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Word of mouth

Chris Cowan, who has experience of marketing for Duracell batteries and Disney explains how word-of-mouth works in a real marketing situation. This Tedtalk was given at the London Business School.

Cowan mentions research his firm has carried out into the motivations of recommenders. Of the eight different kinds of recommender, three were motivated by some kind of economic benefit. One segment in particular was highly motivated by financial reward, and – according to Cowan – accounted for 80% of the financial incentives offered by firms who pay existing customers to introduce new ones (often known as Friend Get A Friend, or FGAF). Cowan argues that financially-motivated recommenders receive relatively low consideration from recipients, and significantly less ‘re-recommendation’ to others of their tips. This appears to support the assumption that benevolence and integrity (not just expertise) are important factors in WOM. But it reveals that economic motivation of some sort is important in a significant number of WOM recommendations, at least some of which must be effective and lead to sustained and mutually satisfying marketing exchanges. This finding contradicts, to some extent, the disinterestedness of WOM which is seen as one of its sources of credibility (compared to the self-interested communications of businesses, for example). 

A second impressive aspect of Cowan’s talk is its shift in direction towards the end, when he includes self-interested recommendation, or what we might call self-advocacy, in his remarks on recommendation. His examples include making a job application, and backing an idea in a business meeting. He stresses the importance to the recommender of anticipating how he or she will be seen by the recipient. He argues against recommending ‘at’ a potential recipient, preferring a more empathetic approach. This might provide clues to organisations as to how best to manage communications and incentives for those they identify as opinion leaders.



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Brand strategies model - a new brand

This is an interesting example where the image being presented of a brand is authentic enough in terms of what it is made of and how it is made. Interestingly the video and the website for La Provencale make no mention of the fact that it is owned by L’Oreal.

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Owning the air bridge

This HSBC campaign will be familiar to anyone who has flown from or to various well-known international airports.

The location of the ads allows HSBC to reach a specific segment of customers that is of interest to them, the location is also one where they face little or no competition from other brands for attention and it is also one that is an excellent choice for an international brand.

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Uber Engage - involving drivers

This trial initiative provides people who drive for Uber with a formal voice in the business and gives them a platform for providing suggestions as to how the Uber app could be made better for both passengers and drivers.

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Symbolic benefits of washing-up liquid?

This is what the London advertising agency Grey has to say about the following advert for a washing up liquid:

Women make up nearly 50% of the UK workforce. Despite this, they also spend 117 more minutes every day on household chores than men. We don’t think that’s fair. And neither do Fairy. So, to coincide with International Women’s Day 2016, the iconic household brand asked one simple question: how fair is your home? Together, we made one small change to highlight the issue of gender equality and the division of roles in the home – removing the ‘y’ from the brand’s logo. Fairy became Fair. Check out the video below for more on the issue.

http://grey.com/london/work/key/fairy-fair/id/12590/

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Positioning a car

This is how the London advertising agency Grey describe the following advert:

Tasked with promoting Volvo's state-of-the-art CleanZone air filtration system, Grey London created probably the most tranquil, quiet car commercial you will ever see. The sensory film sees the viewer transported to the vast, un-spoilt, open Swedish landscape that inspired Volvo’s technology - 'as close to inhaling a lungful of Swedish Air as you can get without a plane ticket'. To draw attention at car shows and dealerships, the agency even created a luxury 'Swedish Air Inhaler' - a packaging concept for how 'Swedish Air' might be bottled as a consumable; a glass depiction of a deep breath of air.

http://grey.com/london/work/key/volvo-swedish-air/id/4737/

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Kids ask for light in 'best ever' anti-smoking ad - YouTube

Behaviour change is said to start with making people aware of the existence of a threat or a problem. This smoking cessation advert vividly shows that for many adults awareness of the harms caused by smoking already exists. The willingness to act on it does not. The ad claims that the adults threw away 

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Characteristics of communication media

This is a humorous look at the (positive) features of traditional communications media (catalogues) presented in the same way as we are used to seeing for more modern products.

On a more serious note it really does highlight why some firms still use catalogues in a world dominated by electronic devices.

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Apps and public relations

This is a UK social marketing campaign designed to reduce the public's consumption of sugar. As a social marketing campaign success cannot be measured in monetary terms, so it's worth seeing at the end of the clip how they measured success.

The campaign can be linked to a variety of basic and advanced behaviour change models.

 

 

 

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Grief and exchange

This clip has an interesting observation about the value of grief and its role in exchange. The relevant scene comes at 3.35 mins into the clip.

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SingTel Hawker Heroes Video Case - YouTube

This clip shows how public relations can be used to emotionally engage an audience and deliver specific marketing communication objectives for commercial organisations. You should note how thi campaign sought to change the attitudes of Singaporeans towards Singtel and the social marketing metrics that they used.

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