The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word‐of‐Mouth Marketing

Citation

Goldsmith, R.E. (2003), "The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word‐of‐Mouth Marketing", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 12 No. 7, pp. 491-492. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420310506047

This book by Emanuel Rosen should be of interest to marketing academics and practitioners alike. Rosen was formerly a copywriter and marketing executive in the software industry. For nine years he served as vice president of marketing for Niles Software, where he played an instrumental role in the success of EndNotes, a widely used academic computer program. In The Anatomy of Buzz he described some of the work that led to this success, as well as similar successful strategies for the movie, The Blair Witch Project, the best‐selling novel, Cold Mountain, and the ubiquitous PalmPilot. The secret of these success stories lies in the skillful use of “buzz” to spread awareness and win acceptance of these new products.

“Buzz is all the word of mouth about a brand. It’s the aggregate of all person‐to‐person communication about a particular product, service, or company at any point in time” (p. 7). This mass of verbal exchange about products plays an important role in their success, especially for new products. Companies that can generate and sustain positive buzz can enhance the success of their products without the often large expenses of traditional marketing strategies. Rosen has studied buzz and presents his readers with an entertaining and stimulating account of his findings.

Part one of The Anatomy of Buzz, entitled “How buzz spreads”, presents several success stores and definitions. This account is closely tied to the traditional “Diffusion of innovations” paradigm described by Everett Rogers. A key construct is that of the “network”. Rosen argues that there is a promotion continuum anchored at one end by traditional mass advertising and at the other end by personalization or one‐to‐one marketing. In the middle lies the realm of invisible networks of interpersonal connections among consumers. He asks the reader to imagine a giant computer screen covered with blue dots (nodes) representing people, with green links connecting them. “This image is the foundation of this book: 6 billion glowing blue dots – the people on this planet – some of whom are linked by established connections. Green sparks – comments – constantly travel over these established connections. As new friendships are formed, new blue lines or connections appear. Some connections gradually disappear as people lose touch” (p. 9).

The first six chapters comprising part one describe motives for spreading word of mouth, the elements of word of mouth, and how buzz spreads. Special attention is given to the important role played by consumers who act as “hubs”, i.e. those individuals who communicate disproportionately more with other consumers about products. Hubs come in four flavors. Regular or network hubs are ordinary consumers who spread word of mouth about products. Mega‐hubs are located in the media and thus have much broader reach than network hubs. Expert hubs are especially knowledgeable about specific products. Social hubs are charismatic, trusted individuals whom many people like and communicate with. These four hubs are the principal nodes around which the social networks “buzz” with product‐related information. Identifying, reaching, and influencing these hubs is one of the main strategies recommended by Rosen.

Part two, “Success in the networks”, contains just two chapters. The success of the BMW Z3 provides the stimulus of a discussion of the types of products that lend themselves to successful word of mouth campaigns. Products that evoke emotions, advertise themselves, leave traces, are compatible and simple, and that become more useful as more people use them (think of Hotmail), are prime candidates for buzz. Marketers can accelerate the natural spread of word of mouth by “leapfrogging” from one cluster of consumers to another via sampling, demonstrations, and personal selling. The emphasis here is on the active role of the marketer in stimulating people to talk about his or her product.

This theme is continued in part three, “Stimulating buzz”, which consists of several chapters devoted to specific techniques of stimulating word of mouth. These include identifying networks, actively “seeding” networks, viral marketing, and combining advertising with word of mouth. The final chapters present three case studies (PowerBar, Women.com and the Yomega yo‐yo) and a summary workshop/checklist for developing a word of mouth strategy.

The Anatomy of Buzz is clearly written with a good blending of anecdote, scholarly evidence, and practical recommendations. One reservation I had was the reliance on older empirical studies. Although Rosen did a good job of locating and interviewing some of the leading scholars in the field, the book could have benefited from a thorough review of the recent published empirical work on opinion leadership in the marketing and communications literature. For example, instead of featuring Rogers’s measure of opinion leadership, a recent psychometrically valid scale is available (Flynn et al., 1996). There is a bibliography, useful glossary, index, and the text is well footnoted. Several pictures and clever illustrations enhance the text. While the target readership is clearly managers and those eager to harness the power of word of mouth for their products, brands, and companies, the book would prove a useful read for both MBA students and academics. Not only does the text provide several good examples of marketing campaigns, but also many of its recommendations might stimulate additional empirical study of word of mouth effects. Rosen’s Web site (www.emanuel‐rosen.com) makes a useful addition to the text. If you enjoy the book, you might tell a friend.