Synopses & Reviews
For the last few years, marketers have been obsessed with creating word of mouth and buzz to compensate for the declining effectiveness of traditional advertising. There have been several books on this important subject (including
The Tipping Point), but none with the real-world insights that Dave Balter offers as todays leading practitioner of word-of-mouth marketing.
Balters company, BzzAgent, has grown exponentially in just a few years; it now coordinates an army of 75,000 volunteers who talk up products they genuinely love, ranging from books, beer, and jeans to perfumes, restaurants, and sausages. These agents are not asked to follow a script when talking with friends and acquaintances in everyday conversations, nor do they conceal that theyre agents. The honesty of their opinions is what make these agents believable.
The big lesson of BzzAgents success is that companies dont need to win over experts, influentials, cool hunters, or magic people to drive word of mouth. They just need to reach ordinary consumersfrom all age groups and income levelswho might be excited to try out new products before they hit the market. The person who sits next to you at work might have a bigger influence on what book youll read next than any critic, or even Oprah.
Grapevine features many real Bzz Agent campaigns (and transparently highlights both successes and failures) to show readers what strategies work best in driving word of mouth. Its both a practical book for business people and an enlightening read for anyone curious about why products take off or flop.
Synopsis
Balter, the founder of BzzAgent, reveals how businesses can tap into the power of everyday conversation--otherwise known as word-of-mouth marketing.
Synopsis
Word of mouth is an amazingly powerful force but how does it really work?.
Businesses have become obsessed with stimulating word-of- mouth to counteract the declining effectiveness of advertising. But its easier said than done.
As the founder of BzzAgent, a community of more than 400,000 people who volunteer to talk to friends and acquaintances about products they genuinely love, Dave Balter is a successful practitioner, not a theorist. And hes figured out how to measure and harness word-of-mouth without corrupting it.
In Grapevine, Balter shows why honest feedback about books, restaurants, gadgets, or anything else is more believable than any paid endorser. And he answers some of the most elusive questions in marketing, such as what makes word-of-mouth very different from buzz” and viral marketing.”
About the Author
Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent (www.bzzagent.com), the ground-breaking word-of-mouth marketing firm that has been profiled in
Forbes, Fast Company, and a
New York Times Magazine cover story.
John Butman is a veteran business writer.