Everybody’s An Expert

For some time now I have noticed that everybody seems to be an expert these days. Social media is filled with armchair critics who are happy to fill you in on their expertise regarding anything from politics to nail salons. In reading several articles on the impact of Word of Mouth I began to ask myself, how do marketers effectively manage these so called “experts”? Case in point, the current political season that is upon us. Daily I read commentary from various friends on how their candidate is the best choice because of multiple reasons which usually amounts to whatever mainstream or social media has pushed out to them. Despite the fact that as demonstrated in Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”, their view is skewed because their information is tailored to their particular world view- their safe little bubbles. Yet, their information “bubble” is all about comfort and profitability for those designing it. Most Donald Trump supporters believe he is going to win despite polls because their social media feed is booming with other like-minded Trump supporters. Their feeds are filled with anti-Hillary news and commentaries as well as complimentary Trump anecdotes. The same applies to supporters of Hillary Clinton. Conservatives are more likely to watch Fox News while liberals turn to CNN for their information. All the while their neighbor posts of picture of their new premium for health insurance and this alone is proof Obamacare is a failure. Another friend passes along a photograph of Hillary Clinton with what appears to be some sort of device underneath her clothes and speculations from “her team is feeding her the questions during debates” to “she’s on a pain pump” abound. Then all of this information is collected and the armchair critics begin their discourse on why you should believe they hold all of the answers. What is scary to me is the impact these self-described experts hold in Word of Mouth circles. If you read a bad restaurant review are you really going to give the place a chance or not risk a disappointing meal? Perhaps had the Kansas City Voltaire restauranteur’s response to a particular snippy customers review on Yelp not gone viral, we would not know that her demands were unreasonable and her review highly unfair.

So how are marketers to handle these armchair critics? We know that the theories and methods surrounding WOM marketing have evolved over time from a marketer controlled environment to a multi-faceted, multi-directional model. Robert V. Kozinets, et al. "Networked Narratives: Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Online Communities." that appeared in the Journal of Marketing in 2010 describes consumers as “active co-producers of meaning and value”. But I argue that their meaning and value is not always a credible one. In today’s social media world anyone can become a self-proclaimed expert. According to DemandGen Report-2016 Content Preferences Survey, over 66% of consumers surveyed used blogs to influence their purchasing decisions and with the increase in blogs this percentage will only grow. Nowadays stay at home moms or a forty year old living in his parents basement can become a viral success and be viewed as an expert by his or her followers.

So back to my original question, how do marketers use the rampant explosion of so-called experts in their given field to communicate the message they need conveying and promote the true experts? And how do they weed out and promote the real experts among the want- to-be aficionados? First off, I think it is vital to decide which media outlets are the best formats for promoting your expert and facilitating the kind of Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing you want. A detailed look into your target demographics and how they correlate to various media outlets is a great starting place. For instance, research shows if you are looking to connect with women forty and younger, Pinterest or Instagram are great channels. The next step is establishing credibility. Why should followers believe your expert over another? What is the emotional connection to your message and messenger? Are you placing keywords your audience would be searching for in your written communications online? All of these are just a few of the factors marketers need to consider when looking to market their desired communication and expert.

By using the right channels WOM and expert positioning can be highly effective. Many national brands use bloggers and social media users with influence in order to promote marketing messages. One only needs a hashtag to create a virtual conversation about a certain event, public figure or idea. When the Jonbenet Ramsey story aired on CBS a couple of months ago, Twitter blew up with loads of tweets with armchair detectives giving their estimation of the case. All you had to do was look for the #jonbenetramsey, #jonbenet or #burkeramsey hashtags in order to follow the national dialogue on the case. Everyone was an expert. My kids and I even got in on the action. We debated back and forth the evidence presented during that broadcast as well as others shown on other channels around the same time. Each of us believed we had solved the twenty year mystery.

The Cleveland Indians used local bloggers in their social suite experiment in 2011 in order to change the local conversation about their team. It began with simply having a section of seats out in the stadium then evolved to a VIP box where local bloggers were treated like a cross between official media, given all-access pass to the team, and VIP fans. The experiment was a success and other teams and organizations followed subsequently. This is a great example of how organizational marketers were able to turn armchair critics into advocates for their cause. The right marketing vehicle, the right messaging and careful crafting of the communication strategy can turn this new form of marketing and communication into wins for professional marketers. By looking at the evolution of Word of Mouth marketing as well the evolution of the venues for WOM marketing, strategic communicators can tap into another realm of possibilities for promotion. Just remember, everybody’s an expert. Why not make them your expert. 

Illusions of Communication

Welcome to Illusions of Communication. I determined  the title of my blog after reading the quote by George Bernard Shaw "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place" because I think whether in business or interpersonal relationships effective communication is  fundamental to success. The inability to communicate effectively can lead to failure of both business ventures and relationships, thus it is one of the most important components of our lives.  

My name is Brandy Jensen and I am a graduate student pursuing a degree in Strategic Communications. I have worked in some degree of sales, marketing and public relations since 1998. I currently work for a Fortune 16 company and work regularly in the field of strategic communications. Throughout this blog I hope to discuss various communication topics that bring value to anyone interested in the subject of strategic communications and emerging media. I will post weekly updates covering topics from communication theories to social media. You can find my blog at http://illusionsofcommunication.blogspot.com/. 

In today’s blog I want to discuss the illusion of communication and its relation to the Diffusion of Innovation. Throughout my career I have seen many launches of new products and services. I have also seen how the effectiveness of communication can make or break these launches. For our discussion today, let’s look at the latter. Referencing George Bernard Shaw’s quote from earlier in the blog, many times there is a complete disconnect between what marketing departments communicate to sales teams, customers and vice versa. It is easy to miss the mark in communicating a message that resonates with customers by becoming so focused on what you believe is the important part of the product or service and failing to see what is important to the consumer. In my days as a pharmaceutical sales consultant I saw product launches flop because companies failed to see what was truly important to the physician or patient when marketing a product. They became so focused on the message the marketing department deemed was the priority and failed to adjust their messaging when necessary. For example, one product was the first product in its class of drugs to be developed in almost 15 years. It could have been a huge success. However, when the product was launched the communication surrounding it failed to convey to physicians and patients what they needed to hear most- that it was safe. Furthermore, it was completely overpriced. The sales team kept relaying the message back to corporate that physicians were more likely to prescribe it and patients were more likely to get those prescriptions filled if the price point was more competitive. For example, rather than making $100 per prescription but only selling 50,000 prescriptions, a strategy of selling 750,000 prescriptions with a profit of $50 per prescription, as well as owning the market share of that class of drug, would have been a better strategy.  However, once the company decided to adopt that strategy there were three new competitors on the market and they were struggling for even a small percentage of the market share. If the company had used some of the principles of Roger’s “Diffusion of Innovation” and recognized their product launch was failing in the areas of showing relative advantage, trialability and ability to reach the point of having early adopters perhaps it could have successfully launched its novel drug and realized the financial success it wanted.

Let’s start by looking at how they could have shown relative advantage in launching this new drug. In a market that had not seen any new developments in almost 15 years, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the development of this new product and its competitors that followed. The disease state it treated is an epidemic in this country so the need for treatment was definitely there. The two biggest obstacles were to show the medication was safe and cost effective. Its predecessors had a history of causing cardiovascular issues. The Federal Drug Administration required years of safety studies on this class of drug to rule out any high incidence of cardiovascular events so the evidence was there to support the safety of the new class of drug. By effectively communicating the advantage of efficacy as well as safety, the company could have shown this new drug offered patients a real advantage over older treatments for this condition therefore quickly gaining the innovators and early adopters.

By focusing on the trialability of the product, the company could have moved to the next segment of adoption- the early majority. This drug was not covered by insurance companies right out of the gate, which is typical of new drugs on the market. Until pharmaceutical companies have the opportunity to negotiate with insurance carriers’ pharmacy & therapeutics committees, most new drugs on the market are not covered under healthcare plans’ formularies.  In order to make this drug accessible to its target market, the price had to be right. While the pharmaceutical company had to recoup its cost of years of research and development on the new product, not to mention other products in development that fail to ever make it to market, it also needed to set the price at a rate that the vast majority of patients with this disease could afford it. New patients needed the ability to have a trial period on the drug in order to truly see its effectiveness. One other important note about this drug; unlike its predecessors, it took longer to see its efficacy but the efficacy lasted for longer periods of time. Hence, another reason patients needed the ability to try the drug with minor financial risk.  

In conclusion, failure to effectively communicate led to the downfall of this product launch. The company had the illusion they were communicating what patients and physicians wanted to hear, however, they grossly missed the mark. As communicators we must be sure our audience understands what we are trying to communicate and that our message resonates with them. Otherwise, we are just communicating for the sake of communicating.