New Chapter: WOMM

I recently joined a new start-up (what other kind of job is there in Silicon Valley!) called Zuberance. It's a Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM) application company. I am so excited to be back at a software company, I almost got emotional. Really. For the past week, I've been drinking from the fire hose of information, both about the company, but mostly about word-of-mouth marketing. Groundswell, by Charlene Li, is a good primer and womma.org is the industry association.

Since WOMM is a new marketing medium as a formal discipline -- as opposed to the literal word of mouth we've all been doing since time immemorial -- I thought I'd practice what I'm now preaching. So here goes:

Zuberance is hosting a webinar on June 24, at 11am Pacific, on how B-to-B marketers can harness word-of-mouth marketing to drive sales now. Go here to register.

In the mean time, think about the following:

Which brands or products would you recommend to your friends or colleagues? After a bit of thought, here's my list in no particular order:

* Trader Joes
* Toyota
* Palm Treo (I know it's ancient, but I will hang on to mine until its bitter end - or until the Pre makes it on to Verizon's network)
* Yahoo! Mail (sorry Google - my gripes will be the subject of another post)
* Target
* Microsoft Excel
* Jones New York apparel
* Renegades Drum and Bugle Corps
* Babycenter.com

What brands do you advocate?

Word-of-Mouth

I've been thinking a lot about word-of-mouth marketing in the past day or two. Here's a perfect example. Costco, Trader Jo's, and the independent businesses mentioned should be pretty happy. This also frustrates me to no end because I love Trader Jo's -- kid friendliness being just one reason -- but the meat thing means fewer trips there and more trips to Safeway.

I have to believe that TJs knows that it has many advocates (or Promoters in marketing-speak) in parents, hence the kid-sized shopping carts, balloons, and baby cooing by clerks who in some cases don't look like they would be interested in babies. The importance of kid-friendliness hasn't escaped Safeway either. The stores have the car-front shopping carts to entertain (and contain) the kids. And of course there is the obligatory "Do you need help out today, ma'am?" (Hint: no one under the age of 80, that I know, likes to be called "ma'am.") The staff is frinedly enough and my baby gets the occassional coo. So why aren't parents more enthused about Safeway, myself included?

Anyone?