The Secrets of Word‐of‐Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales through Runaway Word of Mouth

Citation

Warrington, T. (2002), "The Secrets of Word‐of‐Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales through Runaway Word of Mouth", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 364-366. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2002.19.4.364.4

Silverman’s knowledge and passion about word‐of‐mouth (WOM) marketing makes this book relevant and interesting in today’s marketplace. In a world where survival increasingly depends on building and developing customer relationships, Silverman outlines the key role of WOM marketing in those relationships, as well as its role in the marketing and promotional mixes. Silverman brings the lost art of WOM marketing into the twenty‐first century by using current case studies and suggesting strategies for developing a WOM marketing campaign. Overall, The Secrets of Word‐of‐Mouth Marketing is practical, usable, and easy to read.

An important early observation is that “getting people to talk often, favorably, to the right people in the right way about your product is far and away the most important thing that you can do as a marketer” (p. 6). Silverman suggests that WOM marketing is capable of increasing sales tenfold. As such, marketing messages should focus on generating WOM as a goal. WOM represents the way in which customers make decisions and talk to their friends about a product. It should be considered a separate part of the marketing mix – independent of advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing. Although independent of these more traditional media, WOM should be sparked by these traditional media.

Chapter 1 – “Dominating your market by shortening the customer decision cycle” – suggests that increasing the speed of consumer decision making is the most important single decision factor in marketing success. Suggestions are made as to how to cut decision time in half by mapping the consumer’s decision process, identifying decision friction, and reducing bottlenecks that cause consumers to flounder in the decision‐making process. Silverman attests that focus should be placed on communications that move people from one decision stage to the next.

“WOM is thousands of times as powerful as conventional marketing” (p. 22). In chapter 2, Silverman points out that word‐of‐mouth communication breaks through the promotional clutter consumers experience every day. Consumers are … “Thousands of times more likely to act on a recommendation of a friend, colleague, or trusted advisor than … a commercial communication” (p. 23). Silverman defines WOM, discusses what moves customers to action, and discusses the role of direct and indirect experiences in delivering WOM messages. Chapter 3 finds Silverman discussing nine levels of WOM – from extremely negative (–4) to extremely positive (+4) – utilizing examples from companies such as Firestone, Harley Davidson, and Celestial Seasonings Herbal Tea.

Even with its immense power, marketers are reluctant to identify WOM as an independent medium due to the perception that it is out of one’s control. Silverman addresses the issue of controlling WOM in chapter 4, and lists 30 ways to harness WOM, including using experts, seminars and workshops, canned WOM, referral selling, “new” media, traditional media, and internal sources.

Chapter 5 reviews the consumer decision‐making process and the manner in which WOM can be used to move customers from one stage to the next based upon their location in the adoption process. Recognizing that innovators and laggards have different needs, creating messages appropriate for each adopter stage is the purpose of Silverman’s decision matrix. This decision matrix pairs each of the adopter stages with the type of communication important throughout the consumer decision‐making process. The matrix is an interesting and useful tool for understanding one’s customer and requirements for communication content at each level. Practitioners are sure to benefit from the decision matrix.

Chapter 6 discusses delivering the WOM message through three sources – expert to expert, expert to peer, and peer to peer. Much time is spent reviewing the importance of choosing the right experts. Champions of your product are also important sources to consider. Whether using experts or peers, the most important characteristic of the delivery system is its objectivity. Without objectivity, the message is just another sales pitch. Silverman notes that an effective message is an interesting truthful story that can be repeated from source to source. The story, however, must be interesting and outstanding enough to be worthy of repeating (think the Nordstrom tire return story).

Chapter 7 highlights Internet and non‐Internet viral marketing, and gives strategies to develop ideas that “spread like the plague”. Chapter 8 investigates how to research WOM by using face‐to‐face or telephone focus groups of customers, prospects, and a mixed group of enthusiastic customers and skeptics. In this chapter, Silverman suggests questions appropriate for the focus groups.

Chapter 9 outlines how to construct a WOM campaign, and is complete with success factors, situations, and products that benefit from WOM programs. The specific steps to create a WOM campaign are noted in chapter 10, as well as how to put WOM principles into action. Chapter 11 – “Campaign methods that work best” – focuses on the usefulness of WOM for professional products and professional practices. Again, the use of experts is stressed and plenty of examples are peppered throughout the text. A WOM checklist helps keep readers on track.

Chapter 12 – “Practical tips and suggestions” – offers practitioners dozens of strategies effective in WOM marketing. Chapter 13 discusses the five secrets of marketing, the five secrets of decision acceleration, and the 28 secrets of WOM marketing. Chapters 14 and 15 discuss the role of WOM marketing in the promotional mix and the future of WOM marketing in the corporate structure. Silverman recommends employing a VP of WOM marketing due to the power and effectiveness of this medium. The book concludes with recommended reading and several appendices that support the text.

On completion of the book it is apparent that WOM is a phenomenally powerful promotional medium that can be harnessed for the benefit of large corporations with substantial budgets and small businesses with little or no budget. The book offers many practical strategies that will get company executives moving in the right direction. Practitioners will appreciate the checklists, case studies, and success factors that ease the development of their organization’s first official WOM campaign.