Fresh Ideas for 2006

You've heard about the importance of Word of Mouth or 'creating buzz'.  Here are some great examples & I'm sure they'll give you ideas about how to integrate buzz into your marketing plan - 

1 - Look into a Buzz Creation Agency - (like BzzAgent; leading member of WOMMA).  Here's an example of how Hahn's Foods used them....(from Tara Siegel Bernard's WSJ article 12/27/05)

For decades, the maker of Hahn's, Franklin Foods Inc., remained invisible to consumers as it churned out ingredients that were anonymously poured into New York-style cheesecakes and used behind the counter at bagel shops. Then, about six years ago, Jon Gutknecht, president and chief executive, joined the 80-employee Enosburg Falls, Vt., company with a mission of bringing the Hahn's brand to the mass market.

Under Mr. Gutknecht, Franklin cooked up and patented a cream-cheese-yogurt blend that had less fat, cholesterol and sodium than traditional cream cheese, and offered the health benefits derived from live and active cultures found in yogurt. An initial launch in 2003 flopped, however, because, the company believes, the product was in a container that consumers didn't recognize as cream cheese. Franklin changed the packaging and saw a very modest improvement in results. Soon it realized that more work was necessary. It needed to get its product onto more consumer palates, understand what they thought, and secure more space on highly competitive supermarket shelves.

To kick-start that effort, earlier this year it hired BzzAgent, a Boston word-of-mouth marketing firm, which designed a 12-week campaign using 2,000 volunteers from a roster of about 120,000 people who've registered online to participate in BzzAgent campaigns. While Franklin declines to say how much it paid BzzAgent, the marketing firm says that it generally charges its clients $95,000 for a full-service campaign with 1,000 agents.

The agents for Hahn's, selected by their willingness to try a new cream cheese, were sent a colorful booklet about the product, along with coupons for free Hahn's yogurt cream cheese, which now comes in six flavors. Then they were encouraged to spread the word -- and product -- by hosting brunches, telling co-workers, or introducing it to their local supermarkets. The marketing firm's code of conduct requires them to identify themselves as buzz agents working on behalf of the product. Agents also were urged to file reports on their impressions and encounters, with a chance to win prizes -- from bagel slicers to iPod shuffles -- the more reports they filed.

"This kind of thing is very risky," says Mr. Gutknecht, the Franklin CEO. "If they don't like your product, you have a problem because they will tell everyone they don't like it."

Luckily for Hahn's, they liked it. Sales grew, and thanks to direct consumer feedback, valuable tips were obtained, leading Hahn's to add a baking-brick size and a blueberry flavor, and to eliminate food coloring. While Franklin conducted its own marketing efforts during the March-through-June campaign as well, such as in-store tastings, the number of stores carrying Hahn's more than doubled to about 1,000 by the end of the campaign. Franklin was so pleased with the results, it initiated a smaller buzz campaign in October, and says it may use the strategy again for other products.

2 - Create your own Buzz -- Referral programs work well for this.  Here is another example from the same WSJ article....

Some small companies have invented their own buzz strategies on the tiniest of budgets. For example, Green Gear Cycling Inc., a maker of customized collapsible bicycles that fold up in a suitcase, has turned its customers into a buzz sales force by offering them a referral-rewards program.

The bicycles, called Bike Fridays, have produced some passionate customers, who in turn have produced a lot of sales. Referrals account for 50% to 60% of the Eugene, Ore., company's $3.5 million in revenue. One devotee, septuagenerian Margaret Day, founder of the Australian Bike Friday Club along with her husband, has generated 110 referrals, or $337,170 in sales, from Down Under. Ms. Day just earned her second Bike Friday, which retails from $695 to more than $1,000.

"She's our superstar," says marketing manager Hanna Scholz.

Then there's Jeff Linder, a Bike Friday enthusiast and investor in the 30-person direct-order operation. Mr. Linder, a Boeing 777 pilot, has packed his candy-apple-red Bike Friday into his suitcase on hundreds of trips and has brought into the fold 17 new customers whose orders total nearly $46,000.

Green Gear, founded about 13 years ago by brothers Hanz and Alan Scholz, initially used traditional advertising in cycling publications. But after about five years, "the return on our investment wasn't making sense anymore," says Ms. Scholz, the daughter of Alan Scholz. "We were finding that most of our customers were coming from word of mouth."

At that point, the company began asking customers to spread the word, and it formalized those efforts through referral awards. Each Bike Friday buyer receives a package of prepaid postage cards imprinted with his or her name. Then, whenever that customer meets someone who is curious about their bike, the customer writes that person's name and contact information on one of the cards and drops it in the mail to Green Gear. If the contact results in a sale, the referrer receives $50 in cash or a $75 credit.

The company still advertises periodically, sends out catalogs using new mailing lists, and occasionally teams up with bike clubs and bike touring companies. But it says referrals produce the best results.

"Word of mouth is the lifeblood for most, if not all, small businesses," says Ben McConnell, a marketing consultant based in Chicago and co-author of churchofthecustomer.com, a marketing blog. "It's something that should be part of the DNA of any small company. "Existing customers are a built-in word-of-mouth network. They are ready and waiting ... to help. It's just that they're never asked."