WORD OF MOUTH Chris Byrnes The automotive industry is experimenting with a number of new forms of marketing. They know it’s becoming more and more difficult to pitch a brand or product at a generation of people who hate being pitched.
The people at Toyota have been pondering this for some time and may have stumbled onto something. Very likely, someone you know owns a Toyota and they probably love it. Research tells us they are likely older than the median age. As much as these Japanese cars have sold and sold, the Toyota name has never really made those hairs on the back of your neck rise - aside from the legendary Supra Turbo, of course. A mainstay of quality, reliability and comfort, Toyota has never hit the mass market for younger buyers the way Honda's Civic serendipitously did. But the Japanese automaker plans to change this image.
There is a new Toyota automobile on the market called the Scion. Cars are normally marketed in the mass media and do not fall into the impulse-buy category. Generally you hear about the benefits of fuel economy, performance and price all wrapped up in a larger than life campaign that makes the cash register ring. As Henry Ford once said, “worth more when you buy it.”
The marketing people at Toyota are taking the new Scion down a different road altogether. You would think the brand name Toyota would provide some valuable equity, even among young people. However, instead of buying the flashy, glossy pages of G.Q. or pricey television they are taking it to the streets.
Toyota pulls no punches when it comes to who it is targeting with the Scion brand. The median age for the typical Toyota buyer is 46, but the Scion buyer profile will have a median age in the "very low 30s" with the specific focus on 22 year-old college-educated males. There is something to be said for getting people into your brand at a young age. They're more likely to continue purchasing the same brand and people buying a Scion at 20 or 30-something will more easily consider buying a Toyota later in life when the time comes to give up the Scion for a Sequoia.
I was recently exposed to a different form of marketing from Toyota when I received a call from a Toronto company called Matchstick who made it clear that they were working on behalf of Toyota. They were looking for “people of influence” who would be prepared to drive the new Toyota Avalon for a week. After completing a telephone survey, they felt I qualified and we found a date when I’d be in Ontario for a week and the new car was then delivered to my home and I was given a demo of all the features.
For a week I drove this upscale Toyota instead of my regular car. The Avalon had lots of cool features including GPS mapping and it was a real pleasure to drive. I took it to a board meeting one night, to a Rotary meeting another day and a number of neighbors dropped by and gave it the once over. Two of the people from my office took it for a test drive and one was about to purchase a new car. Over the course of the week I probably “introduced” this vehicle to at least 50 people.
The Matchstick people called me twice during the week and then did a follow-up survey. Overall I must say it was a positive experience and when it comes time to buy a new car, Toyota will be high on my shopping list.
I was so intrigued by this new form of marketing that I called Patrick Thoburn, one of the co-founders of Matchstick, to find out more about the effectiveness of this word-of-mouth marketing. Matchstick has been around for almost five years and works with companies such as Adidas, Motorola, Palm, Molson, AOL and Starbucks. Thoburn’s partner, Matthew Stradiotto, says, “It’s a kinder, gentler form of marketing. As a phenomenon, it’s an extremely powerful one. It’s about human interaction.”
Toronto-based Matchstick is Canada's first word-of-mouth marketing firm and this powerful medium is still flying under the radar. It is being billed as the newest, greatest strategy to come out of Madison Avenue since the coupon. It has its own association, terminology and a growing number of followers.
They look for “information influencers” - people who have credibility and are likely to talk about their product. Its constituents hail from various age groups and economic strata, but all share a common trait: They're the "go-to people" in people's lives--twice as likely, on average, to be sought out by family and friends for advice on everything from where to eat, what movie to see, or what car to buy. “Finding the influencers is not always easy, and they may not always be the CEO of a company”, says Thoburn. Sometimes they expose the product by lending it to influencers for a period of time, while at other times they give the product to the person of influence. This is called “product seeding” and is also a powerful form of marketing. One example of this was putting the new TMAC II shoes on the feet of select basketball players across Toronto before they were in stores. The new Motorola two-way radios are buzzing on the half-pipes, thanks to Matchstick product seeding. Snowboarders with all the right moves were seeded mountainside with the latest in peer-to-peer technology from Motorola, allowing them to keep in touch and spread the word on the hill.”
It turned out that I was one of 60 so-called people of influence Matchstick recruited in the greater Toronto area to experience this new Toyota. Thoburn told me that while WOM [Word of Mouth] may not look as effective as radio - because it has a lower reach - it can have a higher impact. “The number of conversations that each influencer has helps determine the first wave reach. If an influencer speaks to 25 people, some of those people will talk to others who will also pass along the information. There is some evidence to suggest that when friends talk about a product or service the resulting impact is multiplied by 7. People who are passionate about products talk about them with their friends, family, and acquaintances. Sure, “influencers” are creating Word-of-Mouth, but everyone else creates WOM too. An influential might start an idea, but everyone gets a chance to share it.
This is an expensive form of marketing and will cost anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 for a campaign. But allowing people to have a physical experience of a product or brand increases their level of product knowledge and may also increase the chances of that person making a purchase. Thoburn went on to say that these campaigns cannot work in isolation. “We need other media, like radio, to help.”
Word-of-mouth isn’t exactly a new concept. Radio is in fact, the ultimate word-of-mouth medium. How many times have you had someone tell you, “I heard about this new (product/service/business) but I can’t remember where I heard it.”? Our medium, especially when used with frequency, is often the last message of influence before the consumer makes the purchase. If the message is right, we can either support or lead the way for marketing companies like Matchstick because we are both part of the total selling message.
You can learn more about Matchstick at www.matchstick.ca. |