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September 18, 2007
"Eat, Pray, Love" as a WOM model
What creates successful word of mouth?
There's no secret formula, no rules, no simple methodology. A word-of-mouth hit is like a lightning strike: when and where it will land is difficult to predict.
But we can create favorable conditions for it to flourish by examining the hard work that goes into successful buzz-driven products.
Like this one: "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert. The WSJ went behind the scenes last week to understand the word of mouth that has propelled this memoir to sell more than 1.5 million copies thus far.
From the Journal's story, we can extract 6 key factors:
1. Build your base.
For starters, Gilbert had previously written four modestly successful books, establishing an initial base of readers. More importantly, Google "Elizabeth Gilbert;" her personal website is the second result, right after links to her books. It's easy to find her, and Gilbert's website smartly features a prominent picture of her smiling, pretty face.
Translated: Make it easy to find you, your product or service online, or citizen-created content about your product or service. Certainly your product or service website should be search-engine friendly and free of Flash-driven navigation or content, but how often do you link to related content outside of your own? Do you make it easy for people to begin a relationship with you? Are you building relationships months or even years in advance, rather than a week before your product arrives? All of that work builds your base, both among people as well as the search engines.
2. Focus on employee buzz.
Kathryn Court, publisher of Penguin Books which released "Eat, Pray, Love," gave her marketing and sales team homework: read the book! It ensured her sales people could authentically talk about the book. For those who loved it, their enthusiasm would be naturally contagious in the sales channel, not part of some scripted marketing patter.
Translated: Do you make it easy for employees to use your own products and services? Or are there too many financial or bureaucratic hoops for them to navigate, preventing them from becoming power-users or evangelists? Would they even recommend your stuff to their friends and family?
3. If your product or service makes no gender distinctions, tilt it toward women.
In the publishing world, women account for 60-70% of all U.S. book sales. One reason why "Eat, Pray, Love" is a blockbuster because it was written for women, although plenty of men would enjoy it, too. If we consider that women make or influence 80% of all consumer-level purchases, then it follows that women should have major roles in product design and marketing.
Translated: There's a strong chance that women are the primary decision-makers or influencers of the sales of your product or service. Does your product or service speak to women? Is it designed with them in mind, knowing there's a greater likelihood they'll talk about it more than men? Do women have the power to decide how your product is designed and represented? (Yeah, we're talking to you, electronics manufacturers!)
4. Create something that's transformational.
"Eat, Pray, Love" is a memoir of how Gilbert struggled through big changes in her life. It's a story of transformation -- her painful divorce, spiritual search and road to self-redemption as she traveled the world. The WSJ tells us that's been one of the book's strongest hooks. That's why it was excerpted by Oprah's magazine.
Translated: How can your product help change or improve someone's life? How can it be the catalyst for change? That's a tough question for utilitarian products or companies but then again, that never stopped the late Anita Roddick from using her soap business to become a force for empowering women, stopping product testing on animals or working toward social justice.
5. Create something worth talking about.
Gilbert is an accomplished writer. She spent a few years writing for a well-known magazine and had written several books. But it could be argued that "Eat, Pray, Love" was her most personal book, largely due to the above-mentioned transformation.
We're all taught writing during our school years, but it's not easy for everyone to be a great writer. Writing is editing, of stripping away the cliches and conventional thinking until original thoughts and ideas are exposed. The music producer Rick Rubin likes to say that the first dozen songs written for an album are junk. It's not until after the songwriter starts stripping away the masks of convention that songs actually become good. So, too, it often is with writing.
Translated: Creating something worth talking about is the alchemy of word of mouth. What's worth talking about? The answer lies somewhere in the stew of the marketplace of ideas, the social sciences and popular culture. It's between what's new, what's old and what's ready for a comeback. It's also the gulf between what's expected, and what's not.
6. Meet your customers and fans.
In preparing for the release of the paperback edition of "Eat, Pray, Love," Gilbert launched a 20-city book tour. She was visible. Readers and fans met her. She signed books. She listened to their stories. She connected. They told their friends. Stories were written.
For many products and services, people will often be more loyal to the people behind the brands than the brands themselves. That's often due to the emotional connection customers make to the people of your company. Product features, doo-dads, and an endless array of gimmicks are one thing; how you and your employees connect with customers, prospects or vendors is entirely another. That's where the substantial, growth-oriented word of mouth multiplies.
Other blogs that reference "Eat, Pray, Love" as a WOM model:
There is one more thing I would add about the book - the concept is easy to talk about and easy to spread. I don't know if it was designed for that, but Eat, Pray, Love gives the reader three physical and psychological destinations.
Being in the book trade, we had heard about this title, but the power of the book hit home when a candidate in open position mentioned this book in an interview. The 22 year old woman described the book's plot in a simple and compelling way, saying Eat, Pray, Love helped her get through a tough time during a semester abroad.
Word of mouth works best when the idea is easy to tell others about.
You know a book has struck a nerve if someone is talking about it in a job interview.
Not sure if the list is meant to be in order, but #5 is the most important factor. Everything else comes from that. If something is cool/great/amazing, the rest of the list will be so much easier to execute.
BG -- Not in any particular order because that would imply a methodology.
Number 5 is the toughest because what's worth talking about to you may not be to a sufficient number of other people.
It's the fundamental issue every entrepreneur who ever had an idea, every inventor, every brand manager, every CMO: what new thing will get people talking?
I read this book after several people, ranging from a good friend to a dental technician (!) suggested it to me (they had more influence than the gazillions of reviews I had read in magazines!). And wouldn't you know it, but then I continued the WOM cycle by posting about it on my site:
http://according-to-e.blogspot.com/2007/08/book-review-eat-pray-love-no-spoilers.html
Someone wrote back to me and said that they had seen Elizabeth at a book review - she really put herself out there to market it. And now it's being made into a movie starring Julia Roberts - the buzz will continue!
Jackie, I'm currently reading this book which a friend recommended. Can you imagine what kind of impact her words have had on Pizzeria da Michele?
http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/faq.htm#FAQ6
I also think this book and one of her others, The Last American Man, both have very intriguing, thought inspiring titles with a huge "pass along" factor. And titles are the equivalent in my mind to great company or product name.
Great post. Lots of lessons learned.
I would like to clarify that Pizzeria Da Michele has been world famous for years and had already been covered in The New York Times and other prestigious international papers.
The author itself may have done some web search herself before finding it, and for the record, no-one smoke in that restaurant has it is forbidden by law...
Someone wrote back to me and said that they had seen Elizabeth at a book review - she really put herself out there to market it. And now it's being made into a movie starring Julia Roberts - the buzz will continue!
Someone wrote back to me and said that they had seen Elizabeth at a book review - she really put herself out there to market it. And now it's being made into a movie starring Julia Roberts - the buzz will continue!
