Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Not the most glamorous, simply the most important.

Want to know what drives a multi-million dollar company insane?

Consider the following scene:

You have a free evening and want to go to a movie. There are two you would really like to see. Both run at the same time.

The ads on TV piqued your interest. Yahoo! and YouTube had great previews with all kinds of information. The studio PR machines, working in full force, had likeable heroes from both movies on Leno and Letterman last night. Judging by the fact that one is co-marketing with McDonalds and the other with Burger King, it’s clear these movies are big budget flicks designed to entertain.

While this life and death decision rages in your head, you take the garbage to the curb and run into your neighbor. He saw both movies.

Decision made.

During one a two minute conversation (over a smelly bag of bad dip, diapers and old carpeting), one studio saw millions of marketing dollars fizzle.*

That’s the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

With all of the money spent on branding, advertising, search engine optimization, Internet strategies – pick your tactic, it’s amazing how little effort is directed toward one-to-one marketing. As more marketing tactics battle for our attention through TV, radio, billboards, The Internet, magazines, bathroom signs and gas pump messages, consumers have become more adept at tuning them out. (Be honest – do you remember even one percent of the banner ads you saw when surfing the web today?)

However, it’s still very difficult to tune out a one-on-one conversation (unless you’re married). It’s more important than ever for business to develop marketing messages that are short, punchy and to the point so that they are successfully sent and repeated from person… to person... to person… to person…

Don’t misinterpret this message. It isn’t, “All other forms of marketing are bad and ineffective.” In the scene above, both studios accomplished their initial goals of inform, intrigue and excite. All marketing tactics have their place. Advertising, The Internet, PR and cross-promotions are all viable options for the right product (at the right time and for the right audience).

The real message? Never underestimate or ignore the power of word-of-mouth as a viable marketing tactic. Unlike other options, it can make you just as easily as it can break you. Your marketing strategies should ALWAYS include word-of-mouth and the messages you want relayed through this unending channel. In essence, it is the foundation of marketing. Word-of-mouth was there before symbols were written on cave walls, and it will be there long after the Internet is viewed by kids as a quaint antique.


* Of course, the other studio assumed the credit for your decision. But even the winner knows there are millions of conversations like yours that could be lost.