The Concept of Buzz




Everybody knows certain urban legends. They have never been marketed….nobody ever spent the first dime to let the world know that there are alligators living in the New York City sewer system….big ones….albino ones. So how is it that we all know stories like that? Better question….what if it were my product or service that enjoyed such common knowledge?

The grapevine, rumors, the whispers in your ear are what buzz is all about. Those little bits of information that people share over a cup of coffee….the outrageous occurrence that someone just saw and can’t wait to describe or the incredibly cool product that a friend of a friend just bought are the heart and soul of buzz…and buzz marketing or viral marketing, depending on what you want to call it.

Gigantic billboards rate barely a glance but we all still read the scribbling on a bathroom wall…ah ha! Buzz! In today’s cyber –joined reality, every “have you heard” can get clicked on a zillion times by others faster than you can download the latest compromising picture of Madonna.

We all know what a computer virus is. It spreads from one computer to another in the blink of an eye. The next thing you know it is everywhere. Now “Buzz” is the virus of marketing… it spreads to other customers and causes an epidemic of sales of your product or service.

It could be that “e-mail this to a friend” button that is just calling to you to click it, or a pair of real (and very satisfied) lips whispering persuasive endorsements into receptive ears, buzz marketing can transmit your business message at warp speed and do it at no cost to you. How cool is that?

By starting a buzz you can turn your new business into the next urban legend….that latest piece of juicy gossip that people can’t live without.


Message boards, blogs, email listservs and product review sites are the conversations that consumers have with one another and represent the largest collection of word-or-mouth or buzz advertising that has ever existed. It is the old party line phone system taken to the umpteenth power. People talk to each other. They willingly share their opinions on most any subject you can name but especially about products and services that they avail themselves of on the internet and in their brick and mortar worlds.

Consumers listen carefully to what others say about a product they are researching and intend to actually purchase. Users read the recommendations that other users post.

They really like it when other users post pictures or videos….these seem to have the most direct influence. Producers of products and services are slowly beginning to realize that what Consumer reports say about their products and services is not nearly as important as what consumers say to one another about them. Hence we have the ballooning of viral marketing…..word-of-mouth…or buzz.

Buzz has always been an important element of marketing/selling/branding. So how does what is happening now differ from what went on before and why should marketers embrace it?

The answer is that the impact of work-of-mouth or buzz advertising has increased dramatically. Ten years ago, a diabetic patient would have struggled to find other diabetic patients to communicate with. The internet solves that problem by allowing people with similar interests to find and interact with one another.

It is not a coincidence that all of the reports coming out that are showing that word-of-mouth or buzz is becoming more and more important to consumers. It is because the internet has made the whole idea work better and faster than ever before….and it only gets better as the internet expands.

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