Todd Tweedy Launches Boldmouth.com

Todd Tweedy has launched Boldmouth.com a new word of mouth (WOM)marketing services consultancy that differentiates WOM from Buzz marketing by virtue of the former being authentic and the latter being contrived.

Todd says his new firm will recognize customer interests and use them to attempt to "create word-of-mouth moments. "

Real word-of-mouth marketing is about sharing advice as well as product and service recommendations. These informal and typically person-to-person dialogs should not to be confused with “buzz marketing” that is nothing more than an attempt to artificially engineer a referral by offering incentives so that “agents” make recommendations on behalf of an organization. Buzz marketing companies don’t create buzz. People that are interested in a product or service create ‘buzz’ using word of mouth,”  said Todd.

I've known Todd slightly for a long time and I trust him.  It will be interesting to watch how his new enterprise emerges.  I have long struggled to keep words like viral and buzz out of what I've had to say about conversational marketing, because they are still attempts of companies to push into customer behavior.  Word of Mouth to me, works bets when the customer becomes the company champion on his or her own volition.

Comments

[/pd]

Shel : I am struggling to understand this statemEnt "by virtue of the former being authentic and the latter being contrived"

What do exactly mean "contrived" ?

I am a BuzzAgent for selected campigns. So if I hear you correctly then by virture of your comment me is contrived ??

Not sure, if understand

[shel Israel]

Pete,
It seems like these days, every time I open my mouth I inadevrtantly offend someone. Sorry.

[Eric Eggertson]

Interesting, especially your last point.

I think the trick is to make it as easy as possible for customers to be advocates for your brand. For example, getting lawyers to send cease and desist orders is a good way NOT to encourage customers to share their enthusiasm.

[Melissa Brandao]

It's contrived if the product sucks and no one really wants to use it but the company has enough $$ to put into a marketing it as if it's "a groundswell of greatness".

It's word of mouth if the product makes the consumer happy and so happy he/she wants to tell a friend naturally. The trick is that you as a PR agent have to go where the money is right? So how do you market a bad product well?

[/pd]

no Shel, I respect your words and opionions, what I was trying to get too what exactly are your thoughts in terms of being "contrived". nope, I an't offended at all, me is pretty much thick skinned :)-

I think Melissa states it well, but all WoM marketing works only if the product is good and the people talk about it. Even Jackie Hubba and Ben state the same thing in a different way, after all the "church of the customer" is (one) of the best practices ...correct ??
and .. yeah its ok, to have difference of opionions and state them--nothing wrong with that. The loyalty ladder paradigm is difficult to pin point in terms of discourse :)-

[Kami Huyse]

I guess that semantics often get in the way, but most "buzz" campaigns don't really acheive their purpose in that they don't turn people toward the product, but just toward the marketing piece.

Witness the sock puppet in the Pets.com sock puppet. The puppet was more well known than the company.

My point is, do these things work? And can you measure their impact?

[Todd Tweedy]

Shel –

You run a top-notch blog! Great comments!

Here’s a few thoughts about Kami's post:

“… most "buzz" campaigns don't really achieve their purpose in that they don't turn people toward the product, but just toward the marketing piece”

Absolutely right. I believe it happens because advertisers simply don’t model a process for generating word of mouth. The campaign may be very successful in terms of getting individuals to pass along creative content but everyone seems to forget the need to be creative with how information connecting individuals to the brand, product or service is achieved. Spreading to total number of self-reported anecdotes about a product is one thing and measuring it another.

The Subservientchicken.com viral campaign seems to have achieved folklore status about how successful it was in driving traffic to Burger King, but it was McDonald’s that appeared to clearly get a significant boost in traffic and sales surrounding the launch – April 2004 - based on hitwise tracking and revenue reporting.

Measurement is a must in any meaningful marketing model. What do you measure? I think it comes down one thing: money.

[Todd Tweedy]

I agree with Pete or Melissa that there are products that suck but that doesn’t mean you’re not able to use word of mouth to market these products. What about beta testers and advisory councils?

I’ve worked on some pretty sucky products and it was the pleading of individuals who were using the services that were actively advocating that we change things. That’s why I believe Word of Mouth is an organizational principle and not just another PR or marketing tactic to generate grassroots. As an organization you have to be ready and receptive to respond to negative word of mouth.

Individuals are either part of the business or they are simply things advertisers talk at to sell products.

There are definitely products that suck. As an agency or consultant, you have to decide how you’re going to run your business. But, keep in mind there is an element of perception here too when it comes to deciding what sucks. The person who just jumped bail and is running from the law is likely to think that the bounty hunter’s services suck.

[/pd]

Todd: I"ll have to disagree with you. The value proposition is not just about money. If one looks higher up the value chain is you want the customer's loyalty. Not just buy once and never to return. The paradigm of branding, marketing, sales, satisfaction index is now residing at the tierN level of loyalty- how to get your customer to always buy your product, market your product, test your product and still be haPpy is its a sucky product !! This kinda of arena is new (imho) !! Blogs, buzz marketin etc are just the methods to crawl up that value chain.

So back to the question : if given an opporunity will you measure money, satisfaction index or loyalty factor ?? Which will you chose and why ??

[Jozef Imrich]

CODA: TV Turning to Blogs for Advertising ...

[Melissa Brandao]

Hmm...just thinking aloud here...here's an interesting thought, what if the PR agent became the voice of a particular constituent and then his/her consumer would simply look to the PR agent to decide the "degree of goodness" of any given product. Then WOM agents would become the consumer advisors instead of the product advisors. This probably happens to a certain extent now, but in the blogosphere the PR agent can actually vibrantly operate in those two roles, one as PR expert to reach the people and the agent with his audience.

But then...if your audience is canned so is your performance and then you're back to what happens if the product really sucks...

This is really a great discussion.