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Creating Talkable Brands:

Driving Sales and Recommendations Through Word of Mouth Marketing

With Dave Kissel, Partner of Zócalo Group

10 Brazilian Congress of Digital Communications

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“Word of Mouth is the best

medium of all”

The Power of Word of Mouth

- Bill Bernbach, DDB

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“Word of mouth…is manna from heaven, but nobody knows

how to do it on purpose. At least I don’t.”

The Power of Word of Mouth

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Word of Mouth is Quickly Gaining Industry Recognition

A New Way to Measure Word-of Mouth Marketing

April 2010

“The rewards of pursuing excellence in WOM are huge and it can deliver

a sustainable and significant competitive edge few other

marketing approaches can match. With so few companies actively

managing Word of Mouth - the most powerful form of marketing - the

potential upside is exponentially great.”

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Today’s Agenda

At the end of this session, you will:

Understand

the definition of a talkable brand

Appreciatethe value of becoming a

talkable brand

Knowhow to make your brands the most talked about and recommended in

your category

Explorewhere/how Social

Media/WOM could be used to drive key objectives of your

brands

A B C

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My Company

It’s pronounced ZO-kahl-oh

In Mexico, it translates to “Town Plaza” or

“Conversation Square”

Headquartered in Chicago with

Global Capabilities

Specializing in B2B and B2C Word of Mouth and Public Relations

A Division of Ketchum, Omnicom’s

only agency solely dedicated to Word of

Mouth Marketing

2009 New Media Agency of the Year (Holmes Report)

2009 Social Media Campaign of the Year,

Gold Winner – B2B (Business Marketing

Association)

Zócalo Group CEO is President of Word of

Mouth Marketing Association

Society for New Communications Research

recognized our Digital Footprint Index as Best

Social Media Measurement Suite in Industry

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Why We Are Here

*or whoever is your specifically-identified target consumer

•Brands want this mom* to put their products into her cart, and to do so on an ongoing basis

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What We Know

•And all other social/technological innovations (i.e. Twitter, FourSquare, Mobile, etc.)

•The rise of social media* and the decline of traditional advertising have made it more competitive and more confusing than ever before to find the right ways to convince (and keep convincing) this mom, and most consumers, to choose your brand

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Social Media and Mobile Channels Are Increasingly The Key Arenas In Which Purchase Decisions Are Won or Lost

-- Source [NovaQuant, eMarketer]

The internet has become moms’ #1 source (77%) for recipes, significantly more than cookbooks (36%)

63% of moms use social media regularly, a 562% increase over the past few years

Fifty-four percent of B2B respondents currently use social media for marketing - up 9 % from November 2008 and about 4% from June 2009, showing a steady increase in B2B participation.

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92% of people say that the recommendation from a friend, family member, colleague or expert is the most powerful determinant of their purchase decision.

-- Roper Reports

But At The End of The Day, One Critical Insight Remains All Powerful

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Recommendations Play The Single Most Pivotal Role in Driving Purchase in the Food Category

Recommendations are the #1 Driver

of which new meals/dishes

consumers buy –and are nearly

three times more impactful than traditional paid advertisements.

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Become recommended.

It’s not enough to

just be persuaded

(ADS)

It’s not enough to

just be covered

(PUBLIC RELATIONS)

It’s not enough to just drive

buzz

(SOCIAL MEDIA)

It’s not enough to

just be engaged

(INTERACTIVE/EXPERIENTIAL)

It’s not enough to

just be received

(DIRECT)

The ability and opportunity to become a truly “talkable” and recommended brand is more critical now than ever before.

In This Context… The True Opportunity For Your Brand

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A Deeper Look at Becoming Recommended In The Frozen & Refrigerated Food Category

…Through The Lens of Frozen Pizza

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People Are Talking About Frozen Pizzas…

Tag Cloud – Frozen Pizza – Last 30 Days

Conversation in this category is

often emotional and focuses on

family, time, and recipes or

ingredients.

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Conversation is Driven By Key Category Influencers

Associations

Nutrition Experts

Restaurant Owners

Chefs

Event/Party Planners

School Foodservice

ProfessionalsFood Buyers

Mommy Bloggers

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Across Specific Vertical Channels

Chefs Mommy Bloggers Restaurant Owners Event/Party Planners

Food Buyers School Foodservice Nutrition Experts Associations Professionals

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A Closer Look: How People Talk About the Frozen Pizza Category

Frozen Pizza + Keyword Topic Analysis – Last 30 Days

People are discussing specifically

what they like about frozen pizza, using emotional

words like Best or Favorite in

the conversation.

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Frozen Pizza + Keyword Topic Analysis – Last 30 Days

Consumers are describing specifically

when, how and with who they share frozen

pizzas.

A Closer Look: How People Talk About the Frozen Pizza Category

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Which Brands Are Leading The Conversation?

Brand Name + Frozen Pizza – Last 30 Days

Market leaders,

Digiorno and California

Pizza Kitchen, are generating nearly two

times as much

dialogue than other

brands.

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Consumers Are Actively Talking About and Recommending Their Favorite Brands to Others

On Twitter/Facebook/Blogs/Forums

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But Not All Frozen Pizza Dialogue is Positive – and Negative Brand Recommendations Are Going Unchecked

On Twitter/Facebook/Blogs/Forums

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What Does This Mean For Your Brand

• If you are a leader in your category [like CPK and DiGiorno], how do you uphold and grow your current market share; if you’re trailing, how do you differentiate from competitors in order to rise to the top?

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How to Make A Brand the Most Talked About and Recommended Brand

in its Category

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The Influencer Ecosystem:How Sustainable Conversations and Recommendations Are Driven

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The Roadmap to Creating a Truly Talkable and Recommended Brand

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Know Who, What, Where, When, Why and How People are Talking about You

• Assess how many people are talking about a brand

• Understand how they talk about the brand

• Measure if and how it’s being passed along

why it’s so important

• Provides insight into how a brand is talked about online, beyond its paid digital marketing efforts.

• Provides a benchmark for measurement

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• Situation Overview– VCA, operator of over 500

veterinary hospitals across the U.S., sought to launch an integrated marketing campaign to tout the impressiveness of its latest technology

• What we learned by listening– VCA customers didn’t care about technology. Instead, we uncovered

that the #1 driver of positive or negative recommendation was the “friendliness” of the VCA staff

• Solution– VCA repositioned its approach to foster trust in its technology by simply

driving awareness of its friendly, thoughtful, attentive and caring staff

VCA Animal HospitalsWhat We Can Learn From Listening

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Change the Conversation to the Right One

In this facilitated session among your key leadership, we organize, prioritize and deliver your brand’s key messages to explicitly articulate the “reasons to recommend” your brand –suitable for embedding in Online and offline conversations.

Organize, prioritize and deliver your brand’s key messages to explicitly

articulate the “reasons to recommend” your brand – suitable for embedding in Online & Offline

conversations.

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Focus On the Right People: Identify, Forge & Track Relationships with Industry Eminents

Proprietary screening process focuses on multiple qualification criteria:

– Reputation

– Reach

– Visibility

– Accessibility

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Creates news, information and engaging content to spark earned conversation and bring to life the reasons to share.

Develops web and mobile content delivery and engagement tools that enable WOM and recommendations

Brings to life word of mouth through in-person experiences, whether in the street, at the store or at a friend’s house

Content

Experience

Interactive

Create Content and Incite Experiences to Fuel Online/Offline Recommendations

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Launch a Conversation Engine to SustainablyEngage Eminents and Consumers – Online

DEVELOP: Formalize messaging and finalize relevant creative content

ENGAGE: Transparent requests ask influencers and advocates to discuss, post, reviews, give

feedback, conduct contests and share recommendations with others

OPTIMIZE: New and existing content is tagged to make brand discussions easily searchable

and sharable

PROTECT: Negative chatter is identified, tracked and

responded to based upon a pre-determined protocol

LISTEN: Daily online tracking identifies trends, stories, posts and influencers

MEASURE: Ongoing measurement tools explicitly track and measure the increase in conversations &

recommendations

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Situation Overview

• Two blogs entries were posted within 72 hours of one another by the same author on the blog c2photo.blogspot.com

• Customer was having major issues with service and could not get resolution through customer service in-store or on the phone

“Avoid Cricket Wireless like the plague!”

“Do yourself a favor and avoid the drama. Avoid Cricket Wireless like the Black Death”

“I am amazed that a company spending millions

of dollars to build a brand has no mechanism to

regulate and protect the brand from the actions

of the franchisee”

Cricket WirelessUsing Social Media to Monitor and Solve

Customer Service Complaints

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The Solution & Outcome• Cricket’s Customer Care contacted the

blogger directly in order to discuss his service issue and rectify the problem.

• By monitoring key social media channels, Cricket was able to negate negative conversations about the brand and solve customer service issues directly.

“To my utter shock I actually got a live body with Cricket Wireless on the phone. She even seemed to care about the damage being done to the company’s reputation.”

“They (Cricket) have a vested interest in making sure you are treated properly”

Cricket WirelessUsing Social Media to Monitor and Solve

Customer Service Complaints

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Extend the Conversation Engine to Create Original, Memorable, and Engaging Experiences – Offline

In-Market WOM events are a smart way to empower your brand to reach dozens or hundreds of thousands of target consumers in your priority markets

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Integrate with all other marketing disciplines to deliver the specific brand/customer experience you seek

“Zappos consistently ranks in the top 5% for customer service right along the Ritz Carlton and other luxury brands. Before they reached their 10th birthday, Zappos became the largest shoe store on the planet with over $1 billion in retail

sales..” -- 4/6/2010

“You may have learned of them via Twitter and count yourself among the 400,000+ people that

follow the CEO…No matter how you heard of them, we wager to guess that you did so through word-

of-mouth.” -- 4/26/09

Zappos.com - The “Engaged” Brand

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Track and Measure The Impact: Digital Footprint Index (DFI) + Word in the Square Reports

– quantity of current social content and conversation

– level of engagement and sharing with brand-related content

– which channels conversation is occurring

– where and how conversation is spreading

– adoption of key messages and conversation tone

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Who is Getting Recommendations Right?

An Example of a Truly Talkable Brand

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A Talkable Brand

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Starbucks Mission Statement

•To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

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How Starbucks is Bringing This Mission to Life

•Brand is smartly leveraging new media channels to engage customers beyond point of sale – inspiring, leading and participating in two-way dialogues

Nearly 1M actively-engaged Twitter followers

Through a proprietary online community dedicated to

issues customers care about

Over 6M Facebook Fans

In an open community for fans to share, vote and discuss suggestions

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Starbucks Extends Its Efforts Offline As Well

•Not only is Starbucks working online to engage consumers, but they’re offline activities are reaching people where it matters

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Thus, Empowering Brand to Reap and Retain Category-Leading Outcomes…

Source: Wetpaint/Altimeter Group Digital Engagement Report, Ranking Top 100 Brands

Those brands most actively engaged with consumers in social media demonstrate a positive correlation in revenue, gross margin, and net margin growth - contrary to competitors with little to no engagement

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In a Way That Continues to Pay Off…

March 25, 2010

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Considerations

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The Need for Transparent Disclosure and the New FTC Guidelines

• In early 2009, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association began working with its members and the FTC to submit comments regarding the Guide to Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising on behalf of the Word of Mouth industry

• WOMMA launched their own Ethics Code in 2005 to provide consumers with insight into ethical standards online

• Through WOMMA’s “Living Ethics” project and in anticipation of the FTC Guide update, changes to their Ethics Code re: compensation and transparent disclosure were announced in 2009

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Questions

Contact Information:

Dave KisselEmail: dkissel@zocalogroup.com

Twitter: @DaveKissel

Phone: 312.596.6276

Website: zocalogroup.com | womma.org