Why now?
Why all this interest in word of mouth now? Why a WOMMA Summit now? Why not dozens of years ago? Why not 5-10 years ago?
Because against a backdrop of unprecedented suspicion, skepticism, cynicism and anger, one fact looms over everything: We have reached the part of the Information Revolution where we are all totally overloaded. At the same time, the modern media that have caused the overload (teleconferencing, the internet, television, etc.) have made word of mouth much more accessible. This makes for an interesting situation that I’ve never seen anybody else write about:
Conventional marketing is information intensive and additive. Conventional marketing is piling more information onto people who are actively rejecting information, filtering, distilling and avoiding more overwhelm. Word of Mouth is the only “medium” that reduces overload. Word of mouth from experts, advisors, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and even strangers, filters and distills the information. It reduces the amount while increasing the value.
In an age of overload, relevance is just as important as truth, often more important. (For instance, a fictional case study may teach us more than a “true” one.) Certainly someone who knows you and tells you the exact information you need to know can be a tremendous time saver. So word of mouth reduces two things: both the amount of information and the time it takes to process it.
In an age of overload, “paying” attention is more costly than “paying” money. So, finding valuable sources of word of mouth becomes very important. What did we do in the Industrial Revolution, when technology first overwhelmed us? We invented division of labor. In the Information Revolution, we also have invented division of labor among our knowledge workers. That’s why blogging is going to be the Next Big Thing. We each take our piece and filter, distill and deliver We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.
Technology needs to be as simple as a toaster (people still burn toast) to be adopted widely. (Do you hear me, Steve Jobs? When converting to a Mac is as simple as making toast, you won’t be able to fill your orders, just like you had “trouble” keeping up with demand for the iPod.)
In a future Blog, I’ll tell you how Mac could take over from Windows, and how a pharmaceutical company with a new drug could launch it for a tenth of the usual cost, in much less time, with everything thanking them instead of feeling they were being ripped off by pricing that reflects higher costs for marketing than for R&D!
George Silverman,
President,
Market Navigation, Inc
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