referrals, friends families and colleagues. But very seldom if ever, do they do anything proactive to give people a reason to talk about them in a positive way or even ask for referrals.

This was confirmed yesterday when I attended Day 1 of Andrew Morrison’s Small Business Boot Camp. There had to be at least 100 small business owners in attendance. If you are a small business and this Boot Camp is offered in your town, by all means go. It’s well worth it. It’s a day and a half of intense focus on ways to make your business and your life more successful and productive.

This Boot Camp plug is an example of positive word of mouth.

As I was saying, once I shared with my fellow attendees that I was a self-proclaimed Word of Mouth guru, I received quite a few requests for my business card and website. Small businesses are constantly looking for ways to promote their businesses at a reasonable cost. Yet while most will say they get the bulk of their business from referrals, they are not really going after referrals in any sort of planned or strategic way.

With this blog, I’ll be posting some of my insights on ways to increase business referrals by taking a structured approach to building positive word of mouth. Let’s face it, people will talk about your product, business, brand or service. The challenge is to make sure that what they’re saying is accurate and most of all positive.

If you have any ideas you’d like to share, please do and if you are a small business owner, tell your colleagues about this blog.