In a matter of just a few years, social media influence advertising campaigns morphed from a small fringe specialty to a mainstream social media marketing embraced by no less than consumer product giants like Procter & Gamble (P&G). The basic idea was simple, really: You harnessed the power of existing social media influence networks to sell your products and services. Influencers on social media sites like YouTube or Facebook were becoming a huge business. Irving had more modest ambitions-person-to-person recommendations as the place to start. Irving knew that P&Gs in-house unit, Vocalpoint, several years previously had conducted highly successful marketing campaigns with up to 600,000 women, mostly mothers, serving on an advisory board that recommended P&G products to friends and neighbors. Because women were key purchasers of P&&G consumer products, Vocalpoint focused on recruiting women with extensive social networks, who were known internally simply as connectors. The Vocalpoint Web page took care to emphasize that participants were members of an"exclusive" community of mothers who exerted significant influence on P&G and other major companies. Vocalpoint not only sent the women new product samples and solicited their opinions, but also carefully tailored its pitch to the group's interests and preoccupations so that the women would want to tell their friends and extended family about a product. For example, it described a new dishwashing foam that was so much fun to use, kids would actually volunteer to clean up the kitchen (music to any mother's ears). P&G's newest product, water-free soap swatches, would fit the advisory board members perfectly. P&G also furnished the mothers with paper and digital coupons to send out if they wished. It was all voluntary, P&G pointed out. According to a company press release issued shortly before Vocalpoint went national, members "are never obligated to do or say anything." One of the things Vocalpoint members weren't obligated to say, Irving knew, was that the women were essentially unpaid participants in a P&G-sponsored marketing program. When asked about the policy, Vocalpoint CEO Steve Reed replied,"We have a deeply held belief you don't tell the consumer what to say." However, skeptical observers speculated that what the company really feared was that the women's credibility might be affected adversely if their Vocalpoint affiliation were known. Nondisclosure really amounted to lying for financial gain, Vocalpoint's critics argued, and the whole campaign exploited personal relationships for commercial purposes. Others thought the critics were making mountains out of molehills. P&G wasn't forbidding participants from disclosing their ties to Vocalpoint and P&G. So, as Irving designs the advisory board word-of- mouth campaign for his agency's client, just how far should he emulate the company that even its detractors acknowledge is a master of word-of-mouth advertising? What Would You Do? 1. Don't require Rukman "influencers" to reveal their affiliation with the corporate marketing campaign. They don't have to recommend a product they don't believe in. 2. Require that Rukman participants reveal their financial ties to the corporate marketing program right up front before they make a recommendation. 3. Instruct Rukman participants to reveal their participation in the corporate marketing program only if directly asked by the person they are talking to about the client's products.

In a matter of just a few years, social media influence advertising campaigns morphed from a small fringe specialty to a mainstream social media marketing embraced by no less than consumer product giants like Procter & Gamble (P&G). The basic idea was simple, really: You harnessed the power of existing social media influence networks to sell your products and services. Influencers on social media sites like YouTube or Facebook were becoming a huge business. Irving had more modest ambitions-person-to-person recommendations as the place to start. Irving knew that P&Gs in-house unit, Vocalpoint, several years previously had conducted highly successful marketing campaigns with up to 600,000 women, mostly mothers, serving on an advisory board that recommended P&G products to friends and neighbors. Because women were key purchasers of P&&G consumer products, Vocalpoint focused on recruiting women with extensive social networks, who were known internally simply as connectors. The Vocalpoint Web page took care to emphasize that participants were members of an"exclusive" community of mothers who exerted significant influence on P&G and other major companies. Vocalpoint not only sent the women new product samples and solicited their opinions, but also carefully tailored its pitch to the group's interests and preoccupations so that the women would want to tell their friends and extended family about a product. For example, it described a new dishwashing foam that was so much fun to use, kids would actually volunteer to clean up the kitchen (music to any mother's ears). P&G's newest product, water-free soap swatches, would fit the advisory board members perfectly. P&G also furnished the mothers with paper and digital coupons to send out if they wished. It was all voluntary, P&G pointed out. According to a company press release issued shortly before Vocalpoint went national, members "are never obligated to do or say anything." One of the things Vocalpoint members weren't obligated to say, Irving knew, was that the women were essentially unpaid participants in a P&G-sponsored marketing program. When asked about the policy, Vocalpoint CEO Steve Reed replied,"We have a deeply held belief you don't tell the consumer what to say." However, skeptical observers speculated that what the company really feared was that the women's credibility might be affected adversely if their Vocalpoint affiliation were known. Nondisclosure really amounted to lying for financial gain, Vocalpoint's critics argued, and the whole campaign exploited personal relationships for commercial purposes. Others thought the critics were making mountains out of molehills. P&G wasn't forbidding participants from disclosing their ties to Vocalpoint and P&G. So, as Irving designs the advisory board word-of- mouth campaign for his agency's client, just how far should he emulate the company that even its detractors acknowledge is a master of word-of-mouth advertising? What Would You Do? 1. Don't require Rukman "influencers" to reveal their affiliation with the corporate marketing campaign. They don't have to recommend a product they don't believe in. 2. Require that Rukman participants reveal their financial ties to the corporate marketing program right up front before they make a recommendation. 3. Instruct Rukman participants to reveal their participation in the corporate marketing program only if directly asked by the person they are talking to about the client's products.

Marketing

20th Edition

ISBN:9780357033791

Author:Pride, William M

Publisher:Pride, William M

Chapter10: Digital Marketing And Social Networking

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1DYMP

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