George Silverman's Word-of-Mouth Marketing Blog

Brand Autopsy: George Knocks Trout Out of the Water

Brand Autopsy Here's part of what John Moore had to say about the Jack Trout Forbes.com article attacking word-of-mouth marketing. Read the whole thing, here.

Jack … it’s not about you. It’s not about how you, or any one marketer or one company for that matter, can control consumers with marketing missives. It is about how consumers can help marketers spread marketing messages.

In today’s multi-channel, multi-dimensional environment, marketers cannot begin to place marketing messages everywhere consumers are. The costs do so are way too prohibitive. WE NEED HELP. WE NEED TO ENLIST THE HELP OF CONSUMERS TO HELP US. The game has changed from when and where marketing messages are delivered to HOW and WHY marketing messages are delivered. Some companies get this (Apple, YouTube, Google, Scion, Skype) and some companies don’t (AT&T).

Trout has been touting the marketing concept of positioning for over three decades now. I’ve studied his writings on the topic and I’m a firm believer in this positioning concept. But I believe that if a marketer has properly designed a positioning strategy for a product/service, WOM will not only get people mentioning the product’s name … WOM will also get people mentioning why that product/service matters. Dig?

Ya know … when it comes to meaningful words on Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Trout is a fish out of water.

Right on, John.

Technorati Tags: Word-of-mouth marketing, Marketing, WOMMA, Advertising, WOMM

WOMMA "Word of Mouth vs. Advertising" Conference

We would like to invite you to an important event: WOMMA's "Word of Mouth vs. Advertising" Conference. It's in NYC on September 28th. See below for full details.

We've arranged for a $50 discount as a courtesy to our associates - just enter this code: womadvisor

Market Navigation is a leading member of WOMMA, which is committed to building a prosperous word of mouth marketing industry based on best practices, measurable ROI, and ethical leadership.

You can learn more at http://www.womma.org/

Hope to see you there.

George Silverman, Pres. Market Navigation, Inc.
Author, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
www.mnav.com

The most important word in marketing is...

Very interesting question posed on this blog:

HELLO, my name is BLOG: The most important word in marketing is...:

My answer:

TRUTH

In Marketing, which has become synonymous with hype? Yes. The Truth, compellingly told, is most of what you need. You 'rig' the game by having a product that is WOMworthy, remarkable, outstanding, outrageous, unusual, chatworthy, or just plain good. Then you only have to tell the truth in an interesting way, usually a story. Then you tell the truth about yourself. That's called Authenticity (See John Moore's comment on same blog).

George Silverman
Word-of-Mouth Marketing Consultant
Author, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
www.mnav.com
wordofmouth.typepad.com