v4 principle
9 inch axiom: v4 principle
“Word of mouth is one of the oldest and most effective forms of promotion”
Advertising is a one way dialogue that is inherently biased. Like some company or brand is going to show you their warts . . . NOT. Ads are vested in trying to get your attention. They sell you blue sky by putting the product in the best light. Let’s call the impressions via advertising V1.
Sponsorship plays on the interests of the consumer. The company or brand aligns themselves with a second party. They are still vying for your attention, but now they are engaging you at a point of passion. Sponsorship works on the idea of affinity or attribution. Let’s call the impressions via sponsorship V2.
PR is the proactive process of managing the flow of information between the brand or company and the public. It allows for exposure to the target audience via third party sources. Those sources are predominantly mainstream media. This third party authentication provides credibility to the message. The impressions gained at no cost through PR are much more valuable than those obtained by paid advertising. Let’s call those PR impressions V3.
WOM or Word of Mouth is the act of consumers providing information to other consumers. It is what I referred to as the V4 or ‘vouch for’ principle. V4 means that the consumer is standing up for the product and giving personal assurances to its value. It’s been around for thousands of years and remains one of the most powerful forms of promotion. It’s a friend recommending a new restaurant or the latest movie. New social media tools like Facebook and Twitter have elevated WOM to a new level. Call it WOM 2.0 or WOM on steroids. It reminds me of the old Breck shampoo commercial where they start to split the screen by saying, ‘She tells two people, then they tell two people and then they tell two people . . .’ and soon the screen has hundreds of people on it. That’s the magic of WOM. I look forward to examining the ways you can effectively drive the v4 principle through integrated marketing.
Today’s Lagniappe – A book recommendation and a bit of trivia. There is a great book on WOM and key influencers called The Influentials.
The premise is that ‘One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy’. A must read.
Trivia on trivia. The word trivia is derived from ‘trivium’ or the place where three roads meet. In Roman times it was common to come out for a walk in the evening to the crossroads or typically the town or city square. People would chat and catch up on the latest and greatest. WOM is born.
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The goal of marketing is to capture the mind and ultimately conquer the heart of your target audience.
The aim of 9 INCH MARKETING is to examine that journey. We'll explore 'how to' bridge the gap between traditional and social media by taking a sensory approach to integrated marketing.
The Influentials sounds an awful like the first chapter of the Tipping Point. How do they compare or was Gladwell relying in part on the Influentials for the stuff he wrote for Tipping Point.
Here is the lowdown: Tipping Point came out in 2000 and Influentials in 2003. Both are proponents of the ‘Law of the Few’, the idea that a few people has a disproportionate effect on the majority. Gladwell’s talks about different types of people such as mavens, connectors and salesman who all have different roles in spreading a trend like a virus. Influentials relies more on the idea of the 10% of folks who are heavily entrenched in the community.
Both theories date back to the sixties and the famous Stanley Milgram experiment that coined the phrase ’six degrees of separation’.
If you are interested in the debate of exactly how influential ‘influentials’ really are, then google Duncan Watts. Duncan subscribes that the ‘law of the few’ is a bunch of garbage. He’s done a ton of research to prove his theory that the average Joe plays a big role in spreading a trend or idea.
This is a hilarious post from 2001 on Sportsbike.net (forums.sportbikes.net/archives/forums/printthread.php?t=8996) from a guy named Streetracer. Enjoy:
Think about your entire history of relationships… Every person you dated long term, short term, prison term, and every random hook-up in between. The vast majority of those relationships were with someone you met through a common friend. Very rarely do you find a couple who met randomly at a bar. Most couples met through a friend, a friend of a friend, or a relative. The reason most relationships begin this way is what I call the “V4 Principle.”
“V4″ is short for “Vouch For” and it is this reason that the majority of people in America get laid. Say you’re out on a Friday night and you see a cute brunette at the bar. You approach her, make small talk, and attempt to pick her up. To you she’s a hottie with dating potential. To her you’re just another one of the drunken masses out there trying to score some ass. Now take the same situation as before, but when you see her at the bar she is talking to your best friend’s girlfriend. Now when you approach you’re SOMEBODY as opposed to the NOBODY you were before. The girl at the bar has a reference point for you and your best friend’s girlfriend is there to vouch for you: “Oh, that’s Fred. He’s Mike’s best friend. They work together at the law firm. He’s a real sweetie, and he’s sooo cute when he’s drunk.” See how it works? You’re the same drunken ass either way, but now you’re perceived as charming. So, if friends are largely responsible for our hook-ups, how does one improve his odds? Simple, just use this handy dandy friendship reference guide that follows to determine who you should hang out with more and which friends to discard:
1.) Married Friends – Don’t have any. They only hang out with their miserably married couples and they constantly attempt to pull the rest of us into their pit of despair. There is no ass for you here.
2.) Friends Who Work In The Service Industry – Hold on to these. People who work in restaurants, bars, retail, and the like tend to have a plethora of same aged single people to kick it with. They are laid back and don’t work until noon, so they’re always up for a night out. Also, all hostesses are easy.
3.) Friends Who Do A Lot of Drugs -Keepers. Whether you do drugs or not is irrelevant. People who do a lot of drugs tend to hang out with other people who do a lot of drugs… and, chicks who do a lot of drugs tend to be easy.
4.) Religious Friends – No! No! No! All of their friends are usually bible-thumpers as well, and meeting a group of hot Baptists is like going to your favorite bar without any money. You can look all you want, but you can’t have anything.
5.) Strippers – If you have any friends who are strippers you can contact me. Please let me know where you’ll be this weekend…