Buzz Marketing

David Gammell is at ASAE's Marketing and Membership Conference this week and reports in the Acronyn Blog that the buzz is all about buzz.  I'm glad to hear that word-of-mouth marketing is starting to generate some buzz of its own within the association community.  My blog readers know that I'm a big fan of Seth Godin, often regarded as the father of buzz marketing with his highly regarded marketing books, including All Marketers Are Liars, Purple Cow, and Free Prize Inside. 

The latter works introduces a process know that he calls Edgecraft that provides a very interesting approach to generating marketing ideas that will increase the potential of buzz.  I used it with two of my departments while directing Web and Call Center operations at the American Diabetes Association with some measured success.  We came up with several innovative ideas that were successfully implemented and raised the bar in terms of service excellence.  However, I can not claim that they created the kind of buzz within our constituent base that I would have hoped.

Nonprofit charities are in desperate need of identifying that next great fundraising idea to move beyond the walks and standard direct mail appeals.  The best example of an innovative idea that generated enormous buzz is the Lance Armstrong "Live Strong" bracelet.  Everyone has seen them, many had to have one, and lots of people still wear them every day.  Talk about the power of buzz marketing!  Who will come up with the next great fundraising or membership development idea.  It could be you.

Tagged: Word-of-Mouth Marketing Seth Godin David Gammell Edgecraft Live Strong