Members Poker99 Posted September 21, 2009 Members Posted September 21, 2009 Is word of mouth still effective as a marketing tool? I mean, everything goes by so fast. People are BOMBARDED from all sides by ads, flyers, promo... Its seems word of mouth isn't relevant anymore. It takes quite some time to produce an effect. Time that doesn't exist anymore in 2009. What do you think?
Moderators daddymack Posted September 21, 2009 Moderators Posted September 21, 2009 Perhaps the real test is not time, but credibility. Since we are bombarded, one needs to critically assess the sources of input and decide which ones carry any legitimacy. To me, word of mouth is only viable if I trust the mouth...implicitly...
Members Dancebass Posted September 21, 2009 Members Posted September 21, 2009 I think it's effective. I know that it works on me. If I hear my friends talking someone up I am more likely to give it some weight. The downside is that it's impossible to judge its value to your own project. Trying to gauge the amount of chatter about your own band is really hard. You are in that specific band so you hear people talk about it all the time. That doesn't mean that others are talking when you're not around. If you start to see an increase in attendence at shows, it may be word of mouth, or it could be the result of other promotional efforts on your part. I can't think of a downside to word of mouth, but I've never been able to measure it's usefullness in any specific way.
Members Poker99 Posted September 22, 2009 Author Members Posted September 22, 2009 Do we agree that its marketing power has quite diminished in recent years?
Members Tom Siegel Posted September 22, 2009 Members Posted September 22, 2009 I think that word of mouth is still and always will be the ultimate form of marketing. Not only does it provide exposure, it also drives that person automatically closer to a purchase of your product (i.e. a CD or a concert ticket). It is the word of mouth that drives people to your website or myspace page as well in a lot of cases. There is no doubt that any single marketing tactic has diminished in effectivemess in recent years. However, I am a firm believer in the fact that hundreds of new marketing avenues have been opened and hundreds more are opening all the time. I think one needs to take advantage of whatever they can manage to. That being said word of mouth can assist and augment any of your other marketing efforts. So I think it would be a huge mistake to discount it altogtether.
Members LaurenBateman Posted September 22, 2009 Members Posted September 22, 2009 Yea, I agree. Word of mouth is what gets people to shows. If someone like you, they chat up a friend to come because most people don't want to go to a show alone. I've gotten a number of fans from word of mouth because a friend told so and so something. Maybe my friends are just really persuasive.
Members Kramerguy Posted September 22, 2009 Members Posted September 22, 2009 I think one (real) persons word of mouth is worth 100 internet "friends" or event invites or whatever. People get their friends, and their friends, etc.. to come to shows. The interwebz just annoys people by making them click an extra time to delete your 87th unanswered invite. And yet, I just sent out 300 myspace and 25 facebook invites to our show thursday night.. lol Guess we all do it, even if we don't believe in it anymore.
Members richardmac Posted September 22, 2009 Members Posted September 22, 2009 I think one (real) persons word of mouth is worth 100 internet "friends" or event invites or whatever. Might even be worth 1,000, depending on the circumstances.
Members sixstring-LYM Posted September 23, 2009 Members Posted September 23, 2009 It's all about credibility. If I know someone who is into the same kind of music I am....and they tell me to check out a band they heard or saw...there is a 99.9% chance that I am going to check that band out.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.