Accelerating Natural Contagion

Brandweek, Oct 30, 2000

"The key to Joyce's success was her relentless determination and energy. She often spoke to several clubs in one day, in addition to hosting sessions at various Castle restaurants," according to David Hogan, who studied the history of White Castle.

By changing a few women's attitudes about hamburgers during each meeting, Joyce/Agniel planted the seeds of change in the group. In following meetings the converted women would tell friends about their families' reactions to hamburgers. And they would spread the word about hamburgers in other social networks, legitimizing the food in wider circles. By about 1940 White Castle had reached its goal. "The fast-food hamburger had shed most of its negative connotations and was finally accepted by consumers from all classes," Hogan writes.

The How of Leapfrogging

Companies that accelerate the process of natural contagion to speed up buzz go beyond formulas and beyond taking the obvious steps. They often bypass the obvious choice of formal networks. A traditional-thinking company might hear about "getting close to your customer" and think of their distribution channels--a familiar network. Certainly the channel is important, and as we saw in the case of Cold Mountain, it can help build buzz. But successful companies don't rely on it alone, because many potential customers are not directly connected to the channel. Customers may occasionally visit a retail outlet, but they may or may not get information about products from the retailer. Successful companies leapfrog into informal networks as well.

Suppose you were introducing a new game for adults called Pictionary. You would want to have the product on the shelves of stores so that people could find it. But to create buzz about a product such as Pictionary, you need to go beyond that. You need to reach people where they hang out. The makers of Pictionary, with the help of Linda Pezzano (who was also behind the launch of Trivial Pursuit), did just that. "We hired actors to dress up as artists and set them up with easels and flip charts in gathering places, and had them start engaging people in playing and giving out the sample packs at the same time," Pezzano recalled. Demos were held at parks, shopping centers and other gathering places. As a result, in its biggest year, about 15 million Pictionary games were sold.

Companies that speed up buzz go beyond the most expected communication channels as well. Cisco Systems, for example, serves network administrators who virtually live online, so you'd expect Cisco to use online methods to spread the word about its products. They do. But Cisco doesn't limit itself to the online world. The company organizes more than one thousand seminars every year to meet potential customers face to face, they organize networking events for their current customers and they attend dozens of trade shows. Relationships with many customers start via face-to-face communication. The Net is used to maintain the relationships. Bill Raduchel, chief strategy officer of another high-tech firm, Sun Microsystems, put it this way: "The most complementary technology to the Web is a 747." In other words, don't lock yourself to the latest electronic means of communications. Sometimes you need to get on a plane and meet people face to face.