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The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has started a blog to hype its upcoming Conference in NYC. The conversation on the blog (and at the Conference) is about the intersection of word of mouth marketing and advertising. This could get interesting.
I just tossed a marketing missive across the blog waters with this posting:
Dang, I wish I’d said this …
“… when you start turning your products into commodities, you start treating your customers like commodities.”
-- Hugh MacLeod | gapingvoid --
General Motors (GM) began its latest discount addicted ways in June with the announcement of its Employee Discounts for Every One (EDEO) pricing scheme. At the time, GM sincerely promised the discount would be short-lived and end on August 1. But GM broke its promise and extended the EDEO pricing scheme to September 6.
And now … GM is breaking its promise again. The automaker now tells us their EDEO pricing scheme will end on September 30.
The Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center has seen this unfortunate marketing behavior before and believes General Motors is in DEEP DENIAL.
General Motors is addicted to discounting.
Addiction to any marketing activity is defined as being the continued use of marketing tactics despite repeated negative consequences. The Circle of Discount Addiction [see below] demonstrates the stages every marketer experiences when abusing low price marketing schemes.
When discount addicted marketers begin compulsively using low price marketing schemes they experience denial.
The meaning of denial is simple. The discount addicted marketer denies he or she is addicted to the marketing tactic in question. These marketers fail to grasp the dangers of working in a business environment where after the “HIGH” of a high volume/low-return sales cycle comes the “LOW” of a low-volume/low-return sales cycle.
Everybody around the discount addicted marketer knows what the problem is. Everyone that is, except the marketer.
If an addicted marketer does finally attempt to stop using the drug of discounting, he is likely to experience withdrawal symptoms.
In the case of low price marketing schemes, withdrawal without proper marketing supervision can be debilitating for the business, and in some cases, fatal to the brand. When a marketer tries to stop abusing discounting cold turkey, the fiscal withdrawal symptoms can be so painful and potentially devastating to their career that the marketer quickly returns to activating another round of deep discount marketing tactics.
Discount addicted marketers soon reach the point of maintaining their discounting habit. At this point, the marketer needs to constantly include a discount tactic in his marketing plans to feel “normal.” And at any given time during the fiscal year, the marketer has some level of discounting active in the marketplace. The marketer literally cannot function without it.
It’s very hard for the discount addicted marketer to maintain any semblance of a normal business life when he’s reached this point. Problems at staff meetings and at off-site business retreats start to intensify and clashes with the legal department over marketing verbiage in advertising collateral become more common.
Faced with these devastating situations, the discount addicted marketer makes a promise to stop using low price marketing schemes. The promise by the marketer may be sincere and perhaps the marketer has come to accept he has a problem and has a desire to stop. Unfortunately, the marketer goes into fiscal withdrawal soon after the last discount tactic expires and unable to withstand the pain, the marketer starts to use again.
Following the broken promises, the discount addicted marketer once again retreats deep into denial. He will use low price marketing schemes less, he says, but he doesn’t have to stop because he doesn’t really have a problem. The circle of discount addiction continues.
Obviously a circle has no beginning and no end. With effective treatment; however, the circle of discount addiction can be opened at any point and remade into an upward curve of recovery. The process is simple but the work is hard.
SOURCE | Wall Street Journal article | August 25, 2005
The Center for Marketing Disease Control & Prevention (CMDC&P) has just declared a Marketing Epidemic.
The Employee Discounts for Every One (EDEO) marketing virus is no longer contained to just automakers. CMDCP Fields Agents have reported numerous employee discount virus outbreaks affecting national, regional, and local retailers. The widespread outbreak of the EDEO marketing virus has forced the CMDC&P to declare a marketing epidemic.
However, this strain of the EDEO marketing virus has mutated slightly. The EDEO marketing virus affecting automakers lasted for months on end but this new strain lasts only weeks, sometimes just days, and is generally focused on select products only.
For example, FCMDCP Field Agents have filed the following reports:
Short of mandating a moratorium on discounting, The Center for Marketing Disease Control & Prevention is urging all retailers to exercise extreme caution when designing marketing programs to increase sales.
While the CMDC&P is working on a marketing vaccine to eradicate the EDEO marketing virus, the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center is once-again making available its Marketing Intervention Guidelines (read below).
The following Marketing Intervention Guidelines from the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center will help you positively confront a marketer who is severely dependent and is unwilling or unable to see the severity of their addiction to discounting.Bring together a minimum of three and maximum of eight people who are important to the business and to the marketer in particular. The best marketing intervention groups have a broad mix of people including some from outside the company such as customers and vendors.
Set up a planning meeting with all participants to discuss the intervention. Be very discreet in all your actions so as not to alert the suffering marketer.
Each group member is to write a letter to the addicted marketer listing how they may have helped to enable the addiction and all the negative consequences caused by the marketer’s addiction. Each letter should close with a statement asking the marketer to seek treatment for their addiction. [Sample Letter PDF]
Rehearse the intervention with all the group members. And at this meeting, set a date, time, and place for the actual intervention to occur. You will also need to create a plan to bring the addicted marketer to the intervention as well as choose a treatment center. If the chosen treatment center is out-of-town, then you will need to make necessary travel arrangements.
The intervention group will need to identify objections the addicted marketer may use to avoid or postpone treatment and then formulate appropriate responses.
Plan to be at the intervention location 30 minutes before the addicted marketer is expected to arrive.
At the intervention, confront the addicted marketer by reading your letters aloud, editing out anger, blame, and judgment. Read the best, most heartfelt and tender letter last. (Usually a letter from a concerned customer cracks any addicted marketer’s wall of denial.)
After the intervention, call the admissions staff at the chosen treatment center and let them know whether or not the addicted marketer has agreed to treatment.
Collect all letters and send them to the addicted marketer’s counselor at the treatment center.
Are you one of the 12+ million folks who play Fantasy Football? (Count me as one of the millions playing Fantasy Football this year.)
Ya know ... when you think about it … the marketing methods driving the success of the brand called “Fantasy Football” are the same methods Starbucks, Google, Apple, eBay, and Whole Foods Market use to create marketing juju.
And wouldn't you know it ... MarketingProfs.com is running my article on how Fantasy Football creates marketing juju. Here's a tease:
As marketers, we are always seeking ways to make our products and services more attractive to consumers. When we do it right, we know we’ve created marketing juju. Brands like Starbucks, Google, Apple, eBay, and Whole Foods Market all have oodles of marketing juju.Consumers are more than just attracted to these businesses. They are downright captivated by them. Each of these brands create marketing juju by (1) facilitating, not dictating the usage of its products (2) fostering community, and (3) assisting consumers in actualizing their aspirations.
With the 2005 National Football League (NFL) season upon us, we should add the brand called “Fantasy Football” to the list of brands with marketing juju.
A core principle in Improv is to make others look good. Scenes build better when Improvisers talk about someone else in the scene besides themselves. If you help others look good, you’ll look good in return. I find this works in Improv and in business.
While reading my galley copy of THE BIG MOO, I read a brilliant piece about Chevy Chase and Bill Murray which personifies the Make Others Look Good Improv principle.
"Chevy Chase has built his career around two words: “me” and “now.” He was the first Saturday Night Live player to regularly use his name on television (“I’m Chevy Chase … and you’re not.”) and it made him the show’s first star. He as the first to be featured solo in magazines and the first to leave the show for the movies.Bill Murray was Chevy’s replacement on the show. Bill got off to a very slow start. He hardly ever showed up on television. The writers didn’t want to write for him, because they were comfortable with the stars they already had. Bill suffered for months.
Instead of throwing a tantrum, Bill chose to focus on the rest of the cast. He became friends (or lovers) with many of them, especially Gilda Radner. Over time, he built up a reputation as someone who could be counted on and trusted. When he was on camera, he wasn’t the only one. If he build his career around two words, they were “us” and “later.”
Bill took the same approach to his movie career. The result? Murray’s recent films couldn’t be more different than Chevy’s …"
Who’s to blame for the dismal summer movie season … moviemakers or movie marketers?Year-to-date box office sales are half-a-billion dollars less than last year and there is a lot of finger-pointing going on in Hollywood.
Moviemakers are blaming marketers for the box-office slump. They say Hollywood marketers have abused the heavy-up television advertising tactic to the extent audiences have grown tired of the relentless hype machine.
Movie marketers are blaming the changing consumer habits. They say their core consumer (12 to 34 year olds) are spending more time playing videogames, surfing the internet, and using their cell phones than going to the movies.
Movie theater owners are even getting to the action by blaming moviemakers. Theater owners are say this year’s movies are just not as good as last year’s movies.
I side with the movie theater owners and place the blame on the moviemakers.
If moviemakers make truly remarkable films, people will remark about them and audiences will flock to see them. Case in point … CRASH, a remarkable movie people remarked about this summer. I saw it because my sister-in-law remarked to me how much I would like the film because it depicts an honest look at racial relations.
So … who do you think is to blame for the summer box office slump? Moviemakers or movie marketers?
I’m not an advertising atheist … just agnostic about advertising. I’ve always believed if advertising is the answer, one should question the question.
For many marketers, the answer to the question of, “Sales are down, customer counts are falling … what can we do?” is to spend marketing dollars on an advertising campaign.
From my experience at Starbucks and Whole Foods, I learned to answer the question of, “Sales are down, customer counts are falling … what can we do?” by spending marketing dollars to make the product/experience better and not to make the advertising better.
This week AdJab and Adrants clued me in on two very creative advertising campaigns where the marketers have decided to spend money on making the advertising better and not necessarily to make the product better.
Exhibit A: CBS Television | Water Cooler Advertising
To promote its Monday night comedy shows, including the new sitcom Out of Practice, CBS is placing ads on water coolers in Rite Aid and Duane Reade drugstores. CBS is also placing ads on prescription bags with the tagline of "Prescription-Strength Comedy." [MORE]
Updated to refresh the Preview PDF link
Click here for a preview PDF of Sally Hogshead’s to-be-published book -- RADICAL CAREERING: 100 Truths to Jumpstart your Job, your Career, and your Life.
Sally’s book is an expansion of her well-regarded article “14 Radical Truths” which appeared in Ad Age’s CREATIVITY magazine (Sept. 2002). An abridged version of this article about proactively taking control of one's career was later published in Ad Age (Oct. 21, 2002).
I remember reading the abridged version while I was contemplating leaving Starbucks in the fall of 2002. Much of the article resonated with me then and I was compelled to distribute photocopies to a few 'on the edge of wanting to leave' co-workers. I dug up the article from my archive (yes, I keep a paper archive of worthy articles) so I could digitally distribute it to you on the Brand Autopsy blog [download article PDF (1.4MB)]. I ended up leaving Starbucks for Whole Foods Market in January 2003. Can’t say for certain Sally’s article pushed me to act, but it did encourage me to make a career change.
RADICAL CAREERING, the book, is a lot like UNSTUCK … only more focused on inspiring you to transform your 'current self' into your 'ultimate self.' (I expect Tom Peters to gush all over this book.) While the book is overly-designed and overly-hyperbolic, there are some chewy radical truths within the list of 100 to ponder. Some of which include:
## | Radical Truth
09 | Forget What Your Business Card Says, You Are an Entrepreneur
15 | Aspire to Be the Dumbest Person in the Room
18 | Invent Option C
26 | Circumstances Can’t Cripple Your Career as Much as Doubt Or Passivity
32 | It’s Impossible to be Happy Without Momentum
40 | Go for Nervous
57 | You are Not Done Paying Your Dues
71 | The Antidote to Fear is Action
87 | Your Job Description Is Not Your Self Description
97 | Do What You Are
The prevailing trend with cell phones are feature enhancements. A cell phone today comes with a built-in camera, the ability to download/stream video, email capabilities, Internet browsing, kick-ass games, and oh yeah … it can also make phone calls.
However, Vodafone is bucking this trend with its line of Vodafone Simply phones. What’s remarkable about the Vodafone Simply phone is how unremarkable it is. It’s not sleek. It doesn’t play games. And you can’t take pictures with it.
Vodafone is appealing to adults aged 35+ who find current cell phones overly-designed and overly-encumbered with confusing-to-use features. A cool tactic Vodafone is using to inform the young employees at its retail stores about why the phone’s simplicity is a selling point is to lend Simply phones to the employee’s parents to try out. (Pretty cool, eh?)
I just love how unremarkably remarkable these phones are. Unfortunately, they are not yet available in the United States.
SOURCE | Wall Street Journal article | reprinted in the Philadelphia Post Gazette
also mentioned on the Good Experience blog
WOMMA has given me something to talk about -- a preview copy of THE BIG MOO, Seth Godin’s new collaborative book effort. Gotta hand it to the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association for practicing what they preach. I reckon membership really does have its privileges.
I rifled through THE BIG MOO last night and found it to be a breezy read. Breezy because each of the 72 short and snappy stories elicit winds of change ideas. Seth invited 32 business thinkers who inspire him to inspire us. The group of 33 contributed essays to encourage us to remarkabalize whatever it is we do.
Confused by the name THE BIG MOO? According to Seth, “A big moo is the extreme purple cow, the remarkable innovation that completely changes the game. Yes, a purple cow is what you need, but the big moo goes a step further. In order to grow at the pace the markets demands, you and your colleagues must find the big moo, the insight that is so astounding that people can’t help but remark on it.”
Since remarkable things get remarked about … learn how Seth is remarkabalizing THE BIG MOO.
The Soup Peddler (David Ansel), a case study in the art of remarkabalizing a business, is currently on summer sabbatical. (When it’s 99 degrees in the badlands of Central Texas, the last thing on your mind is scarfing down a bowl of Bouillabaisse Marseillaise. Dig?) Just because he’s on sabbatical doesn’t mean the Soup Peddler isn’t keeping busy.
He’s updated his blog with humorous tales while on the Canadian soup trail and 10 Speed Press has just published David’s long-simmering book, The Soup Peddler’s Slow & Difficult Soups: Recipes & Reveries.
I leafed through the book while perusing the shelves at BookPeople this week. It’s a fun read recounting the ups/downs of David’s second season dealing with the unwieldy growth and unreal personalities of his Soup Peddler business.
For more on the Soup Peddler, check out previous postings on Brand Autopsy. And for more on The Soup Peddler’s Slow & Difficult Soups: Recipes & Reveries book … read the description below lifted directly from Amazon:
With just a custom-made yellow bike, a used bike trailer, and a few two-quart containers of homemade gumbo, David Ansel began peddling soup to his friends and neighbors in the close-knit community of Bouldin Creek in Austin, Texas. Many flat tires and gallons of soup later, his delivery route has grown from 17 soup subscribers, or "soupies," to more than 700 and counting.In SLOW AND DIFFICULT SOUPS, Ansel (aka the Soup Peddler) ladles out generous bowlfuls of some of the most delicious and lovingly seasoned soups you’ll ever taste. This heart-and belly-warming illustrated memoir is an offbeat homage to the art, science, and joy of soup, offering a utopian vision of a community brought together through their love of spoon-licking comfort food.
The Soup Peddler shares humorous stories about the eccentric folks who populate Bouldin Creek, along with classic and exotic creations like South Austin Chili, Smoked Tomato Bisque,Chompy-Chomp Black Bean Soup, and Bouillabaisse Marseillaise. A taste of simpler times in our modern fast-food nation, SLOW AND DIFFICULT SOUPS is a rousing reminder of our basic need to connect to our food —and those who cook, deliver, and slurp it.
Over at the Creating Passionate Users blog, Kathy Sierra urges marketers to forget the tipping point and instead, seek the Kool-Aid Point. The Kool-Aid Point is the “threshold when enough users become so passionate that others accuse them of drinking the Kool-Aid.” Kathy goes on to alert marketers about the positive sugar-high pratfalls stemming from sweet-to-drink company Kool-Aid.
”You don't really have passionate users until someone starts accusing them of "drinking the koolaid." You might have happy users, even loyal users, but it's the truly passionate that piss off others enough to motivate them to say something. Where there is passion, there is always anti-passion... or rather passion in the hate dimension.If you create passionate users, you have to expect passionate detractors. You should welcome their appearance in blogs, forums, and user groups. It means you've arrived. Forget the tipping point--if you want to measure passion, look for the koolaid point."
Having been punch drunk from swimming in the Starbucks company Kool-Aid for eight-plus years, I can clearly relate to this thinking. Starbucks progression from access to excess has yet to impede its success. And that’s because its passionate users are still drinking the Starbucks company Kool-Aid. Just check out the Starbucks Gossip blog for evidence. I’m always amazed whenever a passionate detractor makes a scathing remark about Starbucks on the blog, throngs of Kool-Aid drinking Starbucks customers and partners (employees) passionately defend the company they adore.
Great stuff from the Creating Passionate Users blog … READ MORE HERE.
Life is moving fairly fast for Brand Examiner Paul Williams. Paul has decided to focus his business and blogging efforts on supporting his wicked cool Idea Sandbox concept. You can read all about his goings-on over at the Idea Sandbox blog.
The Brand Autopsy blog will miss Paul’s marketing musings. However, we can always warm up a batch of Paul Williams’ Marketing Musings Leftovers by visiting his collection of Brand Autopsy posts … Paul Williams’ Sandbox.
Drop P-Dub an email to wish him well … paul(at)idea-sandbox.com.
Heath Row over at Fast Company invited 75 impassioned readers to contribute musings all in celebration of the second anniversary of the Fast Company team blog. 125 entries were logged during the two-day FC Now BlogJam 2005 and there was some QUALITY in the quantity of posts. Standout posts for me included …
For the fifth edition of Worthy Reads & Worthless Reads (WRWR), I decided to do it off-the-cuff audioblog style. For this edition, I riff on 16 business books I've read since WRWR #4. Below you'll find the download link, books mentioned in the audioblog, worthy/worthless ratings, and purchase/information links.
DOWNLOAD AUDIOBLOG HERE
[26:32 minutes | 18.2 MB]
Last week I blogged about a white paper researched and written by Walter Carl, a Northeastern University Asst. Professor. In my post I offered up a few questions related to the study and Walter posted a thorough reply on his WOM-Study blog.
Regarding my assertion about the BzzAgent sample most likely being more skillful at recognizing and reporting word-of-mouth activity than those in the convenience sample, Walter said …
First, I agree with you, it shouldn't be a surprising finding that BzzAgents report more WOM episodes than non-Agents. The amount of the difference was what surprised me (for example, Agents having twice as many of their total interactions include a WOM episode). Second, I don't have any direct measurement of whether or not BzzAgents are more or less skillful at recognizing WOM opportunities. My sense is, however, and like yours, that they probably are better able to recognize WOM opportunities.
WOW! BzzAgents reported 100% more word-of-mouth interactions than did those in the convenience sample. That discrepancy is empirical enough for me to know BzzAgents are indeed more skillful at recognizing and reporting word-of-mouth activities than are the everyday people in the convenience sample.
Walter also provided more specifics on the demographics of the BzzAgent sample compared with the convenience sample. There are significant discrepancies between the two samples. Walter said the BzzAgent sample was 83% female and nearly 50% were 30 years of age or older. While the convenience sample was 67% female and their average age was close to 20 years of age.
Given this clarification, the two samples appear too dissimilar to draw any empirical conclusions. That’s just my take. Read the WOM White Paper and Walter’s clarification for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
Ian McKee, from the Power of Influence blog, commented on our Marketing Intervention Guidelines posting expressing his concerns about the discountitis epidemic in Singapore.
The Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center is aware of the Asian BOGO Flu epidemic having read about it in the fictitious Journal of Meaningful Marketing. Our hearts go out to those customers, businesses, and marketers in Asia affected by this virulent strain of the far too common BOGO Flu.
The “Buy One, Get One Free” discount disease has been around for decades. The antidote we administer to defuse this discount disease is an accounting mindset change. Companies most susceptible to the BOGO Flu financially account for redeemed coupons at the cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) and not at full retail value. The financial impact to a company is considerably less when they account for discounts at the COGS level.
For example, suppose you are a marketer at an Espresso Café offering the following coupon: Buy One Latte (12 fl oz.), Get One Free (equal or lesser value). The COGS of preparing a 12 oz latte is around 30 cents while the retail cost is close to $3.00. If 1,000 BOGO coupons are redeemed, the financial hit for a company accounting for the coupon at the COGS level is $300 versus a much larger financial hit of $3,000 if accounted for at full retail value.
A $2,700 discount discrepancy for 1,000 redeemed coupons is serious money.
Once discount addicted marketers are made aware of this discrepancy, they realize the fiscal affect of their discount disease. Following completion of their discount detox treatment program, these marketers return to their companies and begin advocating accounting for any and all discounts at full retail value and not at the cost-of-goods-sold.
The Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center will gladly share our marketing antidote to the Asian BOGO Flu epidemic with the Asian Business Health Organization (ABHO). Anyone have a contact at the ABHO?
We are humbled by the overwhelming response to the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center (B.A.D.D.C.). Since we announced the formation of the B.A.D.D.C. a few days ago, we have received inquiries from concerned businesspeople around the globe seeking treatment for discount addicted marketers.
As a public service, the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center is making available its Marketing Intervention Guidelines for concerned businesspeople wanting to conduct a marketing intervention.
A marketer who is severely dependent and is unwilling or unable to see the severity of their addiction to discounting needs a marketing intervention. In a marketing intervention, a group of concerned co-workers, marketers, and others confront the discount addicted marketer. Each person in the group writes a letter stating exactly how the marketer’s addiction to discounting has negatively affected their life. In this letter, they share their love and concern for the marketer and ask that they seek treatment. The marketer is told, in a loving, gentle and supportive way, they are not the problem, but the discount illness is the problem.
It is difficult for the marketer’s wall of denial to hold up under all of this love and most of the time, the marketer will agree to go into treatment. If the marketer refuses, the truth has still come out and this often leads to treatment at a later time.
While it is best to use a trained marketing interventionist to help you develop the intervention strategy, you can conduct the intervention yourself. The following Marketing Intervention Guidelines from the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center will help you design and conduct your intervention.
Bring together a minimum of three and maximum of eight people who are important to the business and to the marketer in particular. The best marketing intervention groups have a broad mix of people including some from outside the company such as customers and vendors. Set up a planning meeting with all participants to discuss the intervention. Be very discreet in all your actions so as not to alert the suffering marketer. Each group member is to write a letter to the addicted marketer listing how they may have helped to enable the addiction and all the negative consequences caused by the marketer’s addiction. Each letter should close with a statement asking the marketer to seek treatment for their addiction. Rehearse the intervention with all the group members. And at this meeting, set a date, time, and place for the actual intervention to occur. You will also need to create a plan to bring the addicted marketer to the intervention as well as choose a treatment center. If the chosen treatment center is out-of-town, then you will need to make necessary travel arrangements. The intervention group will need to identify objections the addicted marketer may use to avoid or postpone treatment and then formulate appropriate responses. Plan to be at the intervention location 30 minutes before the addicted marketer is expected to arrive. At the intervention, confront the addicted marketer by reading your letters aloud, editing out anger, blame, and judgment. Read the best, most heartfelt and tender letter last. (Usually a letter from a concerned customer cracks any addicted marketer’s wall of denial.) After the intervention, call the admissions staff at the chosen treatment center and let them know whether or not the addicted marketer has agreed to treatment. Collect all letters and send them to the addicted marketer’s counselor at the treatment center.
Click here to read the following sample Marketing Intervention Letter (.pdf).
Unfortunately, General Motors' discount detox didn’t last long. The automaker was to have ended its EDEO (Employee Discounts for Every One) pricing scheme on August 1. However, the urges and the cravings to discount were to strong for the company to resist. General Motors has decided to continue its addiction to discounting in order to increase sales. Yep, GM has again extended its EDEO pricing scheme.
It pains me greatly to see a business suffer so mightily from abusing low price marketing schemes. As a marketing doctor with Brand Autopsy, I’ve seen far too many businesses overdose on discounting. And once these businesses OD on discounts … they never seem to recover and regain the marketing vitality they once enjoyed.
So sad … so very sad.
That’s why I am introducing the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center.
The goal of the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center is to rid businesses of toxins accumulated by rampant abuse of discounting pricing strategies. The first step of discount detox is immediate withdrawal from any and all discounting activities. Once a business has stopped using discounts, fiscal and behavioral withdrawal symptoms may follow.
The nature and severity of the withdrawal symptoms vary greatly depending on the discounting activities used as well as the frequency of use. These days there are very few businesses using one discount tactic exclusively. It is common to see businesses in discount detox that abuse couponing, zero-down/zero-percent financing deals, and rebate programs. Discount detox is a process that applies to any business addicted to using low prices to drive sales.
Discount detoxification is performed in many different ways depending on where a business decides to receive treatment. As a highly trained detox facility, the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center incorporates counseling and therapy during all phases of the detoxification process to help with the fiscal and behavioral distress afflicted businesses may experience.
Detoxification at the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center covers all aspects of withdrawal and purification from discounting activities. The removal of residual discount tactics is a key goal in the Brand Autopsy’s proprietary discount detox process. Without this process, residual discount tactics can remain in a marketing department of a business and cause cravings for years after discounting activities have supposedly ceased. A vital step in a successful discount detox is flushing out these accumulated toxic residues so that the business no longer experiences unwanted adverse effects from the discounts they have used.
If you know of any business suffering from addiction to discounting, please consider contacting the Brand Autopsy Discount Detox Center – we are here to help.
According to the recently released white paper, “The Value of Managed Word-of-Mouth Programs” (pdf) ... managed word-of-mouth (WOM) programs, like those from BzzAgent, generate more WOM than happens from everyday people. (For a sum-up of the paper’s key findings, check out this post from Ben McConnell, a deacon of customer evangelism do’s and don’ts.)
The study, conducted by Dr. Walter Carl (Assistant Professor at Northeastern University), tracked the WOM activities of 1,000 BzzAgents compared to a convenience sample of everyday, non-Bzz Agent people.
As happens with most white papers, this one reads very much like an advertorial giving credibility to BzzAgent’s word-of-mouth marketing ways. It’s heavily framed to support BzzAgent’s position on generating WOM. For example, the BzzAgent sample set is referred to as ‘WOM Volunteers’ when in reality, the so-called convenience sample is more a WOM volunteer than are the BzzAgents. (BzzAgents aren’t called ‘agents’ for nothing.)
Since these WOM volunteers are BzzAgents, it’s no wonder to me they reported generating more WOM than the convenience sample did. A requirement of being a BzzAgent is to report when and where they generated WOM for the campaign they’re participating in.
Could it be BzzAgents are more skillful at recognizing and reporting WOM activity than their peers in the convenience sample? And if so, wouldn’t that make the data in the study suspect?
I’d also like to learn just how similar, in demographics and psychographics, the two sample sets are. The white paper only outlines the everyday, non-BzzAgent sample as being college educated adults ranging in age from 18 to 29. Since the paper empirically states the BzzAgent sample set is more socially active, I’d like to know if BzzAgents are potentially more socially inclined than are the people in the everyday, convenience sample.
Hopefully these questions will be addressed when the complete study is published next year in the Management Communication Quarterly.
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