The Writer’s Coin

Around six or seven years ago I found a little website that claimed to have the lowest online prices on books. Even lower than amazon. I was a little taken aback but decided to look into it and sure enough they were right. So I ordered a few books—sure the site wasn’t that pretty, but hell I was saving money—and forgot about it.

Then the books came and I opened the box and went through that whole euphoria we all get when we get a package. Everything was in order, the books were all new and in great condition.

Then I saw a small piece of paper inside the box. It read something like this:

Thank you for ordering from Overstock.com. In order to keep our prices low, we don’t spend any money on advertising. We rely on word of mouth from satisfied customers. If you had a positive experience with us, please let others know so they too can enjoy our low prices. Thank you for your purchase with us and if there is anything we can further do to help you, please let me know.

And I think the CEO signed it at the bottom. The tone of the note was such that I was heartened: these people were trying to get business the “old fashioned way.”

It’s not so old fashioned, as this Advertising Age article explains.

Word of mouth is HUGE. It’s how people let new products or brands into their lives with the least amount of resistance.

“Becky uses it all the time, put it in the basket.”

“Joe says it’s an incredible book.”

“I know ribbed sounds stupid honey, but Jessica swears by it.”

And so on. According to the article (which you may not be able to read in full, it’s old), marketers are spending untold millions on word of mouth.

Huh?

How does that work? Aren’t those reader reviews on Amazon just regular folks like me and you? Sure, for the most part. But does it make sense to spend money on something that by its very nature is supposed to happen organically?

No. What they should be doing is spending money on finding out what customers like or don’t like about their product and improving it so that those same customers tell their book club friends about them.

Because if consumers sense that they are getting some fabricated word of mouth, they are out of there. You can’t repair that kind of damage.

Overstock has had it’s fair share of issues (I almost invested my money with them. Almost.) since that note (the CEO is a bit different), but they had the right idea back then.

Tags: marketing, word of mouth