Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing with Spike Jones

Yeah. So I took Brains on Fire, but then also, I was chairman of the board for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, which has since been acquired by the American Marketing Association.

It’s a record. It’s a true recommendation from one person to another. I mean it, and that’s it at its core. It’s been around forever; first came in the second caveman. Where’d you get that? And he told them, and that’s word of mouth, right? And it still exists in different forms, but we still know that the majority of word of mouth recommendations happen like this. Social is great. Social accelerates those things. But when you want to buy a car, you’re going to read the online reviews, but also, if I know you and you have that car, I’m going to talk to you and trust you more, because I know you. So it’s always been around, but it’s basically at its core recommendation, and asking about those recommendations from someone you know.

Absolutely. I always see influencers having their place in the world of word of mouth. I see them more as a billboard that you rent because you’re given that car to drive around and do a review—like on Jalopnik. But then at the same time, you gotta have, and we did this actually when I was at Fleishman, when the Camaro came out and when they went back to the old retro body style, this guy in the forums who just loved Camaros. He had no following on Twitter; he was basically a social media nobody. But he loved the vehicle, and in the forum, he would comment on everyone’s posts. We reached out to him representing Chevy and said, “We would love to make a 32-second video about you and why you love these cars.” And so we did. Then we gave it back to him—as Chevy, we did not post it on chevy.com or tweet about it. We just gave him this video about him. He’s just an Irish immigrant. He talks about his love of muscle cars, and he’s also a graphic artist and all that. Anyway, we just gave him this video and said, “Thank you so much for being such a big fan of Chevy,” and then we walked away. And so, of course, he goes to social and posts it. The guy gets views on YouTube in the first couple of weeks and becomes the most influential person on Twitter about Chevy Camaros over the next couple of months. So we made an influencer, and we didn’t pay him anything. We just made this great piece of content about him—not even about the car, about him.

I think the biggest thing is they expect—you have a customer, and you have what they get excited about. If you’re the latest iPhone—even though I don’t know if people get excited about iPhones anymore—when they first came out, it was like having a supercomputer in your hand, but a big, cool, sexy thing that people got excited about. That’s not always the case for all brands; not every brand can be an Apple or a Camaro or whatever it might be. They might just be a normal everyday brand, like WD-40. I think that’s the mistake. They say, “How can I get people really passionate about this?” And so we say, “Let’s reframe the conversation. What do your customers care about, and how do they use your products to fulfill that passion? Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about how you are the conduit that connects them to their passion.” Because then you’ll be able to provide the platform, tools, and ability to talk about what they love, and they’ll remember you for it, and you’ll be part of that conversation. I think that’s one of the biggest common mistakes we see, so we try to help them think about reframing that conversation.

Absolutely. And look at, you know —are you familiar with USAA?

Yeah. I mean, look at that. Whenever I would give talks back in the day, pre-COVID, I would say, “Who here loves their insurance company?” and members would raise their hand every time. Because everyone’s got a story about how they were taken care of when something happened to them, and how whenever you got in an accident, the first thing that the agent asked is, “Are you okay?” They’re those exceptions, for sure.

I mean, I think there’s several things—it’s really three parts, because we want to reach customers where they are. So it’s not only the marketing part, where we’re out there listening to the conversations happening, responding, and building out those campaigns through the tool. Then there’s care. And again, we want that seamless experience. So when a handoff comes in and you’re the marketing person on Twitter, and someone comes in and says, “Hey, my stuff’s broken,” there’s a seamless handoff where the tone of voice doesn’t change, and the brand voice stays the same. And the handoff over to the care folks happens seamlessly, too. I think that’s one of the other things we see with some customers—that care is siloed, and the marketing team and the care team don’t talk to each other. But maybe I want to reach your brand on WhatsApp, or Apple Business Chat, or Google Business Chat—any of those—the people have to be there and be available. So that’s what the platform is: it’s able to reach people where they are, where they want to be, and then provide a seamless experience across the customer journey.

Yeah, one, I’ve been a long-time admirer of Target, and I just think, especially on social, they kill it. It is something they celebrate. The “target effect” is what they talk about. And when you go into a Target looking for three things, you come out with 30—people talk about it. I just think they’re social in how they approach it because they do brand love. They interact with their customers, spread that love, and take care of them whenever they have needs. I just think they do a really nice job. Again, it’s easier when you’re a beloved brand like Target; you don’t have many haters out there. But being able to recognize and embrace things in a relevant way is key. They’ll jump on trends that matter to them and avoid conversations that don’t. Just being culturally relevant is really important, and that’s why they’re one of my favorites by far.