Creating Buzz

It happens to every business. Your product becomes mature. Consumers have heard about it for years. The marketplace has maxed out. Unless you do something to change your product you have nothing new and exciting to communicate.

Which, of course, is why venerable brands are constantly coming out with line extensions, new improved versions of the original, and products that now have something they didn’t offer before. Because when you have something new to talk about, you create fresh excitement for your brand.

A few weeks ago I suggested that business owners should watch the political advertising this season and look at how you can apply what works in political campaigns to your business. If you watched, you’ve seen one of the best examples of the power of creating buzz.

When John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his VP, he hit a home run at creating buzz. He recognized that he had a mature product (himself!), that had maxed out in the marketplace several times, and although consumers were still loyal to the brand, they weren’t particularly excited about it.

But with Palin on his ticket, he created a line extension for his brand that is new, different, and so exciting that it has produced a huge jump in sales (campaign donations) and garnered him millions of dollars of free publicity.

The media can’t stop talking about it! The real marketing genius behind the decision is that, until then, McCain was the brand that had matured in the marketplace. He was trying to outsell his competitor who was a fresh, new brand that attracted consumers in larger numbers than any political brand had ever done before. Now he has the fresh, new product.

The competitive brand (Obama), however, diminished his brand value by adding a mature, unexciting product as his line extension. In Biden, consumers are being asked to buy a product they’ve already decided not to buy many times before.

In the context of marketing, the value of the McCain brand has increased immensely. As I write this it has been two weeks and the buzz is still deafening!

What can you do with your brand, whether it is a product, service or destination, to create that kind of buzz?

Do Something Unexpected. Consumers are so bombarded with advertising that most of what they see or hear starts to look and sound the same. It’s become a formula where product names and images are interchangeable because messages are so generic. When you do the unexpected, you’ll get attention. Just ask John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Be Innovative. True innovation is doing what everyone else does, but doing it differently. If all yo-yos are round, and you make one that is star-shaped, you’re innovative. If you manufacture lawnmowers, have you ever thought about painting them pink? Who said lawnmowers have to be green or red? (Single female households are a fast-growing market. They may really like and buy pink lawnmowers.) Forget what you know and think about what could happen if you do something innovative.

Encourage People to Talk. Have you ever had an experience that you couldn’t wait to tell someone about? Of course you have. Think about what you can do with your brand to create that kind of experience. People love to talk about all the things they use and do in their lives. Look at the influence generated by blogs and talk shows. Give people something exciting to talk about and they’ll do it. When people talk, it becomes news, and you’ll be on the receiving end of some great free publicity.

Embrace the Power of Mystery. Who doesn’t like a good mystery? Mystery and detective genre books, movies and TV shows are always tops with consumers. Mystery builds anticipation and gets consumers emotionally engaged. Adding mystery to your brand builds buzz. The McCain announcement about the Palin choice wouldn’t have been nearly effective if the outcome of whom he would pick hadn’t been such a mystery.

Limit Your Availability. When Apple introduced the iPhone it sold out in the first day. Apple used a combination of buzz techniques, starting with mystery, to create a demand they knew would be greater than their supply. J. K. Rowling creates an astronomical amount of buzz for her Harry Potter books by keeping readers totally in the dark about each new story, then releasing the books at midnight where long lines of eager fans engage in a buying frenzy to get the newest copy.

You can’t bore a customer into making a purchase. Yet most advertising and marketing is done with boring clichés that would never create buzz. If your product, service, or destination is making people yawn, how can you turn it into a hit? The most effective way is through buzz. Get people talking!

On a recent trip to San Francisco I was in the aisle seat of the airplane, both out and back, with two strangers in the other two seats in my row. As the plane took off I pulled out my book to read and my row-mates pulled out theirs.

In less than thirty minutes we were engaged in lively conversation about our books, authors we liked, and recommendations to each other. That led to conversations about products and activities we liked and recommended to each other. We were generating buzz for brands that got us excited.

As you work on your marketing strategies for next year, you might want to start with this question, “How will I generate buzz?” Successfully building buzz gets you influence, stimulates consumers, and elevates your status in the marketplace. It is not a guarantee for success, but it certainly gives you better odds.

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