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Chapter 6: Talking with the Groundswell

1.) How has the traditional “funnel” model changed?
In traditional marketing theory, customers are lead to the main goal through awareness activities, such as advertising. The consumers pass such stages as: including consideration, preference, and action in order to become buyers. In traditional marketing theory, marketers nearly can’t control what happens in these middle stages, but the influence of the groundswell heaviest here.
Now the marketing funnel is a venerable metaphor that describes how consumers march down the path from awareness to purchase and loyalty. Shouting –advertising – herds them in the big end. Activities in the middle try to pull them down to that purchase, and it everything goes well, they come out the other end as customers.

2.) Explain why a company might choose to use “viral videos” instead of a blog to market their products or services?
There are a lot of ways to talk with the groundswell. The main effective are: post a viral video, join the blogosphere, engage in social networks and user-generated content sites, and create a community.
Put a video online and let people share it is the most effective way to talk with groundswell. Solving awareness problems with viral videos doesn’t just work for consumer products, but it works in business-to-business setting also. Viral videos can be shared and spread in social networks that are very popular now. One of the best ways to spread the video is to put it to YouTube. In order to be most effective, the video must allow people to interact. It has to direct people to some social networks, blogs, or communities where they can start their relationships with the company or each other. The viral videos are more effective than blogs, because they are more common and easily spread.

3.) Apparently 85% of college students have a Facebook page (wow!). What does the author say is “groundswell thinking” that sets E&Y apart from others in this space? Give a couple examples of universities also engaged in this type of “groundswell thinking”.
Dan Black, director of campus recruiting for the Americas told that “Facebook stood out to us – at the time, they told us that 85% of all college students have a profile” ( Li 105). A lot of companies understand that social networks became very popular and it is a good field to find new clients.
The company Ernst and Young in 2007 cared a group on Facebook and had 8,469 members. Through advertising on campus and on Facebook, Ernst&Young makes its target audience – college students – aware of the company. Such network as MySpace is also very popular. A lot of famous brands, for example Victoria`s Secret, Adidas, Jeep, Target, Apple are also engaged in the same type of “groundswell thinking”.

Chapter 7: Energizing the Groundswell

1.) Compare and contrast eBags and Constant Contact’s groundswell strategies. Explain why the two different strategies would have worked/failed if they were implemented by the other company.
The company eBag prefers to use the strategy that is called “word of mouth”. It is a powerful amplifier of brand marketing, achieving results no media campaign can achieve. Word of mouth succeeds because it is believable, self-reinforcing and self-spreading. According to World of Mouth Marketing Association, word of mouth is the most honest form of marketing, based on human natural desire to share their experiences and thoughts with family, friends and colleagues (Li 131).
Constant Contact is an email marketing company that is focused on helping small businesses stay in touch with their own customers. If those customers have given their email address, the small-business owner can send newsletters and notes about what’s on sale this month. Constant Contact also uses word of mouth. But the company in addition encourages this with a referral program – get a friend to sign up, and you get a 30$ credit and he gets the same credit.

2.) Explain how you would energize the education community. What is the “problem” you would help solve? Who would be best fit to oversee the “energize” campaign? Refer to the five steps for applying energizing techniques.
Energizing the community is very important. The main thing is to find the person who will spread the information the same as Lego’s ambassador: he gets information from the company on products coming out and then spreads that information to his own personal network, both in person and online.
The steps for applying the techniques of energizing to organization include:
-Figure out if you want to energize the groundswell;
-Check the social technographics profile of your clients;
-Ask yourself, “what is my client’s problem?”;
-Choose the strategy that is suitable for your client’s social technographics profile and problems;
-Don’t start the process unless you are able to stick around for a long haul.

3.) What are some examples of the negative side of trying to energize the groundswell and how did the companies respond?
Most of the cases of energizing companies are successful. In order to make energizing in the right way, the company should follow the rules mentioned above. Every company should remember that in energizing groundswell, they will find out that not all the customers are equal. The author mentions that whether you are anointing brand ambassadors like Lego, inviting customers into a community like Constant Contact, or empowering people with reviews like eBags, you are going to unleash some powerful voices. So, following all rules will keep the company away from negative side of energizing the groundswell (Warschauer 19).

4.) Why does the author say that a community is like a marriage? How are they different?
The author of the book says that a community is like a marriage, because it requires constant adjustment to grow and become more rewarding. And if you are not in it for a long haul, may be you should think about the ugly endings you have seen to marriages that lacked that long-term effort.

Work cited

Christensen, C., Horn, M., Johnson, C. (2008). Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard.
Warschauer, M. (2004). Technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.