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 !!
