Reading Response #2

How many times have you ranted and raved to your friends about a fantastic new product that you just bought? Or even worse,how many hours have you spent cursing out your new purchase that has not met your expectations? Although this may not seem like anything too significant, word of mouth is an incredibly cheap and effective way of marketing, that can really make a difference in someones buying decisions. It makes sense though, who are you more likely to trust, a paid advertisement or a recommendation from one of your friends? Because of this, Li and Bernoff even state that ""word of mouth marketing is the most honest form of marketing"(Groundswell).

In 2018, word-of-mouth marketing may be more powerful than ever before, with so many online platforms available for the discussion of products,services,etc. To get the groundswell talking, Li and Bernoff propose that they must be "energized", meaning they must get them hyped up so they actually want to supply this feedback. There are three basic techniques for energizing the groundswell, and they are ratings and reviews, creating a community, an ambassador programs. Ratings and reviews are extremely useful because they can immediately show a potential customer information before they buy something. This not only can help influence buying decisions, but also can show companies where they needed to make changes. It is important to note that not all reviews are real! Companies have been exposed for hiring people to write reviews, so proceed with caution. Tell me, does this look like a real movie review to you?

Growing up, I was a member of a relatively small online community called the EMB. This was a message board made by the skateboard shoe company Emerica, and I was an active participant for probably too long. The conversations generally focused on skateboarding(duh), with tons of discussion related to shoes(duh x2). The  thing is we were always talking about other brands as well. what we liked better in them than Emerica, what we thought they were doing better etc. Not only this, but employees of the company were participants in the community, so they were able to get both positive, and negative feedback on their products, as well as letting us know about new shoes or promotions. The coolest part about this whole thing, is they even let use help design a colorway of a shoe! Even though I barely missed out on being on the insole, my thirteen year old self was still very excited. This was one of the first times I ever witnessed a company interacting with the groundswell, and it has made me have a great deal of respect for them as a brand.

Are you a member of any online communities like this? If so, have you seen the brand take any action as a result of your discussions?