Talkin' Bout a Revolution

My friends will tell you one of my annoying, though helpful characteristics is I'm always praising my favorite brands and ranting about my least favorite. Once you get me started, I can't shut up about, say, In n' Out Burger (and I'm not alone on that one).

This quality makes me a perfect fit for the new consumerism which is word-of-mouth marketing through online forums like Facebook, Twitter, and StumbleUpon. Online word-of-mouth recommendations generally can't be bought. They are genuine and spontaneous and sometimes we don't even realize we're essentially advertising when just observing something is cool enough to tell our friends. A book I read recently on this topic (Groundswell) writes, "Face it. Marketers no longer dictate the path people take, nor do they lead the dialogue. Social technologies have revved up [the] word-of-mouth dynamic, increasing the influence of regular people while diluting the value of traditional marketing." Indeed the term "word-of-mouth" is even outdated, since most of what we share these days comes from a keyboard or mobile keypad.

A recent viral video on YouTube about the Social Media Revolution flashes one jaw-dropping statistic after another, including the statistics that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations (and the video's footnotes state it's grown to 90% in 2009) and only 14% of consumers trust advertisements.

Not everyone is as particular or verbal a consumer as me, but with the recession bankrupting and laying off Americans of all ages, most people are being more careful with impulse purchasing, using the high school math they thought they'd never use to compare price savings in the grocery store. You'll see folks (including me) staring at price tags for 10 minutes in a daze and counting quietly out loud to themselves "that's 19, carry the 1"... so we tell our friends whenever we see a deal, even a little one.

A few weeks ago when 6 of my friends simultaneously forwarded me a Baja Fresh free burrito coupon that was posted on Facebook on a Tuesday afternoon, and then I witnessed as my neighborhood descended upon the Baja Fresh parking lot, families brought six copies of the coupon for each member of the family to get one, the single line cook could not even keep up with the orders that evening, but no one seemed to mind waiting an hour for a free burrito...I knew Baja Fresh was on to something.

For me, though, a recommendation takes more than just being free or tasting good or delivering on an expectation. I live for my iPod but don't have any kind of devotion to Apple as I do some other companies who have interacted with me, treated me well, and asked for my feedback. There's a good reason consumer surveys always end with..."How likely are you to recommend us to a friend? Very likely? Somewhat likely? Neither likely or unlikely? Somewhat not likely? Not at all likely?" To be a word-of-mouth-worthy brand, it takes some random acts of incredibleness as well as personal interest in your consumers' voices, and I'm very pleased to see many companies are getting this and seizing the opportunity.

Here's a simple example. Last week I went into Whole Foods to pick up a bite to eat for lunch. I noticed one of my favorite brands, Izze had a new flavor called "Birch" which happened to be "two for 6 dollars" and also had a coupon attached to the package. I snooped around the label to see if there was any description of what Birch tastes like, didn't see any description, and decided to ask an employee. Couldn't find an employee. Spent about 30 seconds walking to the checkout, debating whether to risk the $3 on this product or not. At the checkout, I asked the clerk if he knew what Birch was, and while shrugging casually, he answered "No but if you're not sure if you'll like it, you can try it on us," and proceeded to put it into my reusable bags without ringing it up. What impressed me about this act was not even that it was free, but that the employee did it with such ease. He didn't have to ask a manager, didn't need a special coupon, didn't need my email address, didn't have to think twice before offering it. And I'll tell you, that's the kind of customer treatment that makes me remember, talk about it, and go back.

Some of the brands I not only mention in daily conversations, but would give my left arm to support because they are so consistently great include Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Newman's Own and Newman's Own Organics, Pixar, Google, Netflix, Target, Izze (Sparkling Juice), Papa Murphy's, Sunflower Market, Chipotle, Oprah and The Angel Network, Toyota, Costco, In n' Out Burger, Mad Greens (salad lunch spot in Denver)... I'll add to this post as I think of more.

Some of the brands I have had ruinous experiences with, not surprisingly to most of you reading this, include United Airlines (that's another whole post), Ticketmaster, the Post Office, the Unemployment Office, JP Morgan Chase (I called to say I was thinking of leaving their bank, they responded "OK, your account is now closed, is there anything else I can do for you?"), Qwest (it takes a lot for me to hold a grudge but they were so bad in 1999, I swore off ever using them again), Best Buy (numerous employees there have told me they don't bother to carry much selection of cd's anymore -- their logic was, why bother when you can buy them online or download -- which is fine with me, I'll go support Twist & Shout Records instead)!

I'm always listening, what are your favorites and least favorites?