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Author | Bertrand Cesvet Tony Babinski Eric Alper |
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Language | English |
Subject | Marketing |
Publisher | Pearson Education |
Publication date | August 7, 2008 |
Publication place | Canada |
Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Pages | 208 |
ISBN | 978-0-13-714550-8 |
OCLC | 214935159 |
658.8/27 22 | |
LC Class | HF5415.1255 .C47 2009 |
Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About is a book about engineering word-of-mouth into brand experiences. Contrary to the conventional theories of mass marketing literature, which teach that one must scream something ten times to be heard once, the authors teach that because we are all social storytellers, a product experience that is worthy of telling as one's own authentic story creates enormous brand capital in the form of meaningful and influential conversations.
Developed by a trio of international brand architects, they share the insights behind their creative and strategic leadership for word-of-mouth success stories including Adidas, Cirque du Soleil, Red Bull & MGM Grand.
Based on their experiences with some of the world's recognized generators of word-of-mouth, the authors behind Conversational Capital began to realize that experiences had residual value—value that extended further than mere memories but instead resided in the realm of identity-shaping and storytelling. That is to say, when an experience was sufficiently powerful or transformative for an individual, they felt compelled to make the experience part of their own life story, and thereby propagate the story of the experience as part of their own (and now more exciting) identity. With this in mind, Bertrand Cesvet, Tony Babinski and Eric Alper began to deconstruct the antecedents to word-of-mouth. Invariably, they found that the elements that gave rise to the conversations of consumers consisted of eight possible drivers. Critically, these elements fed into doing two things for the experience in question: 1) making it meaningful and 2) making it intense.
The authors of Conversational Capital share these eight key ingredients to embedding the makings of word-of-mouth into every consumer encounter with brands. They term these elements the Eight Engines of Conversational Capital.
1. Myths are the narratives that become part of the very fabric of consumption because they provide important clues as to fundamental meaning of that act.
2. Rituals are an essential part of how human beings create and formalize meaning. The presence of ritual marks out an experience as deeper in meaning - a phenomenon that is true for consumer experiences, as well.
3. Exclusive Product Offering (E.P.O.) is about allowing consumers to create an experience that asserts and actualizes their individuality; to, in a world of seven billion people, feel and be unique.
4. Relevant Sensorial Oddity (R.S.O.) is about challenging our senses with something extraordinary, marking an experience as unique.
5. Icons are signs and symbols that clearly demarcate a consumption experience from any other.
6. Tribalism is about the power of a brand experience to inspire the association of like-minded people.
7. Endorsement is not about celebrity — it's about how the meaning and intensity of a brand experience naturally lead to credible people organically endorsing it.
8. Continuity is a strong harbinger of reputation, a fact that rests on the unity between what you promise, what people expect and what you deliver.
The authors also recognize that Conversation Capital is nothing without conversational liquidity—the ability to share the stories as broadly as possible, and perhaps for this reason they frequently reference and recognize the open-source movement and its way of creating connected communities that transcend geographic and other boundaries.
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view. The term "storytelling" can refer specifically to oral storytelling but also broadly to techniques used in other media to unfold or disclose the narrative of a story.
Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. It is a type of publicity. The term was popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson's 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing.
Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus of language teaching and learning. Conversation analysis is a branch of sociology which studies the structure and organization of human interaction, with a more specific focus on conversational interaction.
Marketing communications refers to the use of different marketing channels and tools in combination. Marketing communication channels focus on how businesses communicate a message to its desired market, or the market in general. It is also in charge of the internal communications of the organization. Marketing communication tools include advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, communication, public relations, social media, customer journey and promotion.
A brand community is a concept in marketing and consumer research which postulates that human beings form communities on the basis of attachment to a brand or marque. A brand community refers to structured social relationships in which participants share admiration and connection of a brand that they experience through shared rituals, traditions and a sense of responsibility towards other members. The term often refers to the intersection between brand, individual identity and culture.
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencers are someone with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok or other online channels. Influencer marketing is when a brand enrolls influencers who have an established credibility and audience on social media platforms to discuss or mention the brand in a social media post. Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising.
A brand ambassador is a person engaged by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the corporate identity in appearance, demeanor, values and ethics. The key element of brand ambassadors is their ability to use promotional strategies that will strengthen the customer-product-service relationship, influence a large audience to buy and consume more.
A touchpoint can be defined as any way consumers can interact with a business organization, whether person-to-person, through a website, an app or any form of communication. When consumers connect with these touchpoints they can consider their perceptions of the business and form an opinion.
Customer engagement is an interaction between an external consumer/customer and an organization through various online or offline channels. According to Hollebeek, Srivastava and Chen S-D logic-Definition of customer engagement is "a customer’s motivationally driven, volitional investment of operant resources, and operand resources into brand interactions," which applies to online and offline engagement.
Consumer-generated advertising is advertising on consumer generated media. This term is generally used to refer to sponsored content on blogs, wikis, forums, social networking services, and individual websites. This sponsored content is also known as sponsored posts, paid posts, or sponsored reviews. The content includes links that point to the home page or specific product pages of the website of the sponsor. Examples include Diet Coke and Mentos videos, the "Crush on Obama" video, and Star Wars fan films. Companies that have employed consumer-generated ads include Subaru North America, McDonald's, Rose Parade, and Toyota North America.
Customer experience, sometimes abbreviated to CX, is the totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral customer responses during all stages of the consumption process including pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages.
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value as brand equity for the object identified, to the benefit of the brand's customers, its owners and shareholders. Brand names are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands.
Social currency refers to the actual and potential resources from presence in social networks and communities, including both digital and offline. It is, in essence, an action made by a company or stance of being, to which consumers feel a sense of value when associating with your brand, while the humanization of your brand generates loyalty and "word of mouth" virality for the organization. The concept derives from Pierre Bourdieu's social capital theory and relates to increasing one's sense of community, granting access to information and knowledge, helping to form one's identity, and providing status and recognition.
Emotional branding is a term used within marketing communication that refers to the practice of building brands that appeal directly to a consumer's emotional state, needs and aspirations. Emotional branding is successful when it triggers an emotional response in the consumer, that is, a desire for the advertised brand that cannot fully be rationalized. Emotional brands have a significant impact when the consumer experiences a strong and lasting attachment to the brand comparable to a feeling of bonding, companionship or love. Examples of emotional branding include the nostalgic attachment to the Kodak brand of film, bonding with the Jim Beam bourbon brand, and love for the McDonald's brand.
The hedonic music consumption model was created by music researchers Kathleen Lacher and Richard Mizeski in 1994. Their goal was to use this model to examine the responses that listening to rock music creates, and to find if these responses influenced the listener's intention to later purchase the music. The article begins with a discussion of why the issue of music consumption is important. Music is then explored as an aesthetic product, prior to a discussion of what hedonic consumption is, as well as its origins, and concludes with an in-depth look at the model itself.
Word-of-mouth marketing is the communication between consumers about a product, service, or company in which the sources are considered independent of direct commercial influence that has been actively influenced or encouraged as a marketing effort. While it is difficult to truly control word of mouth communication, there are three generic avenues to 'manage' word of mouth communication for the purpose of word-of-mouth marketing, including:
Fan loyalty is the loyalty felt and expressed by a fan towards the object of his/her fanaticism. Fan Loyalty is often used in the context of sports and the support of a specific team or institution. Fan loyalties can range from a passive support to radical allegiance and expressions of loyalty can take shape in many forms and be displayed across varying platforms. Fan loyalty can be threatened by team actions. The loyalties of sports fans in particular have been studied by psychologists, who have determined several factors that help to create such loyalties.
AISDALSLove, is a hierarchy of effects model in advertising adapted from AIDA's hierarchy of effects model which has been used by many researchers, both academicians and practitioners, to measure the effect of an advertisement.
Consumer identity is the consumption pattern through which a consumer describes themselves.
Nostalgia consumption is a social and cultural trend that could be described as the act of consuming goods that elicit memories from the past, being associated with the feeling of nostalgia.