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The Palm Pilot. The novel Cold Mountain. The iMac. Hotmail. FedEx. The Blair Witch Project and There's Something About Mary. According to former marketing exec Emanuel Rosen, they all became successful not through traditional advertising or marketing routes, but through "buzz," that semitangible process through which information and commentary jump from one brain or mouth to another. Rosen also ascribes buzz to creating customer loyalty, which he says is built through the advice of friends, colleagues, or such trusted "mega-hubs" of information as Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell. Rosen has spent the past few years studying the routes, nodes, and clusters through which buzz passes and grows, and the result is this well-researched book. While it doesn't throw much new light on the mechanics of buzz, it is at least instructive and entertaining, offering minisagas of the successful buzz behind such marketing triumphs as the dELia's catalog for teenage girls, PowerBars, and the BMW Z3 roadster. Buzz seekers, be warned, however: with the exception of a short chapter at the end of the book called "Buzz Workshop," you won't find much of a blueprint for starting the gears of buzz for your product or service. What you do get is a trove of real-life stories that, if they don't inspire and guide you toward taking your first buzz-creating baby steps, probably mean you're the type of person who should stick with conventional advertising and PR. --Timothy Murphy A groundbreaking guide to creating the word-of-mouth magic that cuts through the skepticism and information overload of today's consumers, and drives sales-and profits-to new heights. What turns a "sleeper" into a box-office bonanza or catapults a just-released book to the top of bestseller lists? How do people decide which car to buy, which fashions fit the image they seek, and even which movie to see? Despite the daily assault of advertising and other traditional marketing strategies, statistics show that consumers are overwhelmingly persuaded by word of mouth-the recommendations of friends and the "buzz" that develops in the marketplace. As Newsweek recently proclaimed, "Buzz greases the great conveyor belt of culture and commerce, moving everything from movies to fashions of the body and mind faster and faster."In The Anatomy of Buzz, former marketing VP Emanuel Rosen pinpoints the products and services that benefit the most from buzz-a universe that embraces everything from high-tech equipment to books, various consumer and entertainment products to legal and other support services-and offers specific strategies for creating and sustaining effective word-of-mouth campaigns. Drawing from interviews with more than 150 executives, marketing leaders, and researchers who have successfully built buzz for major brands, Rosen describes the ins and outs of attracting the attention of influential first users and "big-mouth" movers and shakers. He also discusses proven techniques for stimulating customer-to-customer selling-including how companies can spread the word to new territories by taking advantage of customer hubs and networks on the Internet and elsewhere.Recent surveys show that 58 percent of young people rely to some extent on others when selecting a car, 53 percent of moviegoers follow the recommendations of friends, and 65 percent of the people who bought a Palm organizer were inspired by the enthusiasm of others. With The Anatomy of Buzz, business leaders have what they need to start the buzz and reignite excitement about a product or service stalled in a holding pattern, or launch a new product into the stratosphere. The Anatomy of Buzz is divided into three parts. How Buzz Spreads: The first section describes the huge social networks to which we all belong and what we know about how buzz spreads through them. Success in the Networks: The second section identifies two factors that need to be there for buzz to spread. First, the product must be "contagious" in some way. For example, the game Trivial Pursuit was contagious because people who played it were compelled to demonstrate their knowledge to others. But contagion needs to be accelerated. That's the second factor. The marketers of this game executed a massive grassroots campaign that let people in numerous social networks get "infected" by the game and tell others. Stimulating Buzz: The third part of the book describes techniques that companies have used to encourage their customers to talk. How BMW created buzz about the Z3 Roadster through a "sneak preview" in a James Bond movie. How the founders of Powerbar spread the word about their energy food by working with "network hubs" such as coaches and leading athletes.
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