We rarely think about it, but each of us is permanently involved in the process of "word of mouth". We advise each other a car model or smartphone brand, a resort city or a new cafe, a kindergarten or a real estate agency and in the center of such a conversation, there are always brands. We gladly advise our friends and acquaintances that we liked ourselves. And then we are glad to hear something like: "Yes, you were right; there are nice prices and excellent service! Thank you, friend!" The spontaneous process of word of mouth does not stop for a minute. Buzz advertising begins when you start talking about your brand.
Buzz Marketing Definition
This is a marketing technology that allows provoking positive conversations about the brand in the environment of potential consumers.
How Does Buzz Marketing Work?
At the heart of the technology is the feature of human psychology to trust the advice of friends and acquaintances about goods and services. In the modern world, advertising surrounds a person literally from all sides and it is more important than ever for a buyer to get an unbiased view of a product. The consumer every year more and more wary of advertising promises and that is why when choosing new products, he appeals for recommendations to representatives of his closest associates. If the consumer has a choice, whether to trust him with a call from traditional advertising, or a friend's advice, he, of course, will choose the latter. When a person likes a product, he will definitely advise it to his friend, in turn, he will try and advise already to his acquaintance. And so the chain of the "word of mouth" works.
Thus, the purpose of buzz advertising is the creation of rumors, a powerful marketing tool that is able to reach people even isolated from the core community, besides, people believe rumors more than official messages or advertisements. However, rumors are such messages, whose appearance and behavior is very difficult to predict. In cases where this still works, hidden marketing is extremely effective: the consumer not only buys the product himself but also tells about it to friends and acquaintances, initiating the beginning of a viral marketing campaign that looks completely natural. The method of hidden marketing is very difficult, even for the most competent buzz marketers, because in this case there is a rather low level of financial risks, because the campaign itself is usually quite low-cost, and in case of success this strategy brings tangible profits. Buzz marketing is used in those cases when the arsenal of traditional methods is exhausted and the company needs new, more effective marketing solutions.
The Benefits Of Buzz Marketing
ABSOLUTELY UNKNOWN FOR COMPETITORS
In order to notice the conversation, it is necessary to be involved in it. It's almost impossible to track word of mouth. When competitors understand that the whole target audience is talking about your business, your products, and services, it will be too late to catch up with you.
HIGH CONFIDENCE LEVEL
When two people talk and one of them spontaneously mentions your product or service in a positive light, his interlocutor is inclined to absolutely trust him. After all, he does not perceive the speaker as an advertising agent. Moreover, the speaker himself does not understand that he voices the response, not even at his own will, but as a result of the fact that information about your business was sown for the first time with the help of word-of-mouth marketing technologies. Simply put, you taught his subconscious mind to speak positively about you at the right time and in the right place.
LONG TIME DISTRIBUTION OF RUMORS
Putting the likes of the liked heading, a person instantly switches and forgets about it. In order for traditional advertising to work, it must constantly be seen. Using the technology of word-of-mouth marketing, you will ensure the dissemination of information about your business for a long time. People will remember your product whenever there is an opportunity to speak out.
FINANCIAL EFFICIENCY
Financial efficiency is a key competitive advantage that becomes critically important once a crisis is on the horizon. Compared with traditional marketing, you save on investing in word-of-mouth in the stages of concept development and seeding, and in the process of maintaining conversations.
Positive and Negative Buzz Marketing
Today, thanks to the Internet, the opinion about goods and companies passed from mouth to mouth has acquired a global character. In social networks and forums, your brands are already discussed publicly and openly. And most importantly, consumers simply describe the experience of interacting with your product. This can be negative and positive feedback, and it is not known who will be the first to write a response - an angry or grateful client.
If you cannot hide the economic interest in disseminating the message about the product, there is a risk of the opposite effect, the formation of a negative attitude towards the product and the brand. If the consumer understands that he was manipulated, he is annoyed, he is angry with marketers and takes this negative attitude to the product itself because he feels himself to be fooled. It may happen that the consumer on his own initiative starts his "viral campaign" and spreads the rumor with a negative evaluation of the company and the product. This can greatly damage the reputation of the company. Such unsuccessful hidden marketing campaigns have led some to negatively regard this method as a whole and call it "catching bait" by comparing the advertised product with a worm on a hook, which is only needed to catch the consumer.
Buzz-Marketing Target Group
The key difference between word-of-mouth marketing and traditional marketing is the understanding the nature of the dissemination of information in society. In this case, there are two fundamentally different audiences:
- the target audience is those who can buy your product or service, but cannot talk about it at the same time;
- the audience of rumors is those who will never become your client but will gladly talk about you.
The most striking example, known to all, is "Harley-Davidson." Few people have this motorcycle (the target audience), but almost all have told about it (the audience of rumors).