TNS head of brand and communications research Sue Burden looks at how retailers can use Word of Mouth marketing to influence how people shop
Shopping is already something people talk about, exchanging advice, experiences, where to go and where to avoid.
Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing is about harnessing this existing force to the direction you want your store to follow and using this communications channel to spread your message.
What makes WOM so important for brands now is firstly the diminishing power of traditional media channels and secondly the potential for spreading positive WOM via growing digital channels.
WOM offers retailers considerable clout as a channel of digital communication for brands.
Last year, TNS put questions about WOM on nine tracking studies as an experiment and found that not only was WOM often present at a similar level as advertising in mainstream media like TV, it was also primarily positive – an effective brand communications medium, with relatively low costs.
It is an opportunity not to be missed.
Making positive WOM happen for your brand is not just a question of luck – it takes commitment, effort and resources. The three key principles for driving shopper behaviour are:
1. Create a WOM opportunity with every brand / consumer touchpoint – not just your website, but also in store, advertising and packaging.
2. Make the WOM opportunity two-way – not just a channel for you to talk to them, but an opportunity for open dialogue. This will take commitment on your part, but the gains in terms of positive WOM can be invaluable.
3. Involve frontline staff – they are also vital WOM generators.
If the level of commitment needed hasn’t put you off, here are a few ideas for a retailer looking to make WOM happen:
1. Find out what your consumers are already saying about your brand. Look online to see what is influencing your consumers. You can do this yourself or ask a research company to stimulate the conversation that is already happening.
2. To communicate with your customers in-store, install a local store electronic information board where customers will see it and populate this with varied and frequently up-dated information about the store and its local area – for example:
- “Did you know that we sell fresh fish that is fished from sustainable sources in Scotland?”
- “Here’s a simple recipe using cheaper cuts of beef.”
Being varied, frequently changed and relevant to the local area is far more important than going for expensive production values. This sort of dialogue creates more links between customers and your store, which then multiply when they relay this information to others.
3. Make WOM generation part of frontline staff training – train them to deliver the customer assistance customers will relate to their friends: “I couldn’t find the clothes in my style and colour, but the sales assistant suggested something that another customer had bought in a similar colour and it really suited me.”
Knowing the effect that employees’ actions could have on the store’s success should be part of their role.
4. Create an award for outstanding customer service that customers vote for via a simple form in-store – a version of the “Employee of the month” scheme.
To maximise the WOM value, don’t just announce the award and put up a photo of the staff member, but give some interesting details about them like “10 things you didn’t know about Peter”. This gives the staff an identity and encourages a real connection with customers.
5. You probably already have a really efficient website, but why not review every section and think about ways to make it more two-way:
- encourage customers to review products they have bought
- have an ‘email a friend’ facility by products and information
- create a ‘Shopping Lists’ section and have lists (many people are list-addicts!), such as what to buy for different social occasions – and suggest customers send in their own lists
- feature a customer’s tour of your website: what do they find useful and which products would they buy if money were no object?
- encourage customers to send in pictures of your products in their home, clothes that they are wearing or meals they have cooked
6. Add ‘WOM-factor’ to your creative briefs for any brand communications – at the recent WOM Marketing Conference, John Woodward, Planning Director from Publicis recommended at that clients change their evaluation criteria for new creative work from “What does it communicate?” and “Do I like it?” to “What will people say about it after they’ve seen it?” and “Would I want to share it with someone?”
7. Be prepared to make rapid changes as your WOM campaign progresses – successful WOM is not a question of months of preparation and then sitting back and watching it happen. Change the paradigm from 1. Learn and 2. Do to 1. Do and 2. Learn.
8. Include a measure of WOM on your tracking, as we did in our study. This will demonstrate the power of WOM at work on your brand!
