The Word Of Mouth Buzz

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Running head: Word-of-mouth promotion's due to the Buzz

The Word-Of-Mouth Buzz

Joel Grier

Bus. 101 Sec. 01

December 5, 2005

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"Buzz", if you're a company you will love to here that word. The Buzz is nothing more then the promotion of a product by the word-of-mouth. However, this word-of-mouth promotion has become a very strong force making products that were unknown huge successes. If companies are able to reject the common myths that go along with the buzz then they can use to huge power of the buzz to become nothing other then a marketing legend (Dye, 2000).

The way in which the buzz gets started is by people sharing their experiences with each other. When these experiences are favored by the other person the result of it could be a huge success in whatever the experience was. Blockbuster recently had success with some of their commercials dealing with Harry Potter, Beanie Babies, and Pokemon to name a few, and it was all driven by customers word-of-mouth promotion (Dye, 2000).

Many companies have no clue what to do when it comes to a marketing campaign that will use the full power of word-of-mouth promotion. These companies could be getting the full benefits of the buzz if they understood how it worked. For a company to do this they need to look at the five myths that are associated with the buzz to gain a better understanding of really what it is (Dye, 2000).

The first myth says that "Only outrageous or edgy products are buzz-worthy" (Dye, 2000). This is not true because "54% of the U.S. economy has been influenced by the buzz" (Dye, 2000). Products that are viewed to be in that 54% range are pharmaceuticals, electronics, and transportation to name a few. In the pharmaceuticals world Viagria and Fosamax are two products that have huge buzz effects. In the electronics world there is always a buzz about the new products. There are many other products that could be viewed a being buzz worthy. Don't get me wrong, not every product is buzz worthy, but if the product is a good price, easy to use, is reliable, and is easily seen by others then

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it is buzz worthy (Dye, 2000).

The second myth says that "Buzz just happens" (Dye, 2000). Buzz does not just happen it comes from carefully managed marketing programs. Stores such as Tommy Hilfiger hire young adults to work in their stores so that they will were their clothes outside of work witch will endorse the fashions. Companies will ration the supply of their products, because people usually want what they cannot

have or others have. Some companies such as Nike use celebrities like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods to endorse certain products for them. Magazines, T.V's., and newspapers that publish lists that tell consumers things such as top box-office