How to use rumours as a marketing tool?

Résumé du document

Change and Transition is everywhere. It is prevalent in our lives, our careers, our family values, and so on. Advertising also is part of a nuclear world. Advertising a new product in today's age and time is totally different from what it was nearly 10 years ago. For decades, consumers have been flooded with the TV, radio, newspaper ads, posters and fliers and more recently, internet spam, pop ups, banners, etc. The frequency of advertising is so high that most consumers often do not pay attention to its contents anymore. It has been observed that these fliers or commercial letters are flushed out without the consumer even reading the contents of the same. Many a time, we find consumers getting very angry when pop ups appear especially when they are trying to check their emails. They often feel attacked by advertising and hence attempt to avoid any kind of advertising. These new trends make the traditional methods of advertising less efficient and even damaging for the image of a product. Marketers are now trying to develop new techniques in advertising which is less intrusive however more discreet. But the method adopted needs to be extremely efficient. On the Internet, a good example is the considerable development of the sponsored links on the search engines like Google or Yahoo. These sponsored links are often seen as regular results of a search although they are sponsored in a manner of being at the top of the results. Their relevancy to the search is high and so people often see these results as a potential help more than an intrusive and aggressive form of advertising. Another example of this new trend of advertising is the ?word of mouth' technique. This is a very interesting technique to study as the logic developed is as follows: ?we cannot trust traditional advertising as we know it always deceives us. So why am I going to buy a totally new product as against the previously used product? It is because a friend of mine advised me.'

Extraits

[...] Here is the preface of Crazy Apple Rumours site: Crazy Apple Rumors Site is dedicated to the fabrication of Apple rumors that defy verifiability, grammatical convention or any basis in reality. Crazy Apple Rumors Site is not affiliated with Apple Computer, Crazy Eddie, the Fleetwood Mac "Rumors" album, Mack Trucks, the Washington State Apple Growers Association, the Vatican Secret Service, or Victoria's Secret (despite the large collection of their catalogs in the CARS' men's room). Any similarity to existing Apple rumors sites is purely coincidental. [...]

[...] Contents Introduction Rumours as a new marketing tool Using a rumor as a marketing tool? The negative connotation of rumours Rumours, word of mouth, buzz, gossip, news Rumours and news Rumour and gossip Rumour and Buzz Rumour and word of mouth A definition of rumour in our study Area of study: The Internet, Usenet and the “Blogosphere” Transmission and belief of positive rumours Different type of rumours Understanding the transmission of a positive rumour Functional approach Enchanteing the world Internet: a fantastic media to convey rumours A very particular and powerful network of communication Brand communities New types of marketing campaigns A content analysis of positive rumours on the Internet Collecting the appropriate information Elaborating the right tool Analysing the results Pre-launch rumours Why do people believe rumours? [...]

[...] Some rumours can attract more than 2000 comments. Apple management of brand communities seems to be a very good example to follow After Launch rumours Post-launch rumours are mainly urban legends (Cf figure 2.6 People create a story about the product history or a product special power. They can be good because they sometimes give a better image to the product. For example, a rumour says that Coca Cola was carbonated by chance. This rumour relieves people because it states that Coca Cola was not a product coming from Research & Development and marketing and therefore is a more creation. [...]

[...] The cheese was shown as the most sacred element in the world. This ad really symbolizes how brands try to enchant a world disenchanted by modernity. If we apply this explanation to our context of rumours among brand communities, we can imagine that people will really like spreading and talking about a product, its modification, its history, in an attempt to enchant their world. If the marketer gives less information about it, leave areas for secrecy and humanity, people will fulfil a need, be better off and talk about the product, spread rumours. [...]

[...] This is to increase consumer's impatience or curiosity. In this case, the number of rumours about the product increase quite significantly for the situation is ambiguous. Depending on the communication of the company there will be more or less rumours about a product among its brand community. The last factor is anxiety. But it has been set by Prasad (1935) after an earthquake and it does not really bear relevance for our study as there is few anxiety among brand community, but rather entertainment, enthusiast or passion. [...]