Word of Mouth – Will it work ?

Besides social media and television studios, the AAP is hoping word of mouth will do the magic. Will it work? [source]

This was a question posed on the website of a very popular news channel a week before the Delhi Assembly elections. ‘Will it work?’ I believe the question has been answered rhetorically and an astounding and deafening Yes has been said by the delhites.

Sitting on a peaceful Monday morning sipping tea, I was really wondering on the strategies of Mr. Kejriwal, I myself had friends calling me and securing my vote for the debutant and I heard a lot of small group meetings being formed and people being made aware of a new non-corrupt emerging party. They were such discreet that probably it sent it’s most of adversaries and competitors off-guard. The next thing I know was congratulatory notes flooding my FB wall for debut party.

Anyways, my intention was not to discuss Delhi politics, but it was to capture an amazing observation of a growing trend called ‘Word Of Mouth’.

If I may happen to recall you, not so long ago in the yester-years a young passionate person by name of certain Mr. Mohandas karamchand Ghandhi (our very own Bapu), happened to collect a huge crowd of followers for the famous Dandi march, with no social media, internet or even telephone to assist, how did he manage to spread the word, that too with media being against him totally. It was simple, yes, word of mouth…a philosophy as old as the mankind itself, i.e people will always be talking to people on any subject, thing, cause or product of interest. The most nascent form of advertising and probably the most powerful as well.

The most important feature of this strategy is the personal touch and sense of ownership that is incurred into the people participating in word-of-mouth as happened in this case of AAP where most of the supporters felt they were promoting was something they owned and part of a larger picture.

word of mouth is not something that the Indian politics is getting aware of, it is something that the corporate world is also realizing and many companies has resorted to these techniques for movement of their products and services.

Companies hiring through this mode of referencing and asking it’s employees to spread the word in return get some benefit and thus substantially cutting down on their advertisement budgets and get some trustworthy people on board. Freelancers and SMEs getting their clients and customers through this channel of advertising and marketing.

Similarly has a new industry flourished where corporate world is waking up to this medium, getting it’s customer base talk about their products and services and creating a win-win situation for itself and their existing customers as well by sharing a percentage of profit which happened because of the marketing and further revenue generation, something getting popular being known as Referral Marketing or Word-of-Mouth Marketing, creating an amazing source of income for people and equally amazing less costly way of advertising for the company. Some say this is the start of a new beginning, only time will tell.

No wonder, Mr Kejriwal succeeded as this is the most time-tested and powerful medium of building anything substantial, word-of-mouth.

Essentially word-of-mouth is the talk of the day so as they say Wake up and smell the coffee.

Happy Talking !!