Page 478 - Foundations of Marketing

Integrated Marketing Communications | Chapter 15 445

a link between word-of-mouth communication and new-customer acquisition when there
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is customer involvement and satisfaction. Effective marketers who understand the impor-
tance of word-of-mouth communication attempt to identify opinion leaders and encourage
them to try their products in the hope that they will spread favorable publicity about them.
In addition, customers are increasingly going online for information and opinions about
goods and services as well as about the companies. Electronic word of mouth is commu-
nicating about products through websites, blogs, e-mail, social networks, or online forums.
Users can go to a number of consumer-oriented websites, such as Yelp, epinions.com, and
consumerreview.com. At these sites, they can learn about other consumers’ feelings toward
and experiences with specific products; some sites even encourage consumers to rate products
they have tried. Users can also search within product categories and compare consumers’
viewpoints on various brands and models. Not surprisingly, credibility has been identified as
the most important attribute of a ratings website, and reducing risk and saving search effort
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were found to be the primary motives for using such sites. Buyers can peruse Internet-based
newsgroups, forums, and blogs to find word-of-mouth information. A Nielsen Global Online
Consumer Survey found that 92 percent of consumers trust recommendations they get from
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their friends and family, while 70 percent trust consumer comments posted online.
Electronic word of mouth is particularly important to consumers staying abreast of trends.
Hundreds of blogs (such as TechCrunch, Perez Hilton, and engadget) play an essential role in
propagating electronic word-of-mouth communications about everything from gossip to politics
to consumer goods. They provide information on trends, reviews of products, and other informa-
tion on what is new, exciting, and fashionable for consumers. These sites have become so influen-
tial in introducing consumers to new products and shaping their views about them that marketers
are increasingly monitoring them to identify new trends; some firms have even attempted to influ-
ence users’ votes on their favorite items. Marketers must increasingly court bloggers, who wield
growing influence over consumer perception of companies, goods, and services.
Buzz marketing is an attempt to incite publicity and public excitement surrounding a
product through a creative event. Consider the buzz created by Red Bull after it sponsored
daredevil Felix Baumgartner’s jump from 23 miles above the Earth’s surface. The jump broke
sound barriers and caught the attention of much of the world. At one point, YouTube had 8
million viewers simultaneously watching the stunt. Red Bull’s frequent use of buzz marketing
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has made the firm an expert at generating public excitement.
Buzz marketing works best as a part of an integrated marketing communication program
buzz marketing An attempt
that also uses advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity. However, marketers to incite publicity and public
should also take care that buzz marketing campaigns do not violate any laws or have the potential excitement surrounding a
to be misconstrued and cause undue alarm. Before the 2012 presidential debate, Pizza Hut offered product through a creative event

Entrepreneurship in Marketing

B-Reel Enhances the Interaction of Products with Consumers

Founded in 1999, B-Reel has taken advertising to an enter their childhood address, which created a background
advanced level. The advertising production company of a boy running on your street toward your home. Google
has defied marketing norms by creating campaigns that Maps zoomed and rotated the view for users. The niche of
prompt interaction among consumers. Clients including the campaign was that it only worked on Google Chrome, a
Google, Toshiba, and Ikea have all used B-Reel to create browser not very popular among consumers. About 50 mil-
marketing campaigns that engage the viewer. lion people watched the campaign, and many downloaded
B-Reel considers a pivotal campaign to be The Google Chrome in the process. With many other projects in
Wilderness Downtown , in which it created an interactive film the works, B-Reel is using a mix of technology and creativity
c
to promote Google Chrome. The short film allowed users to to become a master of buzz marketing.

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