Advantages of buzz marketing

Buzz marketing is a flexible and different marketing method, which can create unexpected results inadvertently. It is the most common and traditional buzz marketing method for enterprises to hire extras as shoppers or consumers. Hollywood film companies, tobacco companies, alcoholic drinks and other companies, either because of the restrictions of advertising law or because the product life cycle is too short (the film screening cycle is usually only two weeks), it is difficult to carry out a complete advertising campaign, and they first adopted this marketing method.

Sony Ericsson employs 65,438+020 actors to play couples in the busiest areas of American metropolises such as the Empire State Building in New York. They invited passers-by who might be the target customers to take photos for them, and took the opportunity to promote T68i's new functions to them. Nicky Csellak-clay es, president of strategic marketing of Sony Ericsson USA, called this an "advertising campaign that touches consumers".

Now, not only some small and medium-sized enterprises with limited marketing budget prefer this marketing method, but also large enterprises such as Procter & Gamble and Ford. In the United States and other western countries, buzz marketers employed by enterprises frequently appear in streets, cafes, nightclubs, supermarkets and other places, and the means of buzz marketing have also changed from simply making gimmicks at the beginning to being more ingenious and unobtrusive.

At present, the biggest problem facing the marketing method of posing as shoppers/consumers is that with the wide application of this method, more and more extras appear in consumers' lives, and consumers have low trust in them, even a little bored. Once consumers feel cheated, it will lead to a serious public relations crisis. Sony Pictures Entertainment's failure in marketing its films "Vertical Limit" and "A Face with a Beast" is a good example. The popularity of buzz marketing has even triggered a debate in academic circles about the influence of business on social culture and people's lives.

More seriously, if the information conveyed by the extras hired by enterprises in marketing activities is not accurate enough, it will do harm to the brand and corporate image. In April, 200012000, IBM sued its public relations and marketing company because the information spread by buzz marketing destroyed the low-key and calm style of the enterprise. The key to the success of buzz marketing is to find the carrier of marketing information-opinion leaders who have strong influence on a certain market. Philip kotler defines "opinion leader" as a person who can influence other members of a reference group because of his special skills, knowledge, personality and other characteristics. Opinion leaders, like customers' own spokesmen, are the makers of "jokes" in word-of-mouth publicity.

In marketing public relations communication, people have attached great importance to the role of "opinion leaders". For example, the delicate skin of female stars makes them "opinion leaders" in skin care products and cosmetics; Football players' strong physique makes them "opinion leaders" in athletes' clothing and equipment; Nutrition experts are of course "opinion leaders" in food; Doctors must be "opinion leaders" in the medical field. ...

King Arthur's whole wheat flour first cultivated 2,000 "girlfriends" as the consumption leaders of its brand by virtue of online "baking circle". Through their words and deeds and word-of-mouth communication, it influenced and developed more potential customers, and 60% of new customers came from their recommendations. The "baking circle" is getting bigger and bigger, and it has grown to more than 65438+ 10,000 people.

At present, young consumers are most favored by buzz marketers. They don't like mass media, and opinion leaders have great influence on them. More importantly, they are in the formative period of brand preference. If they establish their preference and loyalty to a certain brand at this time, it will have an important impact on their lives, as well as on the consumption habits of their spouses and children.

Malcolm Gladwell's monograph "Detonating the Trend" summarizes the personality characteristics conducive to creating the trend, analyzes the cases of children's TV, smoking and postal advertisements, and reveals the principles and methods of how to use a few opinion leaders to "spend a lot of money" to trigger and maintain social popularity and trends. A panoramic textbook of buzz marketing, it was rated as one of the 20 greatest commercial works in the United States by Forbes magazine in 2002. Thoughts on Buzz Marketing

Although buzz marketing has many advantages and is widely used, marketing experts still believe that the application scope of buzz marketing is limited to those products or services that are positioned in specific market segments and consumers make cautious purchase decisions for their own use, technical complexity and representative position. Peter Sealey, former marketing director of Coca-Cola Company and associate professor of Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, said: "One drawback of buzz marketing is that it only applies to product categories with high participation. If I want to launch a new BMW model or re-launch the Ford Thunderbird series, I will definitely use buzz marketing as part of the marketing mix. But if I were a marketer of Snapple juice drinks or Tide washing powder, I wouldn't use buzz marketing. "

Not only that, the rapid popularization of buzz marketing also indicates its decline. Imagine that if every enterprise adopts buzz marketing, buzz marketing will become an annoying advertisement. Jonathan Lesler, CEO of Big Fat Promotion Company and a lottery cigarette planner, said: "The future opponent of buzz marketing is itself, and marketers must find ways to come up with unique marketing solutions that consumers can't believe. This is the biggest challenge of buzz marketing. "