Having the users of your product (whatever that may be) spread positive PR about your brand name or even a specific product is extremely powerful, and cannot be overstated. It seems lately firms are focused on generating a huge wave of advertising and marketing behind their new products (or even their old), but personally I believe most of the advertising/consumer messages we are blasted with constantly are filtered out by a majority of people these days. In a sea of leaves – unless your leaf is an extremely contrasting color, your leaf will go un-noticed.
I’m not going to downplay the importance of marketing, creating a buzz, putting your product out on the typical ad routes (although I wouldn’t waste my time with a 30-second ad-spot anymore), etc., but I’d like to stress the importance of creating brand evangelism and brand loyalty with your customers. What I mean by brand evangelism is that people are so taken by your brand or product and have such positive feelings about it that they feel a need to spread good words about it with their friends, family, co-workers etc., and also even feel almost as if they are a part of your organization. It’s like having your own personal marketing team, except they are delivering positive words in the most power manner possible – word of mouth, from a trusted source. With the Internet – it’s even easier now than ever to make your product or brand something it’s users will help spread
I’m guilty of brand evangelism for Google. I’m enjoying my free gmail service so much; I felt a need to express it with my friends so they could enjoy the same experience. People love shared experiences, and if your brand or product can make someone have an experience so incredibly positive, they will share it with others.
Solid PR tactics, positive marketing, and maintaining a good perspective in the eye of the consumer are all important factors in creating brand evangelism for your product, but the number one factor is actually creating product(s) that are above and beyond what everyone else is doing, or are goods that differentiate from the pack in a way that is useful/enjoyable to your consumers. Even offering intangible benefits, such as a new kind of customer service can help.
A focus on getting return customers and making those customers so happy they are not only going to come back, but they will bring new ones with them – and everyone is a winner with this, especially if your product is that good. Perhaps even adding benefits to current patrons for bringing in new ones can help boost your brand loyalty – especially with service-industry products.
I’m not going to go into specific marketing and PR ideas on how to draw consumers into the mix and make them feel like they’re ‘a part of your team’ (so to speak) – I’ll leave that up to you to think of. I will simply stress the fact that creating brand evangelism for whatever your brand or product is, is a strong way to ensure an extremely successful future. This is something everyone from artists to auto manufacturers can put into action. Here’s another article to help get you started.