Conversations like this take place every day – everywhere – and most marketers have no idea that they are going on (nor how to encourage them). Yet what one customer says to another potential customer is way more powerful than any brochure that they can produce. If you are writing a brochure, of course, you are going to write good things about yourself.
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- I was sitting at the airport waiting for my flight and I was busily writing a blog when I was interrupted by a fellow traveller. He asked ‘How do you like your Mac? I was thinking of changing from my Windows machine…. What do you think?’ I shared how I had been an avid Mac user but how I had been lost to Windows in the days before the iMac when all things were grey at Apple including its leadership. I had come back to the Apple fold after my kids had introduced me to iTunes and then the iPod (this is a few years back). Once I saw how wonderful photos were managed on the Mac, I was back.
He asked ‘But how do you really find it?’ I said ‘It is absolutely seamless in our mixed-platform office. In fact, now that new machines are coming with MS Vista pre-loaded, and there are no drivers for our printers, they are not backwards compatible with applications, many are now saying ‘I want a Mac, at least I can be productive quickly’.
He then bemoaned ‘that is exactly my point, now Mac’s are are not much different in price, why would you deal with Vista when it just doesn’t seem ready, especially with regard to working with other software’. He said ‘I’m convinced, I work for a large IT company which supports both platforms, so really it is up to me. and I just want to be hassle free.’
This is the power of a recommendation. The power of the word and how it spreads. This man will probably buy a Mac and when he has a fantastic experience he will tell others. Of all the brochures and information this man has read… he wants to know first hand ‘how I experience’ what was promised.
Who owns the brand, our customers, they’re the ones that spread the word. But it is up to us to give them something worth saying.
Alan Stewart says
Hi Naomi,
Thanks for yet another great post and for adding The Marketer’s Podcast to your Interesting Blogs list.
Naomi how much serious crawling do I need to do to have you as a guest on our show?
Cheers,
Alan
Mike Wagner says
I really like what you say at the end of this post: "Who owns the brand†our customers†they’re the ones that spread the word. But it is up to us to give them something worth saying."
Yet, from another perspective the people that make up a business or organization still own the brand.
As you note, "it is up to us go give them something worth saying".
You can’t give what you don’t own.
Maybe customers own the "significance" of the brand. If they assign value and significance and relevance as in your story here, they will tell the story to others.
And on the other hand, a business still owns the brand in that they create, develop and invite the marketplace to experience what it they extend to customers.
Thanks for offering up a post that stirs things up!
Keep creating…it freaks people out,
Mike