Word Of Mouth Marketing Isn't Effective If Your Product Sucks

from the just-saying... dept

Tue, Jun 3rd 2008 7:16am — Mike Masnick

Way too many people seem to think that "word of mouth marketing" is about getting others to spread your marketing message. That is, they think it's about putting words into the mouths of others. But that's not true at all. Real word of mouth marketing is about building a great product, and then letting your customers pass on the news however they see fit. If there's anything to do on the "marketing" side, it's merely to enable the tools for your biggest fans to spread the word, and then get the hell out of the way. However, it appears many marketers still don't understand this concept.

Reader Aaron deOliveira writes in to point out a story about Hollywood studios apparently giving up on word of mouth marketing campaigns targeted at "faith-based" audiences promoting certain messages that the studios hoped would resonate with folks who are religious. In the article, they toss up all sorts of reasons why such campaigns haven't done all that well, but deOliveira points to a blog post by Ben McConnell where he makes a different assertion: perhaps all those word of mouth campaigns failed because the movies just weren't that good. It's just that the studios are so sure of their product that they never even noticed it. So, once again, it goes back to this: word of mouth marketing is never going to make a lick of difference if your product sucks. Rather than focusing on such things, concentrate on making a good product first -- and then worry about the marketing campaign. And if the campaign fails -- recognize that maybe it's got something to do with the product.

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Filed Under: buzz, hype, marketing, quality, word of mouth

32 Comments

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John Thomas, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:25am

CUstomers
The article is exactly right. If I find a product I like, I let others know about it. If I get stuck with junk though, why would I send others to it? That is silly.

JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:36am

I recently came across a great example of this.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x9HSaVGnCzM
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Chronno S. Trigger, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:37am

anecdote
I was going to put this little anecdote in the advertisement article recently posted but it seems to fit better here.

The only reason I own "I am Legend" on HD-DVD (yes I know) is because of proper word of mouth. I saw the trailer for it and I thought it was just another serious movie, like "The Pursuit of Happyness". I never would have seen it if it wasn't for my manager telling me what the real story line was.

The exact opposite could be said. In the past I have passed on quite a few movies whose trailers looked good but people I knew said it sucked.
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www.custompcmax.com, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:39am

You can create some buzz about anything, with enough effort. But, if your product sucks, the buzz will go away and you will be forgotten.
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Tom The Toe, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:55am

Word Of Mouth Works Both Ways
If you run across a great product or service you will most likely tell 10-20 people how wonderful it is. If you run across a crappy product or service you will probably tell 80-100 people to make sure they don't believe the hype.
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chris (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:57am

word of mouth works in all cases
it just may not work the way you want it to.

if your product or service is great, it works to your advantage as people spread the word that it's great.

if your product sucks, it works to your disadvantage as people spread the word that your product is junk or that you company is a bunch of thieves.

in either case, it worked, and people got the message.
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Matt, 3 Jun 2008 @ 8:28am

its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
You're dead on, but this is representative of all marketing

This is why MS lobbies so hard and pushes so much marketing, why open source barely has to advertise at all, etc.

The better you are, the more quality and long-term you seek to improve a company, the less word of mouth is actually necessary....people can continually find referrals to increase business and only minimally have to put in effort to continually increase a customer base if a product/offering is good, in any business.

AKA the reputation precedes itself.
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Wolfy, 3 Jun 2008 @ 9:12am

Case in point. The "documentary" (with severely distorted "facts") pushed as entertainment... "Expelled".
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Kilgore Trout, 3 Jun 2008 @ 9:49am

Re:
Or "An Inconvient Truth"
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a $10 ticket?, 3 Jun 2008 @ 9:55am

Would you
Basically all those Hollywood uber players don't understand the concept of trust. If I recommend a bad movie to a friend I'm telling him to throw away $10. He's not going to trust me much after that. Trust resonates with audiences, not catch phrases.
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Ajax 4Hire, 3 Jun 2008 @ 10:05am

Ferengi Rule of Acquisition
Ferengi Rule of Acquisition
#44 Never confuse wisdom with luck.
#57 Good customers are as rare as latinum; Treasure them.
#69 Ferengi are not responsible for the stupidity of other races.
#82 The flimsier the product, the higher the price.

All are applicable in this instance.
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Pro, 3 Jun 2008 @ 10:48am

Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
Except that MS actually DOES create top notch products - This is what people tend to misundersand... I've been in software for 20 years now and can tell you that everyone else's products pretty much suck. The idea that MS sucks, is actually word of badmouth marketing, by everyone else who isn't smart enough to compete.
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asdf, 3 Jun 2008 @ 11:08am

How is this tech dirt? :P
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Jake, 3 Jun 2008 @ 11:17am

It's funny and sad...
That this has to be explained in the first place. What next? A post about how playing with fire burns???
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Valkor49, 3 Jun 2008 @ 12:15pm

Re: It's funny and sad...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypodermic_needle_model

Marketers almost have no choice but to believe in the Hypodermic Model of communication. Their paychecks depend on telling their employers "I said good things about your product; people went out and bought your product." They are locked into one directional communication.
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Nasch, 3 Jun 2008 @ 12:27pm

Re: anecdote
I saw the trailer for it and I thought it was just another serious movie, like "The Pursuit of Happyness". I never would have seen it if it wasn't for my manager telling me what the real story line was.

Because serious movies, you know.... suck.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2008 @ 3:39pm

Re: Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
everyone else's products pretty much suck

thank you for remaining objective
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PaulT (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 3:46pm

Re: It's funny and sad...
Unfortunately, few people in the industry seem to realise that quality has an effect. It reminds me of the stories late last year about how disappointing DVD sales were for a lot of the big blockbusters - Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Fantastic Four 2, etc.

They seemed to blame everything from a shrinking market to piracy but never attached the real reason - all of those movies were terrible, and most people don't buy DVDs of movies they don't like. Notice how mainstream Hollywood's doom and gloom stories are conspicuously absent this year now that good movies are appearing. Spidey 3 - terrible reviews, disappointing box office. Iron Man - glowing reviews, exceeds expectations. It shouldn't be so hard to see the connection.

This all applies double when your movie is aimed at a close-knit niche audience (as the "faith-based" movies mentioned in the article were. By their nature, "faith-based" will put off a lot of people who aren't part of that faith. If you also insult that audience by making poor product, you won't see profits unless you have a clever marketing campaign. "Word of mouth" ain't clever unless you have a specific hook (e.g. Blair Witch Project, which a lot of people didn't enjoy but still made a lot of money. I did enjoy it, for the record).
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2008 @ 5:22pm

Re: Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
Pro -> Except that MS actually DOES create top notch products

Heh, that's pretty funny.
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Mike Stidham, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:46pm

Re: Ferengi Rule of Acquisition
You left out one...

IIRC, it's #47,

Faith can move mountains...of inventory.
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Mike Freeman, 4 Jun 2008 @ 8:15am

Bad wom spreads the fastest
I recently posted on this. Yelp can be so hard on businesses because people like to write bad things more than good things.
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John Wilson, 4 Jun 2008 @ 8:20am

Re: Re: its not just word of mouth, it's all marketing
Oh, you must mean Vista!

Wait a minute...that's not top notch, it's a mistake. Just wait for Windows 7. Now THAT will be top notch!

Perhaps you mean Microsoft's newly minted, bought and paid for ISO standard OOXML. Now THAT's top notch!

So top notch that not even Microsoft can make a real product that supports it. You just can't get any more top notch than that!

ttfn

John
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Don Bates, 4 Jun 2008 @ 9:13am

Word of Mouth Marketing
I've been in the public relations world for more than 30 years and if there's one truth I've learned in all that time it's that performance (i.e., good product, good service, good film, good game, etc.) is the touchstone of good public relations and word-of-mouth has always been a part of the mix. Recall the old adage: You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. On the other hand, it's also true that as a result of puff and propaganda you can seduce all kinds of people to do all kinds of things that defy logic and reason. Look at politics. More germane, recall what circus impresario P.T. Barnum (1810 – 1891) said that gave Hollywood its first hint about how to drum up audiences for lackluster flicks: "There's a sucker born every minute." So there are at least two perspectives from which word of mouth marketing can be pursued. Which one does your organization favor? Which one do you?
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Lloyd Duggan, 4 Jun 2008 @ 3:46pm

Word of mouth marketing
People are going to talk whether businesses want them to or not. Word of mouth is a natural process that's been going on forever. There are plenty of people railing about the crappy products and shoddy service that most businesses put out on the market. The key concept of word of mouth marketing is to influence ongoing conversations in a way that will cause people to talk about your product brand or service in a positive way. And the best way to generate positive word among consumers is the old fashioned way..to earn it by providing great products and/or knock your socks off service.
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Mister Bates, 7 Jun 2008 @ 1:34am

Word of mouth marketing
This is why there is such an emphasis on first week takings.. How many mug punters have we sucked in, before the real truth about this slip-shod pig=swill gets out?. I am legend was pretty average and good have been x2 as good, possibly x4 if they didn't insist on having a big star and big set pieces. I thought he became leader of the MPAA (Zombies) at the end. Ho-hum .. have to re-make it myself, with the proper storyline.
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