Brand Central Station

When I started working in this crazy business we told clients that our advertising campaigns worked because they established “top of mind” awareness in the mind of the consumer.  And from that intellectual high ground, consumers could easily recall our brand’s name and would exhibit that most coveted of all consumer behaviors: provide a word-of-mouth referral to a friend or family member.

Flash forward twenty-some years and now word-of-mouth has become its own medium warranting its own marketing discipline (Buzz Marketing) and even its own trade association (the WOMMA).  The fundmental logic, explained to me over two decades ago, still applies:  “Get people to talk their friends and family about your brand because that personal endorsement means more than any ad.”

Okay, we’ll buy that. But haven’t you ever wondered why?

(more…)

There’s a great piece on Fast Company about Interference’s Sam Ewen.  The article, written by Rob Walker, profiles Ewen and his company’s “nontraditional” approach to creating word-of-mouth buzz for clients.

It’s a fun read and for those ad agency and PR-types who are trying to understand the value of “guerilla marketing” efforts in the entire marketing, mix – this should be required reading.

There’s an interesting piece in AdWeek this week that talks about a demographic class I hadn’t seen before … the “working wealthy.”  This group of consumers (also known as “middle class millionaires”) is defined by authors Lewis Schiff and Russ Alan Prince as having the following attributes:

Middle-class millionaires — the 8.4 million households in America with $1 million to $10 million in net worth — are setting the pace for innovation in new and fascinating ways. Although the word “millionaire” may conjure up images of first-class lifestyles and financial peace of mind, middle-class millionaires work exceptionally long hours to maintain their expensive lifestyles and most think of themselves as just plain “middle class.”

Though the working wealthy share many of their values with the rest of the middle class, they also exhibit traits that set them apart. For example, they consider themselves to be influential in their community. They are 50 percent more likely to say that they “tell lots of other people about products or services they like” than middle-class survey respondents. They also report “being asked for advice on what to buy” five times more often than our middle-class survey respondents.

I encourage you to read the whole article – you’ll find the information to be helpful in your marketing planning and of interest to your clients, as well.