With the advancement of 21st century, promotional tactics for a product has become more and more diversified. However, creating a “buzz” or noise has proven to be a successful promotional technique if done correctly.
From the common vernacular, buzz means a noise, or sound. Buzz marketing is done when people are talking about a particular product and/or service, thus spreading the word among others. It can be either done by people involuntarily (i.e. talking about a new movie/new phone) or by the brand that is promoting the product. Once, buzz marketing was mostly dependent on oral communication. Nowadays it can be done on most social media platforms available.
Who can create a buzz?
Almost any consumer of a product can initiate buzz marketing for the product. It can be also initiated by individuals, who talk about in groups or in friend circles about an upcoming product. For example, many people begin to speculate and discuss about new versions of iPhones long before they come out, thus, creating a buzz, which helps greatly to increase sales for iPhone.
The best way a buzz for a product can be created is by influencers. Influencers are individuals who have certain reputations, for example, a blogger, or a celebrity. Influencers can also be young people who has considerable domination over his/her friend circle. An influencer can introduce a new product to his/her follower base. As a result, the follower base (individuals) start talking about the product, thus spreading the word among other people or throughout a community.
However, with the rise of social media platforms, most companies are conducting their buzz marketing campaigns on popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Techniques
The main idea of buzz marketing is to keep people talking about the intended product. For this, marketers take help of something either unique or controversial. An ad can be so unique that it can get people talking. Likewise, an ad can create controversy, thus get people arguing over it. No matter how the outcome is, this tricks keep people talking about the product for quite a while, and word of mouth spreads.
Positive outcome vs Negative outcome
A promotional tactic can sometimes yield positive outcome and sometimes yield not so positive outcome. The main target of buzz marketing is to create positive influences for the product in the customer’s mind so the buzz keeps gaining more and more popularity. Studies show that, buzz marketing is very closely related with a products awareness and image among prospective customers.
Unfortunately, not all buzz campaign outcomes turn out to be positive. Sometimes, an ad campaign is interpreted incorrectly, or perceived wrongly by its target audience. Although, whether a positive outcome or negative outcome creates more “buzz” is a moot point. Many would argue that if a marketing is “negative”, then people would tend to talk about it more.