The BIG Kahuna

I recently read an article in Adweek that I thought was pretty cool. It talks about the different ways companies are starting to practice word of mouth marketing. It use to be back in the day that a buddy said ?hey, I just bought this great hammer from _________, this things is great.? Not anymore??Now companies are hiring ?branding ambassadors? to do their bidding. They sometimes pay them or give them stuff for free. Then these ?brand ambassadors? must blog about a company (like Sony) on a regular schedule. They also go on Myspace and Facebook and when they?re out they pass out free coupons etc.?

People use to do this for free because they liked a company/product. Now they get something in return. Good, bad, indifferent? Here are my thoughts on this:?If these ?brand ambassadors? can give an honest opinion (which could mean a bad opinion) then I?m alright with it. This has been going on for years. But if the ?payment? entices them to always give good opinions then there is a problem with it. But it won?t matter. Here?s why:?Say I tell my friend Spike over at Brains on Fire (these guys put together a campaign that ultimately pays people to be ambassadors ? see their Fiskars program) that Fiskars scissors are great. But then Spike buys the scissors and they stink. Will Spike believe me the next time I give an opinion? Probably not. By the way Spike wrote a spirited article about this. He goes on to bash companies that hire consumers or require them to take action yet he admits that the program Brains on Fire set up for Fiskars is a paid ?brand ambassador? campaign. Hypocritical? I think so??

So if you?re in the market for a ?brand ambassador? program and word of mouth marketing think long and hard about it. You?ll want to partner with a firm that walks the talk, not talks out of both sides of their mouth. You?ll want to be honest and forthright and most of all you want your ambassadors to be honest and forthright.?

Ultimately this all falls under the branding umbrella so remember?whatever you do ask how it will leverage your brand identity.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am and is filed under Branding News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.