Marketing to Women Online

When To Create Discussion Forums

One of the best ways to generate word of mouth and create brand evangelists is to create a discussion forum.   What could be better than giving hundreds, thousands, or even millions of your customers or potential customers a forum where they can talk about your products day night?  They can swap stories and passions and ideas.   

Many companies think creating a discussion forum is a great idea.  They think, "of course - people love us and our products - they'd like nothing better than to have a place where they can meet and talk about us for hours".

I wonder what would happen if I, Holly Buchanan, created my own discussion forum.  All my fans could congregate and talk about me and all the things I'm passionate about, from marketing to women, to addictions to Swedish Fish , to what to do about your Boston Terrier's snoring problem.

There's just one problem - no one cares about Holly Buchanan.   (Ok, my mom does, but.....)   

Do people share some of my same passions?  Sure they do.    I know I have more than one reader, so someone other than my mother is reading the blog.   But is my brand strong enough that people really want to talk about me?   No, it's not.

Yet many companies think their customers are so passionate about the company and what it sells that, of course, they need a discussion forum.    Apple needs a discussion forum - you probably don't.......unless......

Women and Word of Mouth - Good and Bad

I attended the Women's Internet Marketing Summit this weekend put on by the Women's ECommerce Association International.    There was lots of great stuff, but by far the highlight was the heated discussion about ethics in blogging.   The "Harnessing the Blogosphere" panel featured several top women bloggers. 

The key question was - is it ok to get paid to blog and what do you need to disclose. 

the overwhelming response was - keep it authentic and true.  If you absolutely must do a blog that is paid for by an advertiser - you must be incredible explicit and offer full disclosure.

One of the panelists writes a blog that is sponsored by an advertiser.  She gets paid to write the blog.  But she is very specific and up front about her relationship with the advertiser.   

I still sensed some squirming.    This is a subject these women are really really passionate about.   Authenticity and transparency in blogging is something many bloggers, including myself, hold sacred.   I'll just say, from the panel discussion, it's a really really sensitive subject.

Women and Word of Mouth - Bad

payperpost.com is a website that pays people to blog.   More specifically - they pay you to write about their advertisers' products.   

Here's what they say on their site:

Get Paid for Blogging. You've been writing about Web sites, products, services and companies you love for years and you have yet to benefit from all the sales and traffic you have helped generate. That's about to change. With PayPerPost advertisers are willing to pay you for your opinion on various topics.

But what if you have a negative opinion?    Will they pay you for that?  In an Ad Age article about payperpost.com - they say this:

a "Postie" (PayPerPost's term for its 6,000 bloggers) can't criticize the product, in this case. The tone required by the opp is neutral.

Payperpost.com is working on "disclosure" issues - but - I don't know about you, but this whole thing creeps me out. 

       

Word of Mouth and the Web

If she hadn't been my sister, I would have wanted to kill her. 

"It was just so amazing" she continued "Here we are in the Time Warner building with 4 stories of glass looking out over the lights of New York city - that's the back drop.  There are just a select few cocktail tables in semi-circle.  We're being served everything from lobster spring rolls to mini cheeseburgers, sipping on a Cosmo. And out she walks - it's just me, a select group of people and Sarah McLachlan, barefoot, with a grand piano." 

Yup - it was a private performance by Sarah McLachlan.  A select number of "press" people were invited to the event.  It was the kick off of the CitiR/AAdvatageR cardmembers Private Pass concert series promotion.   My sister, who works for several NY publications, was invited as a guest. 

Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled for her because she's an even bigger Sarah M. fan than I am.   I was considering letting her live, then she dropped the kicker.

"Oh - and the goodie bags?  you open them up and guess what's inside"   At this point she gleefully produces said goodie bag and pulls out a brand spanking new....Nano.

That hurt. 

But while my face was greener than the witch in Wicked,  I had to give credit to Citigroup.   Their Private Pass cardmember concert program is nothing short of brilliant - private concerts with everyone from Mary J. Blige (not Mary K. Blige as my sister put it.  I patiently explained Mary K. is a cosmetics company, Mary J. is an R&B singer) Dave Matthews, Tony Bennett and Aerosmith.   

Only cardmembers can attend these concerts.  This is a brilliant example of word of mouth advertising.   Create something that is worthy of being talked about - tie it in with the brand (exclusivity, VIP status, hip musical acts)  and provide a trigger for that word of mouth (private concert for Press people and online PR campaign).

Well, it worked.   I heard about the event, I want to go see these private performances - but I have to get the credit card first.  As luck would have it, I am not happy with my current credit card provider and am a prime candidate for the picking.

In the press releases online (Search engines love online press releases - you are using PRweb aren't you?)  they have a url you can click to to learn more about the concert series -here it is

Here's where the brilliant strategy breaks down....

Is Buzz Marketing Illegal?

Perfect timing – just as I was wondering aloud about the ethics of product placement, out comes an article about the ethics of word of mouth marketing.  The Adage headline is “Is Buzz Marketing Illegal?”

As marketers more frequently look to recruit consumers brand agents to spread goodwill for brands, industry attorneys view buzz marketing as a likely area of regulatory involvement, especially around the issue of compensating people to participate in buzz programs when they fail to disclose their connections to marketers and agencies. While there is no legal precedent specific to word-of-mouth marketing, there are Federal Trade Commission guidelines for ads that are likely to apply.

“If the motivation for [an endorser] is to profit from his or her endorsement, that connection probably needs to be disclosed,” said Douglas Wood, chairman of advertising and marketing law at Reed Smith. “But since disclosure undermines the value of buzz marketing, advertisers are in a Catch-22.

Catch 22 is right.  Sometimes marketers walk the fine line between wanting to get results, and wanting to do things right.