The Anatomy of Buzz: Creating Word-of-mouth Marketing - Hardcover

Rosen, Emanuel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002571048 ISBN 13: 9780002571043

Publisher: HarperCollins Business, 2000

Synopsis

The first book to show companies how to generate word-of-mouth marketing.

When purchasing certain products customers rely heavily on personal recommendations from friends and family, colleagues and peers – and sometimes even relative strangers. Yet most of today’s marketing still focuses on how to use advertising and other tools to influence each customer individually, ignoring the fact that buying these ‘conversation products’ is a social process.

The Anatomy of Buzz will be the first book to show companies how to help customers influence each other through word-of-mouth, using case studies and concrete examples:

Why did it take cameras more than 50 years to start spreading from professionals to the general public?
· How did Sun Microsystems use the networks to spread the word about Java?
· How did the makers of Trivial Pursuit create huge demand for the game almost overnight?
· How did Nintendo create unprecedented buzz for Super Mario Brothers?

Word-of-mouth has long been recognized as a powerful marketing tool and the revolutionary ability of the Internet to connect customers to each other now makes it absolutely critical. As customers grow ever more sceptical they may not listen to adverts, but they do listen to their friends. This will be the first book to teach in a systematic way how these invisible networks work. Readers will learn how to:

Build contagious attributes into the product at design stage.
· Identify ‘network hubs’ that influence others in the network.
· Seed non-active networks early on.
· Design ‘tell a friend’ promotions that really work.
· Advertise in a way that simulates and stimulates word-of-mouth.

About this title

Review:

The Palm Pilot. The novel Cold Mountain. The iMac. Hotmail. FedEx. The movies The Blair Witch Project and There's Something About Mary. According to former marketing exec Emanuel Rosen, they all became successful not through traditional advertising or marketing routes, but through "buzz", that semi-tangible process through which information and commentary jump from one brain/mouth to another, and customer loyalty is built through the advice of friends, colleagues, or trusted "mega-hubs" of information. Rosen has spent the past few years studying the routes, nodes and clusters through which buzz passes and grows, and the result is this well-researched book. While it doesn't throw much new light on the mechanics of buzz, it is at least instructive and entertaining, offering mini-sagas of the successful buzz behind such marketing triumphs as the BMW Z3 roadster. Buzz-seekers be warned, however: with the exception of a short chapter at the end of the book called "Buzz Workshop", you won't find much of a blueprint for starting the gears of buzz for your product or service. What you do get is a trove of real-life stories that, if they don't inspire and guide you toward taking your first buzz-creating baby steps, probably mean you are the type of person who should stick with conventional advertising and PR. --Timothy Murphy

From the Back Cover:

'Unleash the power of the invisible networks...'

· According to 3Com, 65% of people who bought a PalmPilot told the company that they heard about it from another person.
· A study by Maritz Marketing Research revealed that 53% of movie-goers rely to some extent on a recommendation from someone they know.
· 63% of women surveyed by 'Self' magazine cited 'friend, family or co-worker referral' as one of the factors influencing over-the-counter drug purchases.

'The idea that a critical part of marketing is word-of-mouth and validation from important personal relationships is absolutely key, and most marketers ignore it.

LEN SHORT, Executive VP, 'Charles Schwab'

'The idea that a critical part of marketing is word-of-mouth and validation from important personal relationships is absolutely key, and most marketers ignore it.

'
LEN SHORT, Executive VP, 'Charles Schwab'

Word-of-mouth marketing has long been recognised as a powerful selling tool. But just how does a company generate it?

How, for example, did the makers of Trivial Persuit manage to create huge demand for their game, almost overnight? How did BMW use James Bond to double their orders for the Z3 roadster? Why did it take cameras fifty years to become accepted by the general public? The ability or inability of companies to exploit word-of-mouth marketing can answer all of these questions.

The revolutionary power of the Internet to connect customers to each other, and the fact that consumers are becoming more attuned to (and sceptical of) traditional advertising, means that word of mouth marketing will become increasingly important for the success (or failure) of your company.

'The Anatomy of Buzz' reveals how to create word-of-mouth marketing that will work for your business. It shows how to:
· Build contagious attributes into your product and the design stage
· Identify 'network hubs' that influence others in the network
· Seed non-active networks early on
· Design tell-a-friend promotions that work
· Advertise in a way that simulates and stimulates word-of-mouth marketing

This is the first book to show in a systematic way how these invisible networks work – and how you can benefit from them . . .

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Business
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0002571048
• ISBN 13: 9780002571043
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320