“Mavericks at work”, “Poke the box” and the “The Thank you economy” all agree that passion can and should be the driving force for your business and your career. Their argument; in a world where everything is commoditised and similar, the only way to differentiate is your passion. Passion is the way to break from the pack!
The Passion Conversation
“The Passion Conversation” develops this theme and tries to show you how to spark and sustain WOM ( Word of Mouth) marketing in and for your business. “The passion conversation isn’t about getting people to talk about YOU, the brand. It’s about getting people to talk about themselves,” so argue the authors who clearly tell you “Before you can take your passion conversation outside of your organisation, you have to make sure it’s felt deeply and clearly inside its own walls.”
HR is the new marketing
My colleague Ron Immink said to me a long time ago that “HR is the new marketing” – it’s just that we’re not seeing it yet and marketers haven’t embraced the concept. If you take Peter Drucker’s comment that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” as a truism it is not too much a leap of faith to agree that passion is the X factor in culture.
This is not new
In many ways, The Passion Conversation is not telling us something new. The authors quote Ernest Dichter, from How WOM marketing works HBR 1966 on the importance of humanizing brands “Consumers reject advertising messages because they are “more a sales tool than information and guidance.” However, if people perceived a brand as a friend—and if the brand could project a voice to match—consumers would consider it to be more authentic and trusted, and the brand would be received with more enthusiasm” Similar to “Do It Now Marketing” the authors argue, “Marketers are putting the WHAT before the WHY as they execute the HOW. They want to spark word of mouth with all their check-the-box marketing activities, but these conversations are not happening because of the missing ingredient—PASSION”
Let’s start with why
- Recommendations from family, friends, and friends of friends have greater influence over our purchase decisions than any other form of marketing.
- According to research from McKinsey & Company, word of mouth is responsible for up to 50% of all purchase decisions, followed by information from a website.
- 71% of us say comments from friends and family exert a great deal or fair amount of influence over our purchase decisions
Three motivations that spark conversations about brands and organisations.
- A Functional conversation about brands is one that’s factual, nuts & bolts stuff. Usually, this conversation starter is best to spark with current customers so they can explain to their friends how a product/service works.
- When someone showcases his or her uniqueness to others visually and publicly, that’s a social word of mouth conversation starter. We see this happen all the time online through social media with friends who socially signal their uniqueness by publicly checking in at restaurants, shops and sharing their latest holiday details or at the airport
- People engage in emotional conversations about brands because they spark strong emotions ranging from love & hate to shock & awe to giggles & glares. Brands that invoke strong emotions are more likely to spark word of mouth conversations.
Studies have shown that high-arousal emotions like amusement and anxiety inspire more word of mouth conversations than low-arousal emotions like sadness and contentment.
WOM marketing
Apply WOM marketing to your businesses. In order for a business to have customers fall in love with the business, the business must first fall in love with its customers. Successful word of mouth marketing strategy must follow the roadmap of:
- Starting with a story
- Tapping into your talkers
- Choosing your communication channels. These conversations take place on a variety of communication channels from online social media to offline face-to-face settings.
The authors caution Brands and marketers to “Start with the stories to be told and the talkers who share the stories. More brands should follow that path to achieve word of mouth success.”
The importance of the founders story
When looking for stories the authors ask you to “Learn (or in some cases, relearn) the founder’s story of how and why the business you work for began. Almost always there is a story to be found that shows how the company founder set out to make meaning in the lives of customers rather than to start a business that just makes money.”
“Finding shared passion is one of the greatest tools to developing meaningful relationships and sparking word of mouth” and they cite Guy Kawasaki in his book Enchantment about two social scientists whose studies found the best negotiators spend 40% of their preparation time finding a shared passion between the parties involved in the conflict.
Questions
The authors pepper their book with a series of questions that get you thinking about your people, your business, your customers and your own passion. Asking questions is always a good start. Ask the following questions to help spark a meaningful discussion internally:
- When was the last time you celebrated a little win—or a big win, for that matter in your business
- How do you define a win for your team?
- How do we celebrate what makes our customers wildly happy?
- Do we celebrate anything that demonstrates what we stand for?
- What can we celebrate with our customers?
- Ask the following questions to help spark a meaningful discussion externaly
- What do we know about our customers’ passions?
- How do we help to collect and display, then amplify and celebrate their passions?
- How can we make it easier for them to share their stories?
- What do we do to let others know what our organisation (and our people) care most about?
- How could we become best friends and kindred spirits with our customers?
- Do you invest this much time with your employees (and yes, it often starts with your employees), your advocates, your customers, your donors? How do you find the shared-passion conversations that are true to who you are as a company?
- why do people advocate on behalf of a brand?
- What moves it from conversation to advocacy?
- What creates a lifetime customer?
- We all know people who are so loyal to a brand that they would never switch. How can we go from being that brand people mention in passing to one that they love?
- How can we help our advocates find us and connect with us?
