Another “old” marketing voice bites the dust
After the Ries statement on branding, we only needed to hear the Trout statement on word-of-mouth marketing to conclude once again that the world is in need of new authoritative marketing voices.
Here is what Trout has to say about Word of Mouth Marketing:
“Now for the really bad news. There’s no way to control that word-of-mouth. Do I want to give up control and let consumers take over my campaign? No way.”
The amazing thing is that even in Jack Trout’s heyday (a few decades ago) products were being bought because of the story about the product more so than because of the product itself. And most marketers ran into trouble when their product story was too hard to “re-tell”. So in effect, he is right when he says that word-of -mouth marketing is not new - it’s just surprising that he never realized the power of it.
As for the new marketing voices, the story was picked up and intelligently commented on by Olivier Blanchard at the Corante Marketing Hub as well as by two (updated 3/9) three other Corante contributors to the Hub - Johnnie Moore, John Moore, and Mary Schmidt (and as an active Corante team member, I am off course biased).
[Technorati Tags: word of mouth marketing WOM viral marketing new marketing voices]
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March 9th, 2006 at 1:13 am
WOM Kung Fu?
What’s interesting about the whole Jack Trout hornets’ nest rattling article about WOM deal isn’t so much that some of us prefer the traditional “command & control” marketing model over more authentic open source marketing models, but that a good…
March 17th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Wow. I don’t know which day I was more sad the one when I found out that Santa Claus was not real or today, the day that I found out one of my marketing heroes, Jack Trout, was no longer innovative. I’m really upset. If there comes a point in the life of Jack Trout where he “just doesn’t get it” anymore what hope is there for any of us mere mortals?
With all of the data out there clearly saying that word of mouth is what drives sales and adoption in the United States and that broadcast media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines) is rapidly losing what little power to move markets it still retained it is beyond me how anyone could doubt the power that an organized word of mouth campaign could have on the life of a brand. Word of mouth isn’t confusing at all. Simply, it is people telling people stories about brands or services that they have used or heard about. What is confusing about this? Organizing word of mouth campaigns might not seem revolutionary or “new” to a marketing god like Jack Trout but there are lots of companies out there that have clearly gotten away from this effective marketing discipline and spent millions or billions on communication channels that are less and less effective over time.
With tips like, “A third-party endorsement of your product has always been the Holy Grail”, “Buzz can kill you if you don’t have the right product” and “You just can’t buy mouths the way you can buy media” we’d all be silly not to listen to Jack. Right? So let’s all follow Jack’s suggestion and keep shoveling money into advertising because it’s been proven to be so effective in today’s marketplace.
On a personal note, for my friends who are reading this, the day that I publish or even write a paragraph bemoaning the fact that I have to learn new vocabulary about anything much less my chosen profession please take me to my local golf course, show me to the first tee, take the keys to the office out of my hands and wish me luck. My remaining employees will thank you for it.
To paraphrase my hero, it’s a sad day when I could even think about telling one of my CEO clients , “You just put a big chunk of money into hiring Jack Trout? Good luck”. How very sad I must feel today.
Ted Wright
Partner, Liquid Intelligence
Atlanta, Georgia