Word of Mouth is About Making it Easy

In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes "The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics”. The premise behind the New York Times bestseller is this, little changes can have tremendous, ripple-like effects.

Gladwell theorizes that these epidemics are triggered with the help of three types of change agents. These are Connectors, social-type personalities who bring people together; Mavens, “information specialists” who connect us with new knowledge; and Salesmen, charismatic individuals who have a gift for persuading.

Gladwell brings a very important concepts to the forefront; people love talking, connecting, and influencing. They love having conversations about all sorts of things, especially products and services. Whether it be cars, fashion, or cereal, the point is that people love to talk. As marketers it is our job to stimulate this conversation by giving people interesting things to talk about, but often this isn’t enough. Word of Mouth needs a conversation starter, a trigger that sparks conversations again and again.

A trigger is a simple item that prompts a Word of Mouth conversation. It can be anything; a t-shirt, a picture on the wall in your store, just something to start a conversation. For us this conversation starter was a simple I  Kaleidoscope sticker that people can request for free on our website.

We realized that many of our talkers wouldn’t proactively start a conversation about us (who the heck talks about lighting?), but they would sing our praises if someone else mentioned us. This is where these silly stickers come in. They get people asking about us. They get us mentioned. And, because it’s not a paid advertisement, this conversation is authentic and credible. It is an endorsement and a recommendation rather than a commercial.

People love talking, but sometimes they need a little reminder.