Important concerns to advertisers
Buzz marketing is a new form of advertising that uses non-traditional campaigns and personal communication in an attempt to reach consumers. It is manifested in different ways such as utilizing people to promote the positive attributes of services or products in public places to more structured campaigns such as product giveaways and branded parties (TechTarget, 2009). Unlike in traditional marketing, the advertiser provides information about the product or service to a limited number of people in the target audience, who voluntarily seek out person to person conversations with those with the capability to influence their peers, buzz marketers come up with a sophisticated word-of-mouth campaign that influences consumers to associate with a particular group of those who know and voluntarily pass the information to their colleagues and friends (TechTarget, 2009).
It should be a concern to buzz marketers to ensure that consumers influence how pitches are crafted in buzz marketing since it is the consumers who get involved in a product or service advertisement. Getting consumer involvement will ensure that more people get access to information regarding a product or service and evaluate it before they pass on the information. It essential to maintain a positive professional relationship with the media since they act as a gateway to the target audience. They are also responsible for selecting stories that they think are of interest to their audience, which makes it indispensable for buzz advertisers to provide information that appeal to consumers (Hazleton, 2006).
Taking into account the needs of the consumers ensures that the message disseminates quickly with a focus on the target audience. By allowing consumers to make decisions on how companies pitch their products and services, they ensure that advertisements are customized to address the needs of the target audience. The success of Buzz advertisement depends on the number audience received by an advertisement posted on sites, which makes it more essential to involve the consumer in crafting pitches for products or services.
Involving consumers
Getting consumer involvement in advertising may improve the communication process at different stages. All the communication that take place between individuals help in getting involvement of consumers in the creating advertisements and encourages them to talk about the products with their friends (Colchester, 2007). This creates interest and trust because people tend to trust individuals as they tend to bear direct responsibility for what they say. In contrast, organizations or companies are perceived to lack credibility because it is evident that their sole interest is delivering biased information through non-personal types of communication.
Involving bloggers in developing their own campaigns enables them to get views and opinions from the consumers that are used in enhancing the communication process. In order to come up with effective communication, advertisers must interact with consumers in order to detect the prevailing trends before competitors notice it. The strength of buzz advertising is that it helps in understanding the impact of a product before committing to the market on full scale or even pitching a new product or venture in the market (Hughes, 2008). Involving the consumers at this stage can enable a company to improve the communication process through getting opinions and suggestions on a product or service. Such level of involvement assists in promoting the product at a relatively lower cost and reaching a wide target market. Involving the consumers also enables the advertisers better understand the path for deploying a campaign and refining the means used in pitching the product or service.
References:
Colchester, M. (2007, November 23). Nescafe brews buzz via blogs. The Wall Street Journal. Pp. 1A
Hazleton, V. (2006). Public relations theory II. Botan, C.H. & Hazleton, V. (Ed.). London: Routledge.
Hughes, M. (2008). Buzzmarketing: get people to talk about your stuff. United States: Penguin Group USA.
TechTarget. (2007). Definition: buzzmarketing. Viral Marketing.
