Buzz Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Buzz Marketing - Essay Example Yes, it will seem unfamiliar. Yes, you will be criticized. And yes, it will work†. (Hughes 2005, Chapter 2) Using word of mouth for promoting goods and services is an old tool, yet traditional marketing has only started using it since the audience became sceptical towards â€Å"traditional† advertising. As Knermouch and Green (2001, np) have it: â€Å"†¦the art of generating word-of-mouth has grown far more sophisticated since the early days of simple publicity stunts. Marketers are learning to turn their brands into carefully guarded secrets that are revealed to a knowing few in each community, who in turn tell a few more, who tell a few more, and so on. Rather than blitzing the airways with 30-second TV commercials for its new Focus subcompact, Ford Motor Co. recruited just a handful of trendsetters in a few markets and gave them each a Focus to drive for six months. Their duties? Simply to be seen with the car and to hand out Focus-themed trinkets to anyone who expressed interest in it†. Traditional advertising has ceased to be a reliable source of information for many people, and therefore the good old world of mouth is becoming one of the most powerful tools for the modern marketing specialists for building and promoting brands. People tend to believe the recommendations of their close ones- their relatives and friends- when choosing a product, and therefore the word of mouth is an important marketing tool. On the other hand, word of mouth is the communication that is quite difficult to manage. It is only possible for the company to influence the launch of informational campaign and supplying additional information using the channels that are accessible by the target audience. It is next to impossible to forecast how people will interpret and change this information. (Hughes 2005) Because the choice of the initial information to be spread is an important and not an easy step, it should be paid considerable attention: the target audience, source