Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing
Harsimran Singh Anand Roll No. 07, PGDM Marketing Offline is where the majority of WoM actually occurs and has the strongest impact and there are a number of terms that are used: Word of mouth (the emphasis here is on personal, relationship related and spontaneous communication) Advocacy marketing (most often relates to social and voluntary sectors) Public affairs (a well-worn phrase associated with political influence) Referral marketing (a classic business-to-business method) Mutual marketing (the co-creation of products and services by producers and users, but also used in public affairs to describe joint activities between two or more organisations with a common cause) Influencer marketing (influencing the mass of prospects or other groups through the influence of a few and/or identifying those with influence and engaging, or when a marketer identifies, seeks out, and engages with influencers in support of a business objective. Influencer marketing can be traced back to 1950s when Lazarsfeld and Katz introduced the concept of the two-step communication process and personal Influence. They stressed that some people have a disproportionate degree of influence on others and can be effective communications channels.
INDFLUENCER MARKETING
According the annual marketing management survey run by the magazine PR Week, 69% of marketing managers in the US now include the targeting of influencers as part of their strategy. Despite the hype surrounding online viral marketing, it is claimed by WOMMA (the UK trade association) that 85% of WOM activity takes place offline and that offline WoM is more powerful because here communicator is usually known to the recipient and thus the communication has added trust power. A similar figure is reported from the US where according to the Keller Fay Group 73% of marketing-related conversations take place in person, and only 10% happen online. So, the focus of your WoM or influencer marketing strategy should be face-to-face (mouth not mouse), rather than mouse-to-mouse communication Central to most strategies designed to amplify WoM is the notion of influencers, which put simply means targeting those who have the greatest viral impact rather than engaging the masses. However, the theory that there are influencers that have disproportionate impact is not universally accepted, as we shall discuss later. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines an influencer as a person who has a greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace. Malcolm Gladwell, a New
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Harsimran Singh Anand Roll No. 07, PGDM Marketing York Times journalist and the author of The Tipping Point, first stressed the importance of the socalled influentials. He categorises influentials into three different categories: 1. Connectors are the people who link us to the rest of the world 2. Mavens are the information specialists who accumulate and share knowledge 3. Salesmen are the persuaders who possess the powerful negotiation skills Keller and Berry in their book The Influentials categorise influencers by reference to the nature of their influence: 1. Social influencers (meta trends) 2. Category influencers (in a sector or product area) 3. Brand influencers (which brands are in and which are not) A good advocate or influencer is typically someone who has had a genuine experience of the product or service (or has been told about it by someone they know or trust) and whose opinion is trusted by at least one other person. To make a difference on a large scale a strategy needs to plan to: 1. Bring these advocates together in one place. 2. Trigger their advocacy through active involvement. 3. Create more opportunities for them to influence the more easily influenced
INFLUENCER STRATEGY
Influencer programs are, by definition, long-term, multi-year commitments designed to build a relationship; they are not marketing campaigns. The first steps are to identify amongst your key stakeholder groups both the easily influenced (after Watts) and the influentials (after Gladwell). Both approaches have merit and are not mutually exclusive.
Harsimran Singh Anand Roll No. 07, PGDM Marketing as education markets are cyclical and seasonal. It is critical to know when influence will be most impactful as that is when you should stimulate chatter. Keller and Berry 2003 have distilled published research into a simple screening profile for identifying connectors (influencers), recently estimated by NOP to make up 10% of a target audience based on their ACTIVE profile: Ahead in adoption Connected (socially and electronically) Travellers Information Hungry Vocal Exposed to media
CONCLUSION
Exactly what is included in Influencer Marketing depends on the context (B2C or B2B) and the medium of influence transmission (online or offline, or both). But it is increasingly accepted that companies are keen to identify and engage with influencers. As Keller and Berry note, Business is working harder and paying more to pursue people who are trying to watch and listen less to its messages. Targeting influencers is seen as a means of amplifying marketing messages, in order to counteract the growing tendency of prospective customers to ignore marketing. References 1. Keller, Ed and Berry, Jon. The Influentials, Free Press, 2003 2. Scott Pearson and Duncan Brown, The influence of Word of Mouth, Influencer50, March, 2008 3. Justin Kirby and Paul Mardsen, Connected Marketing, the viral, buzz and Word of mouth revolution, Butterworth-Heinemann , 2005 4. The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 2009 5. Rayport Prof J, The Virus of Marketing, Harvard Business School, 1996 6. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, 2000
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