E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: ECT News 2001-05-04 13:12:16

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Word of mouth is one of the strongest marketing mediums available --
so strong that some struggling dot-coms, desperate to save advertising
dollars, are begging their customers to help spread the word about their
products and services.

"Word of mouth is very powerful in terms of buying power," Forrester
Research analyst Christopher Kelley told the E-Commerce Times.
"It can be incredibly effective."

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: Eric 2001-08-21 14:59:35 In reply to: ECT News

right on- so are there any reputable firms facilitating WOM (and um, hiring marketers also)?

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: Lee 2001-05-27 12:16:34 In reply to: ECT News

The question implies word-of-mouth can be controlled. Yes, it can be stimulated and given a hand at some cost - history of marketing shows cases where marketers gave incentives to influential consumers (aerospace executives were given free liquor for a new brand and it worked well)

The catch is that word-of mouth is largely not controllable. Movies live and die on the movie-goers first weekend. No amount of advertising can save a clunker film that people did not like.

Hey, e-commerce. Its the product. People do not like what you offer most of the time. Fix it. Find out what the customers want. Maybe they will like mail or brick and mortar, not websites. Do not push websites all the time.

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: Melanie Owen 2001-05-10 21:30:51 In reply to: ECT News

I am surprised that it is only now that companies recognize the power of "word of mouth" advertising. Just look at Sam's Club, they hardly advertise, but they are so huge and of course "profitable". Another industry that most people still do not understand is network marketing which uses nothing but word of mouth advertising. It is such a powerful business model and has created many millionaires over the years (thanks to the Amway Corp. for maintaining the same model over the years and did not cave in to the criticisms from the masses). I am a beneficiary of this model and I am glad it is now beginning to be accepted by mainstream businesses.

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: FredNeumann 2001-08-23 16:46:08 In reply to: Melanie Owen

Are you sure " Sam's Club" is profitable?
In Brazil, it closed doors from its São Paulo mega-store.
I´d like to know more about this company.

Cheers,

Fred Neumann
Maketing
Invent
www.invent.com.br
Rio de Janeiro-RJ
Brasil

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: Tom Kuegler 2001-05-17 11:47:52 In reply to: Melanie Owen

I also find it funny that more companies have not seen the value in the viral marketing method.

One of my customers grew their email list from zero to 500,000 people in one year and all of that was accomplished through viral marketing.

There are not many products that have addressed this market for companies.

The only one that I have seen that covers the midsize to small business, (which is what most e-commerce operations are), is a product called The Lead Engine.

They have a turn key solution that promotes viral marketing in a turn key fashion.

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: Thomas 2001-05-17 20:34:47 In reply to: Tom Kuegler

It's funny... there are so many companies out there that have "tell-a-friend" type tools (even companies selling these things commercially!), but almost none of the viral marketing or customer loyalty products (like MyPoints) actually provide any tools to build the relationship. The customer slips right through the web site owner's hands at the most critical moment. In the case of MyPoints, it is even worse - you get spammed relentlessly by MyPoints.

If someone is out there telling people about a company's business, shouldn't they want to capture that, and reward the person for doing it?

Regards,
Thomas

Re: Can Word of Mouth Save E-Commerce?
Posted by: dotcommaven 2001-05-21 14:54:07 In reply to: Thomas

Viral marketing only works if the thing itself is something that everyone wants, like free e-mail or funny pictures to send around the Web. Mypoints and sites like that try to leverage viral marketing principles, but don't really get it.