The great word of mouth experts will tell you that sometimes its the peripheral things that get people talking. People talk about Quiznos, not because of the great subs, but because of the pickled pepper bar, a few years back people talked about the color of Macs, people talk about the Honda CR-V because there's a picnic table hidden in the hatch. Quiznos makes great subs, Macs have their obvious strengths and the CR-V is probably the best small SUV ever made, but people like to talk about unusual and fun things.
A reader of this blog sent me an email that covers this phenomenon better than I could, so I've copied his email in its entirety below. Enjoy!
As you market to the masses, give people something to talk about that differentiates you or your product from your competitors. What makes you stand out? This will increase interest and the viral effectiveness and reach.
I was born and raised in the heartland of the United States in Columbus, Ohio. The people here are great and there is a lot of pride in our city.
Central Ohio, like a lot of the Midwest, is known to have a very vanilla feel as you travel from town to town. You see the same fast food restaurants and malls from one stop to the next. If you were blind folded, you may not know what mall you were wandering around in or what exit you pulled off of.
This is starting to change… One thing I see occurring, are restaurants and shopping establishments starting to create different atmospheres. And when they do, word gets out and people go out of their way to seek out this unique eatery or shopping mall.
A good example is a grill that recently opened near me. It wasn’t another McDonalds or Wendy’s franchise, but someone that took advantage of a unique piece of land on some water. Now Columbus, like the majority of the Midwest, is land locked and flat. If you give a patron a unique view of water or hills, you don’t just have dinner; you now have an “eating experience” and word will get out! In this case, the food is fair, but the dining experience is like none other in town and most nights you can’t get a seat without waiting for more than 45 minutes.
I lived in New York City for a bit and was blown away at the cost to put a roof over my head. What amazed me even more was the value of a non-functional fireplace. Two apartments with the same square footage in the same building will differ in cost by $20,000 or more because one gives you that unique homey feeling of having a brick fireplace versus a plain wall in your family room. It makes the apartment different and that fireplace will be highlighted by the Realtor in both marketing material and when they show the place to the anxious bidders.
Make it easy for people to buy or chat about you or your product. Highlight a unique feature that gets them talking and increases their interest enough to either make a purchase, or bring it up to someone else!
It is amazing Bill on how many times we need to remind ourselves and businesses concerning differentiating.
It seem that some people think that it has to be in huge ways, and yet, many of the most successful companies do those little things well that make them continually stick out in the minds of their customers.
Posted by: Gary Bourgeault (thealphamarketer) | January 08, 2007 at 09:52 PM