The W.O.M. Mom

Whisper To A Scream

Many of us know the power of word-of-mouth and viral activity.  In most instances, it occurs because of the effect of what I call ‘The Viral 4-H Club’ meaning it’s got to be either Humorous, Helpful, Heartwarming or Hot-blooded. 

True viral activity invokes emotion and less than 24 hours ago, ‘Hot-blooded’ mommy bloggers had (and continue to have) center stage regarding an on-line ad where Motrin espouses ‘We feel your pain” aimed at Moms who carry their children in slings.  At the time of this post, #motrinmoms was still the #1 trending topic on Twitter and the growing number of blog posts to go along with it are sure to make the brand and agency need a little of their own medicine in the morning.  Check out this video that PR maven Katja Presnal created recapping some of the conversations on twitter.

As a Mom of three, I agree the Motrin ad misses the mark in a big way.  If this were my client, I would  have suggested copy that expresses a Mom’s love of the bonding  aspect and ease of ‘babywearing’ but that, every now and then, it can take a toll on your muscles.  That’s the plain and simple truth.  Don’t get ‘cheeky’ about babywearing being ‘in fashion’ and “supposedly a real bonding experience” (talk about ‘ouch’) and then say (due to the potential pain of babywearing), “so if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.”  That is direct copy from the ad.  That’s just insulting and condescending. 

The main issue in my mind is not that the ad exists but that neither the brand, the PR nor the ad agency were monitoring ‘Operation Twitterstorm’  which was developing and picking up steam throughout the day.  If you’re a brand that targets women and moms, you SHOULD know that the highly sought-after Mommy bloggers who are being wined-and-dined by brands and agencies are ACTIVE Twitter users.  Wal-Mart  knows.  Zappos knows.  Whole Foods knows.  Comcast knows.

Making History? How Cool.

I am probably the last person to write a post about their BlogHer experience.  I had a lot of similar feelings to the other newbies who attended the BlogHer ’08 conference in relation to how overwhelming it was, how you really just had to put yourself out there and meet people and how there were cliques and private events that made you feel a little late to ‘the party’ already.  Blah, blah, blah.  That would have been the case for any new convention situation you would have attended for any industry.  It’s not specific to BlogHer.

That all didn’t really affect me personally other than it was very humbling.  I’d been a part of the music industry for so long where I would know a majority of people in the room at any given function or conference.  So literally to go by myself and not really know anyone, really made me work at meeting people which was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.  The conference itself was well run and panels were thoughtfully chosen.  I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking of attending.  (The only thing that I had hoped for was some kind of attendee list so that, besides exchanging cards, I could remember who the heck I met and what blog she wrote or company she or he was from.)

Anyhoo, now that I got that general info about my BlogHer experience out of the way, I wanted to explain how, on a macro level, being there at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco in mid-July, 2008, affected me personally.

Is Common Courtesy Uncommon?

The phenomenon of 'word of mouth' often happens when a product or service is genuinely worth talking about.

So let's talk about 'services' for a moment. I'm talking about any business that is service-oriented from a doctor to lawn care to home renovation or day care.  With service businesses, referrals and word of mouth are usually the strongest sources of new business.  With so many of these service businesses having poor follow-through and customer service, it has me asking, HOW do they stay in business and 'Is common courtesy uncommon?'

Yeah, maybe but what do THEY say?

More and more people, especially women, do online research before making a purchase.  Whether it's a big ticket item like a car or a computer or a small item like a book or toy, for some reason, we care about what THEY think.  Who is THEY?  THEY are the anonymous people who comment on customer ratings and review sections of various brand or ecommerce websites.  A new article in Practical Ecommerce, reinforces what we know, word of mouth is stronger than ever and especially when it comes to customer reviews. 

Former Forrester Research exec and SV Moms/BlogHer blogger goddess, Charlene Li's new book Groundswell reinforces this point by noting that 76% of customers use online reviews before making a purchase.  Smart companies are using customer reviews as a way to engage their customers and keep them coming back to read or review products themselves.  Become a trusted destination, like Amazon, and you become a 'go to' location for pre-purchase research and potentially for the sale itself.

Let's face it.  Customers today EXPECT to be able to rate or review products and interact in real time with companies via a brand's or its retailer's website or company blog.  Some forward thinking companies like The Home Depot, Whole Foods and Zappo's are even taking advantage of using Twitter for customer support, to answer questions and to run promotions.  Ann from HP, did some great scavenger hunt-type promotions at BlogHer'08 using Twitter.

If you're not offering customer interaction on your site, you're missing out and THEY may wonder, 'What are you afraid of?'

Bzz or bust? Put your money where your word-of-mouth is.

So WOM buzz behemoth Bzz Agent has recently offered a money-back guarantee which says that if their Word of Mouth campaign doesn't beat the brand partner's agency's traditional campaign by 20% across four metrics, they'll give the client their money back. And by money, they mean no less than the $300k minimum client's will need to pay to take Bzz Agent up on it.

I'm torn on whether this is a good tactic or not.  On the one hand, I give them credit for doing something WOM-worthy in itself to promote not only the power and importance of WOM for a campaign.  Also, since measuring metrics for WOM is a constant struggle, ideally, it may prove to be an effective outcome that could be good for the whole WOM industry.

However, 'brand cannot live by WOM alone', and probably shouldn't.  A great marketing campaign