Do you remember the days when the best product often wasn’t the one that emerged victorious? How could it when the competitor’s product was EVERYWHERE? It was on the billboards, on the pages of the magazines, at the sports arenas, and on the blimps up above. Inferior product or not, their sales/marketing machine simply steamrolled everything in its path. And the rosy image that their marketing conveyed drowned out any underlying grumbling from real users that had tried the product and knew the truth. Ahhh, the good old days. Word-of-mouth, whether it be positive or negative, simply didn’t stand a chance.
Well, traditional marketers may not realize it (although they are sure starting to), but the game is changing. With the Internet, and with the increasing array of communications tools that are becoming available, the world is getting flatter (hat tip to author Thomas L. Friedman). People can communicate with each other more easily, and not just one-to-one, but one-to-many. And one-to-many again. And one-to-many again. When people are talking about a brand (or anything, for that matter), trying to drown them out with overarching marketing muscle is becoming increasingly more difficult. In short, word-of-mouth, which never used to stand a chance, is getting massively empowered.
This phenomenon has far-reaching implications. Brands are being forced to jump into the discussions with their users, rather than pretend that those discussions don’t exist. This is changing the face of customer support, making brands more accessible, more proactive about solving problems, and ultimately more concerned about preventing the problems from occurring in the first place. In other words, brands will not only support their users better, but they will build better products to keep those users happier. At least, the brands that win will do so.
Said another way, the key to winning is changing. It is no longer about throwing huge marketing dollars at mediocre products. It is rather about building great products, and then unlocking the users’ ability to interact with each other and others to share those products. If users like the products and identify with the brand, their message and those products will spread themselves.
Prevailing wisdom seems to be that, even as this shift is occurring, its ability to move the needle can only take a company so far. Building great products and leveraging social media may be a jumpstart in the early days of a product’s lifecycle, but you then need to flip a switch and crank up the traditional marketing to kick things into high gear. Well, I may be naïve and I may be a dreamer, but I’m not so sure. I would argue that this changing paradigm is further along and far more powerful than people realize. And the increasing ability of product and user driven companies to accomplish so much with so little is vastly underestimated.
I must admit, I’m glad that most people still don’t see it. By the time they do, those little product/user driven companies aren’t going to be so little any more.
Jason
Excellent article Jason. Well worth the wait!! If there’s a shining example of a company harnessing the power of passionate users of a great product, it’s FitnessKeeper/Runkeeper. The competition have a lot of catching up to do.
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I just finished up my MBA a couple of months ago, and if there’s one thing that degree program and my 15+ years in software development has taught me…great marketing can generate buzz about any product, average or otherwise. Great marketing doesn’t make great products. Great products make great marketing easier, though. The great thing about RunKeeper is it definitely has found its niche…tech-savvy athletes and runners who enjoy being on the cutting-edge of new products. RK attracts early adopters…which in turn makes it the ideal market for any other strategic endeavors (or partnerships, for that matter) you’re considering.
Speaking of which, I’ve been dropped from your Twitter followees. Sniff, sniff. How am I supposed to interpret that? And since I can no longer send you a private DM, I’ll be fully transparent right here: I believe in your product. 1) Are you seeking investment? 2) How about some logo-ized shirts that are NOT form fitting. I’m not as fit as I once was… (I ran three marathons, but that was a life time ago. Actually, about a decade ago.)
Hi Jason,
Great post! RunKeeper is indeed an excellent example of a great product, making marketing easier, as Stacy pointed out before. I would suggest that there are three steps needed to be successful in any business:
1) finding out what your customer want
2) building a great product
3) making sure the world knows about it.
(not necessarily in that order, and preferably in a continuously repeating cycle)
Word-of-mouth is a powerful way to make the third step, but also for step 1.
Marketing (of both the traditional and new kind) is still key, as long as it considers all three steps.
Runkeeper + this forum is an excellent example of this. Keep up the good work!