Marketing Strategies: Word-of-Mouth & Groups

Leveraging Groups in Marketing

• Marketers utilize groups to spread word-of-mouth (WOM) effectively. Skeptical consumers, less susceptible to advertising, are more influenced by peers' experiences.

Stimulating Word-of-Mouth

• Advertising: Engaging ads spark WOM. Offering free products to recommenders incentivizes the process; often recommenders are opinion leaders.
• Product Sampling: Providing samples (seeding) to potential customers, especially opinion leaders, is a key strategy.
• Buzz Marketing: Exploiting the exponential spread of WOM. Marketers provide information and samples to opinion leaders or celebrities, sponsor trendy events, and leverage "buzz" to build brand excitement and mystique. Guerilla marketing utilizes this. Examples include using actors posing as tourists to showcase new products.
• Brand Communities: Creating communities around a brand generates engagement. These non-geographic groups are formed from the shared experience and emotional attachment to the product/brand.

Influential and Diffusion

• Influential: The study identifies a spectrum of influential in product adoption, including lead users, market mavens, experts, heavy/light users, social hubs, social connectors, boundary spanners, and opinion leaders.
• Mechanisms of Influence: Four mechanisms drive influence:
  • Contact: Exposure of consumers to new products through other adopters.
  • Socialization: Discussion and shared understanding among users, leading to normative insights.
  • Status Competition: Adoption driven by maintaining or improving social standing.
  • Social Norms: Conformity to group expectations regarding adoption.
  • Normative Processes: A complex process; perceptions of peer approval are crucial. This is stronger for products linked to social identity. Different types exist: descriptive norms (what others do) and injunctive norms (what others approve of).

Identifying and Targeting Influential

• Methods to identify:
  • Self-identification (measuring perceived influence).
  • Peer identification (using sociometric/snowball data or key informants).
  • Observation-based data (online social platforms or referral programs).
• Targeting Challenges: Targeting influential remains challenging.
• Targeting Strategies:
  • Utilize mass media.
  • Utilize seeding (providing free products/discounts to influential).
  • Communicate directly and track reactions (e.g., providing free products to bloggers).
  • Cultivate own influential by identifying individuals with status, mobility, and confidence.

This quiz explores the strategies marketers use to leverage groups for effective word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. You'll learn about advertising techniques, product sampling, buzz marketing, and the role of brand communities in fostering engagement. Test your knowledge on how these tactics influence consumer behavior and brand perception.