“Word of Mouth Marketing” is Basically Just Gossip

Everybody says they hate gossip, but according to research, everyone gossips. It’s rooted in our prehistoric DNA and apparently we can’t help ourselves. 

Gossip is simply passing along information about someone when that person isn’t present. It can be positive, neutral, or negative. 

Neural gossip is just sharing a story about someone — “Did you hear about Jessica’s promotion?” Positive gossip can be “I’m so happy Jessica was promoted. She’s worked hard and earned it.” Then there’s the dreaded negative gossip — “Jessica got promoted. She really didn’t earn it. She’s a total brown-noser.”

The negative gossip — rumors, secrets, lies, and insults — can ruin a person’s reputation and it can also destroy a brand.

My parents forbid me to eat Pop Rocks when I was a kid because there was a rumor that Mikey from the Life Cereal commercials ate them and drank too much Pepsi and died. There was absolutely no truth to that rumor, but sales of Pop Rocks fell off dramatically. The FDA established a hotline that essentially told parents your kids aren’t going to die from candy. General Mills spent millions of dollars sending letters to elementary school principals and placing full page ads in newspapers across the U.S. But, the damage was done, and Pop Rocks were pulled off the market in 1982 and General Mills sold the company.

Also in the 80s, there was an ad for Faberge Organics Shampoo, where a very young Heather Locklear explains that she tried the shampoo and told two friends about it, “and so on and so on and so on…”

It was a great visual example of how positive gossip works and “word of mouth” can drive the message…and sales.

If your marketing strategy is solely based on word of mouth, remember that word of mouth is essentially gossip. What kinds of things are people saying about you and your brand? 

I have two words for you: Reputation Management. Today, we have the tools to look into the web and social media to determine if the “word of mouth” for your brand is positive, negative, or neutral. Madison+Main can help with this too. Call me.