THE PEOPLE YOU ARE TRYING TO REACH
The Second factor in determing the importance of buzz in your business is you target audience and the people you are trying to reach.For example people in rural areas rely more on referrals and opinion and opinion leaders than advertising and media. Scientist and doctors rely on word of mouth for research equipments, new technologies. Word of mouth exists in all communities .Only the level of buzz differs.
CUSTOMER CONNECTIVITY
The more your customers are connected to each other, the more you depend on buzz for future business. An example would be GMAIL who heavily relies on its customer base .The company started by word of mouth. There was no advertising.
What this connectivity means that the company has to be very open with their customers. If they screw up the customer comes to know immediately. The importance of high quality products and service increases and the cumulative customer satisfaction becomes critical.
COMPANY-CISCO
CISCO sells hardware devices which have glued the internet together. Its customers are network admistrators and information technology managers. All these customers are heavy users on the internet. Since 1984, buzz about Cisco has been spreading relentlessly on the net. Several Internet newsgroups are dedicated to Cisco’s products,
John Chambers, president and CEO of the multibillion dollar company, spends much of his time visiting customers.” Religiously, John comes to visit me here in New York once a quarter,” one customer told New York Times.” Other companies say, “we listen to the customer,’ but you don’t often get the CEO sitting down with you like that. The guy really is listening to the market”.
MARKETING STRATEGY
Your marketing strategy and that of your competitors may affect the degree to which you rely on buzz. Central purchases for example may reduce the dependence on word of mouth.
PEPSI
If Pepsi cuts a deal with a high school to have only Pepsi vending machines on campus, it cuts the need generate buzz. However in most cases you can reduce your reliance on buzz only to a limited extent. If you market a conversation product people will talk about it, even if the purchasing was done centrally. Kids still talking about which soft drink is the best even if the vending machines in their school are loaded with Pepsi
The Second factor in determing the importance of buzz in your business is you target audience and the people you are trying to reach.For example people in rural areas rely more on referrals and opinion and opinion leaders than advertising and media. Scientist and doctors rely on word of mouth for research equipments, new technologies. Word of mouth exists in all communities .Only the level of buzz differs.
CUSTOMER CONNECTIVITY
The more your customers are connected to each other, the more you depend on buzz for future business. An example would be GMAIL who heavily relies on its customer base .The company started by word of mouth. There was no advertising.
What this connectivity means that the company has to be very open with their customers. If they screw up the customer comes to know immediately. The importance of high quality products and service increases and the cumulative customer satisfaction becomes critical.
COMPANY-CISCO
CISCO sells hardware devices which have glued the internet together. Its customers are network admistrators and information technology managers. All these customers are heavy users on the internet. Since 1984, buzz about Cisco has been spreading relentlessly on the net. Several Internet newsgroups are dedicated to Cisco’s products,
John Chambers, president and CEO of the multibillion dollar company, spends much of his time visiting customers.” Religiously, John comes to visit me here in New York once a quarter,” one customer told New York Times.” Other companies say, “we listen to the customer,’ but you don’t often get the CEO sitting down with you like that. The guy really is listening to the market”.
MARKETING STRATEGY
Your marketing strategy and that of your competitors may affect the degree to which you rely on buzz. Central purchases for example may reduce the dependence on word of mouth.
PEPSI
If Pepsi cuts a deal with a high school to have only Pepsi vending machines on campus, it cuts the need generate buzz. However in most cases you can reduce your reliance on buzz only to a limited extent. If you market a conversation product people will talk about it, even if the purchasing was done centrally. Kids still talking about which soft drink is the best even if the vending machines in their school are loaded with Pepsi