Recently in word of mouth marketing Category

Forrester Research's Groundswell blog reports that North American consumers still cite friends and acquaintances with first-hand knowledge of a product as their primary trustworthy source (83%).  Independent print and broadcast reviews come second (75%) and manufacturers' own websites are right behind in third (69%):

"If most of your customers like you, the lesson is this: help them to talk. Install ratings and reviews on your site. Create a blog and let them respond. Give them online tools and energize them. And embrace the fan groups they form on social networks. Fan the flames."

What about customers who are unhappy? No amount of "influencer marketing" can save them, according to Groundswell. The remedy is to seek out and solve problems of individuals who are talking and - here's the hard part - spend the time and money to fix customer service on the front end to stop the bleeding.

Master landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of New York's Central Park as well as the grounds of George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore House and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, liked to talk to strangers while crisscrossing the country by train to check on work in progress. In June 1893, on a trip to Asheville, NC, from Chicago, Olmstead quizzed fellow passengers about their intentions to attend the recently opened World's Fair. Most everyone said they planned to attend the Fair, but gave a variety of excuses regarding why they hadn't gone just yet. People feared a looming economic crisis and the coming summer heat, he learned. Probing further, he uncovered a common fear of being "fleeced unmercifully" in the wild western streets of Chicago by hoteliers, restaurateurs, and even the Fair itself. Writing back to other Fair directors, Olmstead pled for urgency in making early improvements that would be fodder for the stories people took back home: "This is the advertising now most important to be developed; that of high-strung, contagious enthusiasm, growing from actual excellence: the question being not whether people shall be satisfied, but how much they shall be carried away with admiration, and infect others by their unexpected enjoyment of what they have found."

There's no place for "Word of Mouth" within a marketing strategy or on a tactical marketing plan. That's like bringing your toothbrush on a first date. Optimistic, yes. A reliable strategy or tactic, no. Word of mouth is something that's achieved through superior product or service design, proper positioning, and just a good product or service launched at the right time. Seth Godin taught us that in Purple Cow. John Wagner writes about "discoverability" from the consumer's point of view. The consumer will trumpet something much louder if they feel like they're discovering it, versus being prodded along to "tell a friend" by a marketer. I could not agree more.