Grapevine
Why Buzz Was a Fad but Word of Mouth is Forever
By: Dave Balter
Published: June 24, 2008
ISBN: 9781591842286
Format: Paperback, 224pp
Publisher: Portfolio
"Like every other marketer in the world, I thought I knew what word-of-mouth marketing was all about", writes BzzAgent CEO Dave Balter in his paradigm shaking book Grapevine: Why Buzz Was a Fad but Word of Mouth is Forever. The book describes the author's discovery that conventional wisdom about word-of-mouth marketing is fundamentally wrong, and how that powerful marketing force really works.
Dave Balter understands that people exchange recommendations about products and services as part of their daily conversation. People are many times more likely to trust the word of a friend or family member, than they are an advertisement, about the relative merits of a planned purchase. The analogy used by the author is one of the grapevine. There is no prediction possible about the exact path a conversation takes, or how it connects people together, but in the end all of the people in the grapevine share the information. Dave Balter emphasizes that the results of a word-of-mouth campaign can be forecast, but the paths taken by the conversation are unpredictable.
Dave Balter (photo left) recognizes that word-of-mouth is not the same as viral marketing, event marketing, and creating a buzz. The book shows how well known examples used in support of these marketing concepts did not work as well as thought. In fact, the author points out their weakness at creating any sustainable word-of-mouth relating to the actual marketing of the product. In the place of these well known marketing techniques, Dave Balter describes the power, more importantly the process, of word-of-mouth marketing. He even demonstrates how negative reactions to a product or service will generate spontaneous support from product users.
For me, the power of the book is the presentation of the psychological background to word-of-mouth marketing. People want to discuss their experiences, and those daily experiences include many products and services. For marketers, however, it's essential to understand that word-of-mouth is not a message that can be controlled. Instead, it's a process that must be left to work of its own accord. That letting go of control is a very big step for marketers, but as Dave Balter explains correctly, it's a step that must be taken towards success.
The recognition in the book that word-of-mouth is at its core storytelling is crucial to understanding the power of the process. People love to tell stories about their experiences, both good and bad, to each other. As a result, both pleasant and disastrous events will be relayed around each person's network. The power of negative product reviews to generate positive responses from quiet product supporters is an essential part of word-of-mouth marketing. Any attempt to stifle, and not respond in a positive manner to negative replies will harm the word-of-mouth marketing effort. Letting people talk about experiences, good or bad, is vital to word-of-mouth marketing success.
I highly recommend Grapevine: Why Buzz Was a Fad but Word of Mouth is Forever by Dave Balter, to anyone who is serious about employing word-of-mouth marketing in their company. Even more importantly, the book provides the reasoning for using word-of-mouth in the right way, and for letting the grapevine connections do the work properly.
Read Grapevine: Why Buzz Was a Fad but Word of Mouth is Forever by Dave Balter, and let the power of word-of-mouth marketing work its magic for your own products and services. You will never listen to a conversation in the same way again.
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