I was reminded of my presentation by a short, but to-the-point post by Paul Mcenany, where he had the great visual that's below and he asked this question:
If the people most likely to talk about you are those that have had some sort of experience with you, it baffles me why we spend such a relatively small amount of time and money making that person's experience one worth talking about.
My main point back then was there is no such thing as word of mouth marketing. WOM was an outcome of doing something really well. You can't create WOM.
Yet, as Paul smartly points out, companies seem to spend very little creating the kind of experiences that people really want to talk about. You've spent millions of dollars and lots of time convincing me to come to your store or purchase your product, what are you spending to create an experience that makes me want to come back or makes me engaged with your brand? Using all of the latest tactics in the world doesn't make up for a bad brand experience.
So to answer Paul, I have no idea. Companies can see that it works. They can see that it generates business. They can see that it creates a point of differentiation. They can even see that people will pay more for it. I think the problem is that delivering a compelling, authentic and relevant brand experience across everything you do takes time, effort and hard work. I think too many companies just want a quick fix to get them through the short term. They don't have the patience or fortitude for long term efforts.
Hee-Haw Marketing: Where do conversations come from?.
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