Targeted Buzz?
Last week Professor Fournier posed the question of whether buzz should be targeted at a specific group of people or whether what matters is simply the greatest number of people talking about your product/service regardless of targeting.
In class someone mentioned that Mark Hughes suggested the goal is the latter - to get the greatest number of people to talk. I disagree, however, and believe targeting is essential, especially when it comes to buzz.
What's the point of getting everyone but your target market to talk about your product? The target market represents the group of people most likely to buy your product and these are the consumers you want to be talking. Anything else is really just a wasted effort. In other words, if you're not part of the target market, buzz will really not influence you to buy the product. There may be some minor exceptions to this but for the most part attitudes towards a product/service will remain unchanged.
That being said, I would have to say I only partially agree with Mark Hughes, if that was indeed what he meant. It is important to get the greatest number of people to talk about your product, as long as they are part of your target market. Anybody else talking about it is generally just a waste of time and effort.
-John Lewis
posted by Brand007 @ 11:47 AM
3 Comments:
I actually agree with Mark Hughes. I think it would be beneficial to create as much buzz as possible to as many people as possible because the point of creating buzz is to help associate an image around a brand. For instance, although some of us might not be buyers of the brand Gucci, we are all aware of the image that is behind it and we all help create that image when we talk to other people (aka buzz). In the end, that image of being a classy, high end brand trickles down to the people that this image is important to. Also, I believe that by buzz marketing to the mass market versus a target market helps to create situations where the brand becomes part of our everyday language, like saying xerox instead of copy.
Shauny Lamba
You raise an interesting point. The trickle down effect would mean that non-target market consumers would eventually pass down information, including the brand identity, to the target market.
But it seems as if this approach is taking the long route. You can spend a considereable amount of money getting lots of people to talk about your product, most of which are not part of your target market, and then rely on the trickle down effect. Or you could spend less money and create a brand identity communicated directly to those who will buy your product...a short-cut in my opinion.
In the end, I think buzz should spread the brand identity first from the target market to eventually the non-target market (small to big). I think this way money and effort is saved.
-John Lewis
I definitely understand why it would be the most beneficial to target ones' buzz efforts, but, in practice, it's almost impossible! That's like starting a rumor and telling people to only repeat the rumor to brunette girls ages 18-21. Not likely. Realistically, the rumor will get out to people of all ages, genders, and hair colors, because people will tell who they want to tell. That's the same with buzz marketing. If you lauch something into the market that's worth talkig about, peope will repeat it to whoever will listen.
-Samantha Bichler
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