I just came back from Canada where I had the opportunity to go to the Word of Mouth Congress held by the Canadian Marketing Association. I just wanted to share one quick thought on Word of Mouth that I believe was the most important conclusion drew by the different panelist that took the stage at Toronto.
The idea is this: Word of Mouth is NOT a technique, it is a philosophy.
People should stop thinking of WOM as if it where some sort of BTL advertising. You can´t make a “word of mouth” campaign. What you can do is come up with a powerful and meaningful idea that will make people talk.
The fact the WOM is not a technique is quite powerful and enlightening. Our aim, when creating communication, should be to spark conversation. But it is important to have in mind that conversations are held by people, not brands. Brands could deliver a subject for the conversation, like Dove did when it talked about what should we understand by beauty. But the conversation was conducted by people through blogs, websites, at coffee shops or whenever people could gather, both physically of digitally, to share ideas.
Keep that in mind.
We live in the era of conversations.
Tags: Prosumer, Social Media, WOM
