I haven't read this book, but...

About 30% of negative word of mouth comes from people who never owned the product that they were talking about. If you’re a marketer, I’m sure this is pretty upsetting: you’re working hard on developing a product, and people are badmouthing it without giving it a chance. But consumers should be annoyed by this too because secondhand buzz is not very helpful. Word of mouth is a filtering mechanism that we use in order to find good products. In a society where every person recommends only products that they personally tried and liked, good products will quickly rise to the top. When people simply relay information that they heard, you get something that could be best described as a buzz bubble, as depicted in this review: “I haven’t read this book but judging from the online reviews below, I don’t think it’s a very good book” (one star). See slide show with some of these reviews here

Seven Elements in Toms Shoes Buzz

So here we go, I’ve started my international tour which will focus on how word-of-mouth marketing can promote positive change. My first stop was last week in Los Angeles where I gave a talk to PR professionals and got to meet some real veterans in the entertainment PR field including Julian Myers who’s over 90 years old and remembers working with Marilyn Monroe. (He also still runs marathons. What an amazing guy!)

Anyway, we’re here to talk about word of mouth and positive change. I have two LA stories. I'll post the second one shortly.

On Friday I visited Toms Shoes in Santa Monica, a company that does a lot of things right. Why are they getting so much buzz? As always, the answer is multifaceted, but here are seven elements that explain it.

1. Strong message – For every pair of shoes you purchase, Toms will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. The same idea from some committee at a large corporation might have transformed to: “Proceeds from our shoe sales go to children in need. Limited to one pair per customer. Some restrictions apply. Review our web site for full details.” No! Toms shoes’ message is simple: One for one.

2. Good simple story – The story can be summarized in three sentences. This guy Blake Mycoskie goes to Argentina and sees cool shoes. He also sees kids with no shoes. He puts two and two together and starts a company that will make cool shoes and will donate a pair for every pair it sells. The story is supported with videos and pictures that show that the company is delivering on its promise.

3. Mass media – If you read my book you may remember that the first big push for Toms came from an article in the Los Angeles Times. As a result of that article, Blake got 2,200 orders in 24 hours. Blake continues to get a lot of press. He’s been on Good Morning America and other shows. If you live in the U.S., you probably have seen the AT&T commercials that feature him. Don’t underestimate the role of mass media in building buzz. (More on this in my next LA story).

4. Participation – Customers are involved in delivering the shoes to children in need. Last year I participated in one of their “shoe drops” in Booneville Kentucky and I’ve been talking about it ever since (picture above). It was an unforgettable experience—measuring the kids’ feet, fitting the shoes, helping the kids decorate their Toms. Last Friday I met people who participated in shoe drops in places like Argentina and South Africa, and their stories were moving and memorable. Since most people cannot go on a “shoe drop”, the company encourages participation through Facebook, by buying the shoes and by spreading the word.

5. Social media with a purpose – At every contact point, the company encourages you to spread the story. For example, after you buy the shoes, you’re encouraged to tweet “I just bought and gave a pair of TOMS Shoes to children in need. You can too at http://www.tomsshoes.com !” And this type of thinking is not limited to social media: The box with the shoes arrives with a TOMS sticker and a flag (!), so they encourage you to create visual buzz in the real world, too.

6. Self expression. We all love talking about what we create. TOMS encourages its customers to put together “Style Your Sole” parties where people decorate their own shoes. There are some beautiful designs that people put together and those end up on Flickr, Facebook and on blogs. And again, people love to show what they create to friends, so there’s visual buzz in the real world.

7. Ongoing – I’ve been following the company for awhile now, and this is one of the more impressive aspects of TOMS: They are constantly coming up with new stuff to talk about. New styles, new partnerships, new promotions. The core message never changes though: For every pair of shoes you buy from Toms Shoes, this company will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need.

I can go on and on about this company (see here for what Ben McConnell wrote about them), but I just wanted to share a few thoughts. I’d love to hear yours! Soon I’ll post another good buzz story from LA. Next week I’ll be in London and Hamburg. The following weeks in Stockholm, Istanbul and Sydney. For exact dates, check out www.emanuel-rosen.com

Can Street Vendors Promote Higher Education?

When Maria Bucio, who works for the State of Illinois, wants to spread the word about college in Mexican neighborhoods, she goes to the street vendors who sell corn from push carts. Why? Because these guys talk to a lot of people. No, they are not “opinion leaders” when it comes to higher education, and they probably can’t guide kids in selecting their major in college. But these guys can spread the word about a meeting where you’ll learn how to apply for financial aid.

Maria discovered the power of vendors a few years ago, when she was promoting such an information session. Usually these events were attended by five to ten people and Maria was determined to get a much better turnout this time. So she walked around the neighborhood with some flyers and tape. She talked to the corn vendors, to people at the bakery, the church, the library, the grocery store. And in each one of these places, after she explained what she was doing and why it was important, she asked their permission to post a flyer. On Sunday morning at 9 AM, there were a hundred people waiting in the snow for information on how to apply for financial aid.

The Energy Factor
One (pretty obvious) point that many people miss about grassroots marketing is that execution counts, a lot! Ideas are important, but how they are implemented in the field and how much energy is put behind them can make the difference between success and failure. There is a big difference between posting 10 flyers in a local high school and putting 200 flyers all around the community. Numbers make a difference. But it’s not only about numbers. Maria is passionate about what she promotes and it shows. She talks to everyone around her about college—kids on the street, in elevators, in line. “I talk a lot, I guess. So I start up conversations,” she says. Some of these incidental conversations have prompted kids to go to college.

Maria is part of a small energetic team lead by Jacqueline Moreno and Eddie Brambila of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) that has been using word-of-mouth marketing for several years now to encourage kids from low income families to go to college. Their objective is to reach the kids who need them most. Not just middle class kids who qualify for financial aid, but kids from the lowest income families—Kids from families where no one has ever gone to college. They figured that if they want to reach the kids who really need them, they need to take a proactive approach. If they limited their efforts to presentations in high schools, they were going to attract the kids who already are interested in college (typically from families with previous college-going experience). So they started going into the communities. One thing they did was to partner with a tax preparation service for the working poor, a group that provides free consultation during tax season across metropolitan Chicago. They taught about 1600 tax experts how to help families fill out federal financial aid forms. Partnering with the right network caused an increase of almost 20% in on-time filing of these forms in the lowest income zip codes.

Cloning Maria Bucio
Now ISAC is hoping to multiply Maria times 59. They recruited fifty nine highly motivated graduates from the class of 2009 who will live in every community college district around the state of Illinois to promote college among low income neighborhoods. Their goal is by 2018 to double the number of low income students who graduate from college (right now it’s around 14%)

Earlier this summer I gave a talk in Chicago to these fifty nine people as part of their seven week training (they all had to read my book). And talk about energy! You could power the traffic in Chicago for a week with the energy in that classroom. Now, each one of them is placed in a community somewhere in the state of Illinois, building buzz for college. Good luck!

This is the first in my “Good Buzz” series that is part of my fall book tour. In addition to giving a talk in each city, I'll use this blog to discuss how word-of-mouth marketing can be used to promote positive change around the world. If you have any good stories from the cities included in the tour*, I'd love to hear from you!

* Cities currently included: Los Angeles, London, Munich, Warsaw, Stockholm, Philadelphia.

October 2009 - The International Book Tour

October 2009 will be dedicated to promoting my new book around the world. During this month, I will visit companies and organizations outside of North America for a free one-hour presentation of my work on buzz. The deal is simple: No speaking fee. You purchase 100 or more books for attendees. A flat fee to cover hotel and travel expenses will be determined before you commit. (currently estimated at $1,200)

The topics covered in my new book are listed here. Buzz from past events can be found here. You can watch a video from my U.S. tour with NOLS here (No, the international segment will not involve a veggie bus...)

This offer does not apply to speaking engagements in North America and will end on October 31st 2009. For the full details, please email emanuel.rosen at gmail.com.

This international tour reminds me that I once gave a talk in a spaceship. Anyone identifies the picture above? I gave a talk there a couple of years ago.

Back to Chicago! July 2nd 2009

I gave five talks in Chicago in April but somehow none of them was open to the public. So I'm excited about my next Chicago speaking engagement: It's open, it's free, but it requires pre-registration. If you have any friends in Chicago who might be interested, please direct them to this link

The weather in Chicago back in April was miserable (I'll never forget Tootsie covered in snow in the morning), but the groups I met were simply terrific. From young MBA students at the Kellogg Marketing Club to the wonderful folks at ISAC (Illinois Student Assistance Commission), who use word-of-mouth marketing to get kids to go to college. I love it when buzz is used for social change. I'm going to see the ISAC folks again this time to hear about their progress.

Speaking of Tootsie (the NOLS bus that took me around the Midwest in April), here's a video of our wonderful two week tour. Thanks Brian!

This isn't my first talk at Mobium and BIGFrontier. In the picture above, you can see (a much younger) me at a talk I gave back in 2000 or 2001. So it will be really nice to be back. You can watch a video of that talk here. See you in Chicago!

How the bus builds buzz (Chicago - Day 2)

One of the main functions of the NOLS bus is to re-ignite conversations. It reminds NOLS alumni of experiences they may have forgotten. Even more important, the bus gives them an opportunity to talk about the school once again.

Whenever possible, I walk with students to the bus after my lectures. They love to talk to the bus crew. Some want to hear about the engine, the filtering system, and the millage per gallon. Others are attracted to the challenge of the bouldering wall (it's not as easy as it looks). There are those who get fascinated by the collage of alumni pictures on the bus walls. The bottom line: The bus gives you a lot to talk about, even if you've never heard about NOLS before.

Today was an intense day with four lectures in two schools: Loyola University and Illinois Institute of Technology. This was fun!! Tomorrow, another talk in Chicago, and then we hit the road to Notre Dame.

Chicago Day 1

I spoke today to two very different groups. In the morning I talked at UIC to mostly nonprofits and public sector organizations. I have to say it's inspiring to hear from people who use word-of-mouth marketing to promote good stuff. I spoke for example to several folks from ISAC (Illinois Student Assistance Commission), a state agency that gets kids to go to college. Grassroots marketing in action! I hope to write about them more one day. In the meantime, you can read about the event here.

In the evening I spoke at Northwestern university to the Kellogg Marketing Club. I love marketing, and it was clear that these business students love the topic too. It was a terrific crowd and we had lots of fun together.

A word about Chicago weather in April. Let's just say that our solar panels didn't collect too much energy today. I'm hoping for some sun tomorrow!

We met in Chicago

So finally, after three weeks of planning, we met tonight in Chicago. It was easy for me to get there--just a four hour flight from San Francisco. But for Brian, Christi and Matthew, this was a 1,200 mile drive from Lander WY. It was snowing, it was raining, but they kept going!

That's it! The bus tour is actually happening. When the NOLS folks first suggested it, I had some doubts, but with the help of some incredible people (you know who you are), it became a reality. We have more than a dozen events planned until 4/16 when we say goodbye in St. Louis.

We have a busy day tomorrow. The bus will be at UIC and I'm giving talks both at UIC and at Northwestern at the Kellogg Marketing Club.

We're all going to sleep now. Tootsie is outside, covered in snow, waiting for tomorrow morning.

Midwest bus tour - the latest

I can't wait! We start in Chicago on April 6. After a couple of days (and four lectures), we go to Notre Dame, Michigan State and Ann Arbor (no lecture there, just fun). On the weekend, we'll start our drive south and we plan on getting a good rest on Sunday. On Monday April 13 we have a super busy day in Indiana and Tuesday might be even busier in Louisville (I love this place!). Then, on Thursday morning we'll be in St. Louis and I'll have to say goodbye to Tootsie and the team. This is where the bus tour really ends, although I'll continue to Kansas and Colorado to give additional talks. Things still might change but this is the latest map.

The anatomy of a bus: my veggie-oil powered book tour

Those of you who have already read my new book, may remember Tootsie - a bus powered by recycled vegetable oil that is used by NOLS--The National Outdoor Leadership School--to spread the word about their organization and about alternative energy. Well, the good folks at NOLS have invited me to come along, and we'll be visiting some campuses and cities in the next few weeks.

If you'd like us to come to your campus or city, drop me a line at emanuel@emanuel-rosen.com or @EmanuelRosen on Twitter. I can't guarantee that we'll come, but we'll try. The mid April tour will start in Chicago and will focus on the midwest, so we definitely want to hear from you if you're in this area. But feel free to send me a note even if you're somewhere else--maybe I can come for a talk at a later point (with or without Tootsie). In addition to a presentation about my new book (The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited) you'll get to visit the bus that runs on recycled vegetable oil. (We will get the oil from restaurants on our way.) The bus also has a climbing wall, and the bus team can give you a taste of NOLS wilderness training programs. In doing the research for my book, I spent some time with the bus team and I can tell you that they are lots of fun, and know quite a lot about grassroots marketing.

You can learn more about the tour on my web site at http://www.emanuel-rosen.com/book-tour The Nols Bus is at http://www.nols.edu/bus/

More to come

What's New in The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited?

While I was desperately searching for case studies in writing the first edition (back in 1998), I had the opposite problem in writing this one--too much to chose from. So first, you'll find lots of new examples and research in this edition. Second, the new examples and academic studies helped me focus on concepts that I ignored (or almost ignored) in the first edition such as the need to measure buzz, storytelling, the power of participation, ethical issues, second-hand buzz, and visual buzz. You'll find less about why word of mouth is important and more about how word of mouth marketing is being used in the field.

This is not a summary of the book, but it will give you an idea of what to expect. Chapters marked with asterisks * are completely new, chapters 9-10 have been largely untouched, and the rest of the chapters fall somewhere in the middle.

Chapter 1: Trigger*

Delight your customers and they will talk about you. This is the foundation of word-of-mouth marketing, but even delighted customers tend to forget, and eventually they will run out of opportunities to talk about you. Companies should therefore be proactive about stimulating conversations. Here’s how a bus, a Bob Dylan song and a virtual ice cream cone triggered some buzz.

Chapter 2: “I Haven’t Read this Book, but…”*

There’s a difference between experience-based buzz and secondhand buzz. A study by Robert East from Kingston University in London found that 30% of negative word of mouth was by people who never owned the product. Counterbalancing this trickle of negative buzz is another reason why companies should stimulate honest, positive word of mouth. We should all encourage experience-based buzz. With too much secondhand buzz, we'll end up with what can be best described as a buzz bubble as illustrated by a review posted on Amazon: "I haven't read this book, but judging from the online reviews below, I don't think it's a very good book."

Chapter 3: The New Buzz*

There have been two major trends over the past decade in the way buzz spreads. First, text-based buzz has reached a massive scale. Second, "word of mouth" is no longer just about words. The power of old online buzz--mostly text based--is now multiplied by visual buzz. New technologies give people more opportunities to observe and imitate each other. What's the value of such implicit recommendation? I discuss one study that measured the value Adidas derived from implicit recommendations on MySpace. Two organizations--Toyota and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS)--share their experience with new buzz. I also discuss (with the help of Tim and Nina Zagat) what I called in the first edition "aggregated buzz tools". Today we have dozens, if not hundreds, of similar aggregation mechanisms. They are far from being ubiquitous even among young people (as shown by Eszter Hargittai) but I still believe that they are likely to grow and improve the quality of the products and services we use.

Chapter 4: Why Is Buzz on the Rise?*

The obvious answer is that the Internet has caused the volume of buzz to explode. But things are a bit more complicated than that. Research shows that most word of mouth is still communicated face-to-face. So how exactly has the Internet contributed to the rise of buzz? It has made buzz visible to marketers. More importantly, online buzz can serve as an accelerator of offline buzz. It is the combination of online and offline discussions that makes buzz so powerful.

Chapter 5: Can Buzz be Measured?*

When I was writing the first edition of this book, people doubted that it was possible to measure something that is as intangible as buzz or word of mouth. Today, several companies are involved in measuring both online and offline buzz. I visited a couple of these companies--The Keller Fay Group and Nielsen Online. I also discuss efforts to measure a buzz campaign by researchers such as David Godes, Dina Mayzlin and Walter Carl.

Chapter 6: Insight and Buzz*

Understanding what customers want to talk about is a key factor in stimulating word of mouth. Your best bet to finding a way to stimulate buzz is by first listening to what people are already saying about your product. Then, look for ways to amplify these discussions. I describe a campaign by Tremor (a business unit of Procter & Gamble) that created buzz for Clairol Herbal Essences. I also discuss how listening to internal buzz regarding your customers can help you avoid a culture where the customer is viewed as the enemy.

Chapter 7: Why We Talk

Birds do it, bees do it…we all share information, but why? And what can we learn from simpler forms of life, like ravens, about why we buzz. What intensified the buzz among Bedouins in Sinai? Readers of the previous edition may want to skip some of this, but take a look at the section that talks about self enhancement which is based on a study by Andrea Wojnicki and David Godes. If you view yourself as an expert on, say, restaurants, will you share more information about a positive or about a negative experience you had?

Chapter 8: Hubs

Some people talk more than others. I call these people “hubs”. I make a distinction between social hubs—people who talk more because they know more people—and expert hubs—people who talk more because they know more about something. How do you identify these folks? And once you do, what do you do with them? The academic debate about the topic has been going on for decades and was recently reignited by Duncan Watts at Columbia. Watts's work should remind us not to overstate the importance of hubs, but I want to make sure that marketers don't dismiss a valuable method because of a few catchy headlines in trade publications.

New examples for the use of hubs can be found throughout the book: Microsoft's MVP program, American Express's Partnership in Preservation, Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life and Prostate Net campaign with barbers. The MVP discussion focuses on the tricky relationships with hubs. If you expect them to always support you, or pressure them to do so, you may turn off potential advocates--or you may end up with avid fans that nobody listens to.

Chapter 9: It’s a Small World. So What?

There are ten principles at work in social networks that affect buzz and this chapter examines them, one by one. What are the implications of these principles? Have the fundamentals of social networks changed in the era of MySpace and Facebook? Except for this issue, this chapter is almost identical to the one in the first edition.

Chapter 10: How Buzz Spreads

This chapter too has been largely untouched. It describes how word spread about the novel Cold Mountain, and how word-of-mouth helped the product become a surprise blockbuster bestseller. New stuff: What are the forces that block buzz from spreading? What caused certain Stanford students to stop wearing the LiveStrong yellow wristbands?

Chapter 11: Contagious Products

The first Kodak camera, Hanky Panky thongs or Magnetic Poetry are three examples for products that spread because they were “contagious” in some way. The best buzz comes not from clever PR or advertising but rather from attributes inherent in the product or service itself. What does this have to do with marketing? A lot. People who focus on the promotional aspect of marketing get nervous at this point, but good marketing starts with the first "P"--Product. I also discuss here the role of visual buzz and network effects.

Chapter 12: Accelerating Natural Contagion

Eventually, people will spread the word about a great product. But how do you ensure they talk about it now? In this chapter I discuss how one woman, the late Linda Pezzano, helped accelerate the adoption of two products: Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary. I was fortunate to interview Linda back in 1998, a year before she died. For this edition, I talked to Chris Byrne who worked with Pezzano on building buzz for Pictionary.

Chapter 13: The Envelope and the Line*

I was more than a bit naive when I wrote the first edition. While I discussed issues like trust and honesty, when the thought of including a short section on ethical issued crossed my mind, I dismissed it. I simply didn't think it was a significant enough issue. I was wrong. So this chapter discusses some ethical questions associated with word of mouth marketing. When you're trying to build buzz, it's important to push the envelope and think outside of the box. And when you look for original ideas and new ways to reach people, you can't police your thoughts--you need to brainstorm and let your mind explore all possibilities. But after the brainstorming, you have to change your attitude dramatically. This is best done the morning after, over some strong coffee, in the bright light of day. Think again about your wild new idea. Ask other people what they think. Ask your customers. Ask people in the community: Are we crossing the line?

Chapter 14: Active Seeding

The 2001 movie On the Line got lots of initial buzz. So how come the movie bombed? Researchers point out the difference between volume and dispersion. While the volume of buzz matters, it is also important for it to be widespread. I describe here a couple of interesting studies: one study is by Godes and Mayzlin. The other study is by Duncan Watts and colleagues.

Chapter 15: Story*

People love to tell each other stories. What’s the story of your business and how do you find one? Is it something you simply create out of thin air? A good business story—a story that people will repeat and that will help your sales—should be anchored in fact. The story of Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms Shoes is a good example. If for some reason the company suddenly stops putting shoes on kids' feet, the story will collapse, but for now, it's doing it. In 2007, Mycoskie and sixty volunteers delivered 50,000 shoes to children in South Africa. (I participated in one of their shoe drops in 2008 and I still talk about it.)

Chapter 16: Give Us Something to Talk About*

People are hungry for something to talk about. And some people know how to supply the goods. One such person is Mechai Viravaidya, who’s known as Thailand’s condom king. His buzzworthy activities include condom blowing contests on street corners, a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, and a program called Cops and Rubbers, in which policemen in Thailand handed out condoms on the street. When I referred to his practices as shocking, he insisted that his objective is never to shock people but to surprise them. Shocking may lead to resistance. Has he made a difference? The organization he founded was awarded the 2007 Gates Award for Global Health by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation. You can read more about it here. I also discuss the concept of a conversation hook and argue that the best hooks are those that start a conversation that relates to the product or its benefits. Some of the examples used here: Brita, Intuit, Dyson.

Chapter 17: The Power of Participation*

Since we always like to share what we create, inviting people to create something of their own is another way to stimulate talk. It can be as simple as involving a customer in creating a viral video or a much more involving process, where a customer participates in designing the product itself. Participation can have many flavors. Sometimes it makes sense to put absolutely no limits on creativity. Other times you'll get more talk if you do set some boundaries. In the first case, when you give people full freedom, very few will participate, but their involvement (and therefore the buzz they create) will be high. When you set boundaries, you make it easier to participate and are likely to draw more people who won't necessarily be as deeply involved.

Chapter 18: Uneven Distribution

By giving exclusive information to a select group of people before an official launch, you are likely to get some extra mileage out of the news. When you hold information close to your chest, people want it. But as new research shows, you can only take this idea so far. Uneven distribution can also be created through secrets as in the In-N-Out Burger secret menu (which is not a big secret anymore). The same concept has a long history in the software and entertainment industries, where it is known as an Easter egg (or when it comes to music, a hidden track). The important point to remember is that people talk about stuff that they suspect others don't know. Marketers tend to shout at the top of their lungs. But sometimes a well-planned whisper will reach more ears.

Chapter 19: More of a Café than a Subway Station*

In 2007, Red Bull introduced a game called Roshambull on Facebook (it's rock, paper, scissors with a Red Bull flavor). A few years earlier, Fiskars created a community called Fiskateers where scrapbooking fans share layouts and project ideas. The publishers of Lonely Planet created a forum called Thorn Tree where people share advice about travel. Buzz in these cases is generated not only from product experience but from human interaction. We constantly report to others about our social interactions. Any time you can plug into this habit of ours, you’ll stimulate talk.

Chapter 20: The Wall Street Journal and the Lingerie Business*

Counter to the view that buzz is the exclusive result of grassroots and guerrilla marketing, significant buzz can be created by mass media. And as one story in this chapter illustrates, sometimes buzz is your best press release--it can give journalists this warm and fuzzy feeling that your story is for real. That there is true excitement for your product. In further discussion of the relationships between mass media and word of mouth, I describe a South African based organization called Soul City, which uses mass media to stimulate discussion and to promote social change. Their research clearly indicates that people who watch their TV show, talk more about the issues featured on the show. I follow Soul City's campaign against domestic violence.

Chapter 21: Does Madison Avenue Still Matter?

A headline in a 2007 Advertising Age article presented an intriguing question: "Want Online Buzz for Your New Product?" The subtitle provided the answer: "Better Have an Ad Campaign, Nielsen Finds." So does it mean you can buy buzz with advertising? a deeper look into the Nielsen study shows that things are not that simple. "The formula for generating meaningful buzz is not as simple as spending money," the Nielsen researchers wrote. Still, advertising clearly can increase the pool of people who are aware of your product and therefore can buzz about it. With all the talk about buzz, you could easily begin to believe that advertising no longer matters. The truth is that very few products can live on buzz alone. There are also ways that advertising can stimulate and simulate word of mouth.

Chapter 22: Buzz in Distribution Channels

We usually don’t trust people who sell us stuff, right? Actually, there’s a certain breed of retailers that enjoy a lot of credibility with the public. Think about the owner of a local boutique who has a following among fashion aficionados. Think about certain independent booksellers. Why are they trusted? Perhaps we can say that they are simply good editors--editors of merchandise, who sift through all the products available out there and prove to us, time after time, that they find the ones we want. I also discuss how retailers increasingly weave buzz into the customer experience.

Chapter 23: Putting It Together

This is a collection of case studies on word-of-mouth marketing. The first edition had 3 cases. This one has 7 new ones. A hotel with a pillow menu: The Benjamin Hotel. The evolution of seeding: Matchstick Canada seeding of CK in2u. Are barbers influential?: Prostate Net. Tasting yogurt with your friends: The Word Of Mouth Company. Will people talk about chewing gum?: Wrigley's Extra Professional (Germany). Putting word-of-mouth-marketing on the agenda: Intuit. The secret of finding a plumber: Angie's List.

Chapter 24: Buzz Workshop

As in the first edition, this chapter leads you through a series of questions to keep in mind as you think about whatever product or service you're trying to market. I updated this chapter to reflect the new concepts covered in the new edition. It's not a summary of the book, but it should get the ideas flowing.