George Silverman's Word-of-Mouth Marketing Blog

A Must-See Video from Dick Cavett's Slydini Broadcast

Thought you'd want to see this article and accompanying video from Friday's NY Times. It's by Dick Cavett about Quintino Marucci, aka Slydini, his and my magic mentor.

This particular broadcast has a great deal of personal meaning for me. I had given up magic for a long time because I didn't like the "gotcha," challenge, wise guy, trivial way that everyone — myself included — was performing. I had a vision that there was a more artistic way to perform, but I couldn't pull it off. This broadcast, on Monday, November 7, 1977, was life-changing for me — particularly "Coins Through the Table" at 7 minutes 35 seconds into the video, and the subsequent one coin routine and rope routine. In a few minutes, I saw what magic could be in the hands of an artist. By the end of the next routine, the ropes, I had decided to take up magic again. I called Slydini the next morning, a Tuesday, ready to plead my case for him to take me on as a student. I told him that I had seen magic as it could be for the first time last night, and that I wanted to study with him. As I started to persuade him to take me on, he interrupted. "You can-a make-a this Thursday at-a 2 o'clock?" "Yes!," I answered, forgetting to ask him what he charged.

Thus began over a year of studying nothing but "Coins Though the Table," which I soon realized wasn't about coins though the table at all. It was about mastery, a sort of Zen journey, involving re-learning magic, multiple aspects of psychology, movement, timing, wording, and many other aspects of magic that take it from the puzzling trick level to the inspiring art of allowing people to directly experience the "impossible," thereby pushing the boundaries of possibility. It was about experiencing how to approach the mundane and transform it into something transcendent and uplifting. Only then was I ready for the other effects, which I studied for another year. Just about everything else I ever did in life was influenced by those lessons, started by this broadcast. I'm delighted to be able to share it with you.

Enjoy!

http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/conjuring-slydini/

Hopefully, Dick will release the other broadcast soon.

What Should Marketing Be All About These Days?

Marketing isn’t about the product anymore (actually, it never was).

In the current Information Age, marketing’s former role of giving customers information and persuading them to buy products is diminishing. They get info and recommendations on independent web sites. The days of controlling information are long gone.

The current cliché says it’s about the customer (too vague), or about the “customer experience” (still vague), or about the “relationship” (even closer).

So, what then is the central function of marketing these days?

The ultimate purpose of marketing is to get people to buy more of your product. That’s obvious. Not so obvious: this is best achieved in this overloaded environment by helping customers make better decisions more easily.

The Central Function of Marketing

Making the whole experience of the decision process easy, simple and time-saving

How customers first hear about the product and get interested.

How they experience learning about the product. (Hard, easy, makes me feel smart, dumb, confused.)

How they experience choosing between the products. (Am I being pushed or helped?)

The trial experiences

The purchase experiences

The initial usage experiences

The “learning to master” experiences

The rewards

The teaching to others

The support

The continuing relationship

How they feel about themselves using the product

How they feel about telling others about it.

It is not the “best” product that wins in the marketplace. It is the product that makes it easiest for the customer to get through the entire process fastest to arrive at:

The Ultimate Decision

“Do I feel enthusiastic about actively recommending this product to others?”

The marketer who makes the path to this ultimate decision easier, simpler, faster and more fun wins.

A Great Word-of-Mouth Campaign makes it easy, simple & fun for the customer

Here’s an excellent example of making decisions easy for the customer, mostly through Word-of-Mouth Marketing.

I just got this email from an architect friend who also has a Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology, so I paid attention.

I haven't made up my mind yet. But I sure love bold problem-solving and a guy who will put his money where his mouth is. Regardless of where you stand on this, you've got to admire a really well-done WOM campaign!

Study this campaign, and follow it as it progresses. if it works, it will change the world and compress what would have taken 50 years into only a few. Can you incorporate these elements into your campaign? Don’t be so quick to say that you aren’t a famous billionaire. There are elements here that you can use.

- - - - - - - - -

George:

I encourage you to watch the video and join the "Pickens Plan Army" (no costs).
This guy has the clout and ambition to make alternative energy a real option for the US in the near future.
We all need to support this and every effort to get away from foreign oil ASAP.
Please help!
[Initials redacted]

To: [redacted] Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:49:03 -0700 Subject: 60 Minutes and the Pickens Plan From: [email protected] Boone here, Last night 60 Minutes did a segment on our plan. If you didn't see it, click here to watch. Be sure to send the link to your friends. I think it does a good job of describing the plan and will help us get more members in the army. - Boone

• Pickens obviously did something right to capture the email addresses of high-level people like my friend and got his permission to send emails.

• He had a vision, something different, something lofty.
• He became the face of it.
• He invested emotionally as much as financially, and shows it.
• That passion is contagious.
• They motivated high level people to send it out to their friends.
• They made their product/product category into a “cause.”
• They got the implied endorsement of 60 Minutes.
• He sends short, personal emails, asking for pass-along.
• He asks for specific actions, but keeps it simple and easy.
• In fact, at every step he makes the complex simple, easy and interesting.

The list goes on and on.

Assuming that the technology is sound, this is a winning campaign.

Word of Mouth -- without words and without mouths!

Implied WOM -- Here's a case where it's more important than explicit WOM

The Olympic swimming competition is providing a great example of what I call “Implied Word of Mouth.”
The current flurry of Olympic gold medals and world records in swimming is being attributed in large part to the new Speedo LZR swimsuits.

— 38 world records have been broken since its introduction in February until June, before the Olympic qualifiers and Olympics, not counting all the Olympic trial and Olympic records.
In fact, as of this writing, here’s some information that Speedo has on its website:

They have an endorsement deal with Michael Phelps. That’s an obvious use of paid word of mouth.
More importantly — and often neglected by people who are thinking about word of mouth — is the implied endorsement by all of the swimmers, many of them previously non-contenders, as they win medals and smash world records.

Adding to the situation is the controversy around whether the suits constitute “technological doping.” Swimmers and Speedo are being accused of using technology — rather than athletic ability and training — to give athletes an artificial edge, much like using performance-enhancing drugs.

It is just about the ideal word of mouth situation:

1. A wildly superior, unusual product.
2. Easy to talk about the product as a whole.
3. A technology story that is easy to describe, thereby giving a “reason to believe.”
4. An overall story that is easy to tell, even in headline form. (“New Kind of Swimsuit Shatters World Records” Better for the Company: “New Kind of Swimsuit Makes Even Mediocre Swimmers Win Races.”
5. Celebrity endorsements. Some paid, others spontaneous.
6. Implied endorsements by everyone who is seen on the Olympics wearing one, especially medalists and world-record breakers. [Note: This is the original meaning of “viral marketing”: a product whose very use is an implied recommendation by those who use it. It was originally used for HotMail, which had at the bottom something like: “Sent by HotMail. Want a free email account? Go to Hotmail.com”)]
7. Controversy, generating buzz, that reflects well on them. After all, if the suits were not effective, there would be no accusations of unfairness.
8. An amazing website (Speedousa.com). It is simple, uncluttered, fun, and allows you to find anything you want on a very information-packed website with only an obvious click or two. Their explanations are simple, yet informative. There are a few problems: they have a fun “Virtual Model” section in which you can construct someone who looks like you, and then try on various kinds of swimwear (when did “bathing suits” become “swimwear”?). Unfortunately, all of the avatars are under 30.
More importantly, they have so many fabrics and lines that they need a comparison chart or a decision tool where you can enter info, such as whether you are a competitive swimmer, where you will use the swimwear, etc. and it makes recommendations. Like many of the sites that help you pick a camera or a television set.
9. A product that is not yet available to the public, but will be soon, thereby building desire for something you can’t have. By the way, a full swimsuit will cost around $550, with leggings costing just $350, and trunks just $290. But don’t worry, they have models that are almost as good, especially for the non-competitive swimmer. By the time you check out other models, their $100 and $50 swim trunks begin to look cheap.
10. There are dozens of other little and large issues around their product lines, website, attitudes, innovative spirit, etc. that make this a marketing situation well worth studying. I’ve barely begun to look into this company, and already I’m bowled over.

Yes, but...

Note to any companies that are tempted to say, “Yes, but we are not Speedo,” or, “Yes, but we have a mundane product,” let me respectfully remind you of several things: First of all, stop saying “Yes, but…” Then, remember that they were a swim trunk manufacturer. There is nothing more mundane than that. Then, they were the first to use Lycra® in swimwear in 1972. Then, a series of innovations in all areas of sportswear followed that. To get WOM, you have to be EXTRA-ordinary.

The REALLY important lesson here:

Okay, here is your reward for reading this far: All of the above is an example of a much more important and broader concept: Decision Simplification. Speedo has made the brand choice decision into that Holy Grail of marketing: a no-brainer. If you want to buy a swimsuit and want the very best, the decision is now simple — a decision so simple that no time or effort has to be spent on it by busy people (everybody!). If you are an affluent and aspirational buyer of sportswear, what are you going to buy yourself or your kids? Simple. The suit that Michael Phelps and every other medalist and world record holder wears.

Many people have gone from only a dim awareness of the brand to the belief that Speedo makes the best swimwear. When they go to their website, they find out that they make a broad line of sportswear and accessories.

It doesn’t make a bit of difference if Speedo doesn’t make any money on the new swimsuits. They have, after all, put a huge amount of R&D into its development. They have now out-Niked Nike, the masters of the actual and implied endorsement. They have demonstrated in the most rigorous environment that their particular clothes actually enhance performance. I’m not aware that anyone else has done that, at least so convincingly and so publicly.

This particular formula for Decision Simplicity is simple to understand, but hard to do: Make a smashingly superior, astonishing product and get everybody to use it visibly because of the edge that it gives them. They don’t actually have to say a word about it, although they will. Of course, you might have to put in some R&D that will make the bean counters go crazy.

What this means to you

If you can make a product that actually enhances the performance of something your customers do (why make it if it doesn’t?), you are making your customers into a personal champion and making them feel better about themselves. They will brag about it. They will wear your logo.

Also, get the leaders in your customers’ line of work to visibly use it. Get them involved in its development, get their continual feedback, stir up the good kind of controversy and competition, make it something whose name and logo they are proud to display. It’s worked for Speedo, Nike, Canon, Nikon, Leica, Apple and many, many other brands that you’ve never heard of because they are in obscure and technical areas. But, I could name plenty of other brands in windsurfing, magic, photography, surgery and medical devices. There is room in your area, even if you’re getting clobbered by a Nike at the moment.

Here's another idea: Maybe you should run an “Olympics” in your category. For instance, if I made voice dictation software and it was the fastest on the market, I would run a contest for the fastest “typist” (sounds better than “dictator”) in the world. They could type or use voice dictation. Since the fastest typist in the world types about 160 words per minute, and I can easily hit that with my present voice dictation system, the champion would be widely acknowledged to be the fastest in the world, using my software. My guess is it would be over 200 words a minute, using my software. This would be a real contest that actually demonstrates the superiority of my product dramatically, instead of the stupid, artificial contests that are usually run.

How can you take advantage of implied word of mouth?

Technorati Tags: Customer Decision Experience, Marketing, Decision Simplification, WOMM, Womworthy products, word of mouth marketing, Word-of-mouth marketing

Technorati Tags: Customer Decision Experience, Decision Simplification, Marketing, WOMM, Womworthy products, word of mouth marketing, Word-of-mouth marketing

Technorati Tags: Customer Decision Experience, Decision Simplification, Marketing, WOMM, Womworthy products, word of mouth marketing, Word-of-mouth marketing

I'm back

I have some good news for you

The publisher of my book “The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing” wants a second edition. But that's not the good news for you. This time, they have agreed to let me use word-of-mouth marketing techniques to create and sell the book.

What this means to you is that I will be writing substantive revisions of the book as essays on this blog. I promise you that they will go way beyond what has been written on the subject so far.

In addition, I will be writing my new book, currently untitled, also on the blog. The premise of the book is that there is only one thing that marketers have to do to be successful, only one thing that organizes and forces you to do all of the other right things: help customers make the right decisions faster.

I will be doing all of this is a series of blog posts. That's one of the great things about blogging. I can write things as they occur to me, the way I usually do, and you can get the benefit without my having to worry about all of them hanging together, until the book is published.

You can also participate by making comments. We can refine and tune the ideas together, making for a much better book. You can use the ideas now, rather than waiting a year or two until official publication.

That's what's so wonderful about the New Marketing. Its participatory nature drives up the quality, while letting people get the benefits during the development process, or at least ensure that the eventual product is more suited to their needs.

This is like beta testing a new piece of software. I've recently been a beta tester for OmniFocus,  a spectacular new piece of software designed to keep track of projects and activities using the GTD system. I was struck by the extreme degree of cooperation between the developers and the beta testers. I'm experiencing another even greater example of that by beta testing another piece of software that has turned me around from what would have been an extreme skeptic, spreading negative word of the word of mouth, into a wild evangelist about the greatest piece of computer software ever developed. It's going to provide a spectacular example, once I can talk about it, hopefully in a week or two.

From time to time, I will organize the blog posts into essays and e-books or papers.

Before the book is published, I have permission to distribute it as a free e-book. We'll probably keep distributing it as a free, or very low cost e-book, even after publication.

It has been intensely frustrating to have to use conventional marketing and be precluded by contract from using my own principles.

In fact, it became so unbearable that when my publisher asked me to come up with a second addition I immediately came to the conclusion that I would do it on my own terms: either the publisher would have to agree to what conventional publishers just don't agree to, or I would write a completely new book and publish it myself. My agent said that there was no way a publisher would agree to publishing a book on the blog as it was being written, and giving it away as an e-book, other examples like Seth Godin and Bob Garfield notwithstanding.

About 10 minutes into the conversation, the publisher (I'm leaving out the details here until I get permission to use his name) agreed. Turns out, he was totally informed about what is going on in publishing today, and was eager to try this new approach. He just couldn't get an author who wanted to give away his own books. My agent and I practically had to be picked up off the floor. In fact, I actually said to the publisher, “I can't believe you're not giving me more of a fight here, how come?” He basically said that he knows where things are going and wants to try the new marketing, and why not with one of the leaders of the new marketing?

Anyway, it's going to be a blast.

Pass the word.

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

The secrets to Apple's success

Steve Chazin, a former Apple marketing and sales exec, has identified 5 of the things that make Apple such successful marketers.

This little  8 page eBook is absolutely brilliant.

He calls it MarketingApple: 5 Secrets of the World's Best Marketing Machine.

I believe that there is one, underlying thing that Apple is doing, and I wonder if Steve Jobs has realized it:

All of the great, wildly successful products, services, companies, institutions of the last decade or two have all done one thing at the root. They have helped the customer make Better Decisions Faster: not only faster in buying, using, recommending the product itself, but also helping the customer use that product to make better decisions faster in their lives.

For instance, Apple makes it faster to get on the Internet; operate a computer; organize, find, store, carry & access their music, photos, etc.

Amazon has done the same for books, eBay for collecting, Google for searching & reaching the customer at the exact point of interest, Yahoo for accessing certain types of content, Prius for making a certain social statement, Toyota in general for making it easy to buy a more reliable car, etc.

An the root of all successful marketing these days, is helping the customer make Better Decisions Faster. I have always been able to find several major ways to make it faster for your customers to decide on your product, if your product is the better decision.

When you enable customers to make better decisions faster, you accumulate customers faster, your customers get to be better users faster, they feel better about the whole experience, so they spread the word faster.

In the Age of Overload, time is more than money.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Customer Decision Experience, Marketing, Word-of-mouth marketing

Surprise! Give 'em a little frisson to be Womworthy

Did you know that there is a hidden symbol in the FedEx logo?

It symbolizes speed and precision.

Once you see it, you can't not see it. I won't spoil the fun by pointing it out. If you don't know about it, stop here and look for it.

Yes, it's intentional. The designer, Lindon Leader, had some very interesting things to say about it.

What's this doing in a Word-of-Mouth blog? Glad you asked.

I was struck by the question that the logo designer says he is always asked:

“Why choose to keep the arrow so subtle? It seems to show remarkable restraint. Weren't you or the people at FedEx ever tempted to make it more obvious with an outline or a different color?”

It's so obvious that I might not have asked the question, but I'm glad the interviewer did:

He replied that the arrow is one of the most mundane graphic devices. There is nothing unique or particularly strategic, from a marketing point of view, in an arrow as a brand identifier.

Then Lindon went on to say,

The power of the hidden arrow is simply that it is a “hidden bonus.” It is a positive-reverse optical kind of thing: either you see it or you don’t. Importantly, not “getting the punch line” by not seeing the arrow, does not reduce the impact of the logo’s essential communication. The power of the logo and the FedEx marketing supporting the logo is strong enough to convey clearly FedEx brand positioning [Speed  & Precision]. On the other hand, if you do see the arrow, or someone points it out to you, you won’t forget it. I can’t tell you how many people have told me how much fun they have asking others “if they can spot ‘something’ in the logo.” To have filled in the arrow, or to somehow make it more “visible” would have been like Henny Youngman saying “Please take my wife” instead of “Take my wife. Please.” Punch lines that need to be explained are neither funny nor memorable. (Emphasis mine).

In other words, it's hidden, surprising, memorable, unusual. It's one of life's little pick-me-ups on an otherwise boring truck, envelope or uniform. So, it causes Word of Mouth. People like to point it out, or ask others to spot it. Like I'm doing now.

(FedEx did not pay for this ad. That's the point.)

I've always said that FedEx didn't succeed, as most business books state, because of its brilliant logistics breakthrough of sending the packages to a central point (Memphis), sorting there, then sending back out. They succeeded because they were beneficially unusual and constructively quirky Federal Express (as it was know in those days) told secretaries they would look good because they would positively, absolutely DELIVER overnight. In those days, it was as unusual as a customer-oriented phone company is today.

(This was the day that an iPhone customer got a 300 page bill, itemizing every text message, from AT&T, delivered in a box. No, not a FedEx box. I looked. Wouldn't that have been perfect?)

See it here:

or here:

YouTube Link

Was played on the network cable channels. How's that for WOM?

Via

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Womworthy products

What to focus on

Most companies focus on beating the competition. Apple focuses on ... well, let's let Steve Jobs say it:

Is Apple’s goal to overtake the PC in market share? Jobs said, “Our goal is to make the best personal computers in the world and make products we are proud to sell and recommend to our family and friends. We want to do that at the lowest prices we can.

”But there’s some stuff in our industry that we wouldn’t be proud to ship. And we just can’t do it. We can’t ship junk,“ said Jobs. ”There are thresholds we can’t cross because of who we are. And we think that there’s a very significant slice of the [market] that wants that too. You’ll find that our products are not premium priced. You price out our competitors’ products, and add features that actually make them useful, and they’re the same or actually more expensive. We don’t offer stripped-down, lousy products.“

This isn't a lot different than the official statements from many companies. The difference is that Jobs means it and lives it.

As quoted in MacWorld today. He was announcing the new ILife and IWork 08 suites.

George Silverman
Word-of-Mouth Marketing Speaker and Consultant
Author, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
main website: www.mnav.com    blog: wordofmouth.typepad.com

Are you making decisions easier for your customers?

Either you’re supporting the customer’s decision making, or you’re creating clutter and obstructing it.

Prospects make dozens of little decisions as they move through the decision process:

• Decisions about entering the marketplace. “Browsing.”
• Decisions about learning about your products and your competitors'. Technical term: it's called “Shopping.”
• Decisions about  initial experiences with the product. Technical term: it's called “Trying.”
• Decisions about  purchase. Buying.
• Decisions about  expanding usage:  Using. committing.
• Decisions about the whole decision and usage experience. Raving, Evangelizing

Different customers have many different ways of doing each of these. Each has its own set of rules.

Your marketing materials and activities are rarely in exact sync with your customers. That's why there are so many browsers and shoppers, but so few raving fans.

People are more in sync with their friends than they ever will be with your advertising and salespeople. That's why word of mouth is so much more powerful than marketing.

The lessons learned from all this is that you need to:

• Lay out all the dozens of little steps that people need to take in order to go from browsing to evangelism.
• Spend a whole lot more time eliminating these steps or making the steps simpler, easier, faster, and more fun.
• Find every large and small block, barrier, impediment and bottleneck and eliminate them. “Disimpedimentation.”
• Focus on the whole decision experience rather than just the user experience with the product interface.
• Put a lot more time, energy and resources into streamlining and funifying the customer decision process from beginning to end. [By the way, there is no end, at least not with on-going customers.]

Conventional marketing complexifies by shoveling information at already overloaded people.

You can use this decision smoothing approach by employing word of mouth and other techniques to smooth out the bumps in your customers' very rough decision process.

More to come. Stay tuned. I feel another book coming on.

Subscribe by feed, or by newsletter. Look in the left column. Speaking of decision smoothing.

George Silverman
Word-of-Mouth Marketing Speaker and Consultant
Author, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
main website: www.mnav.com    blog: wordofmouth.typepad.com

Technorati Tags: Customer Decision Experience, Marketing, WOMM, word of mouth marketing, Word-of-mouth marketing