Grass Roots: The Exponential Power of One - use of viral marketing - Brief Article

Brandweek, Feb 26, 2001 by Marianna Deal, Pete Abel

No question: there's a growing buzz about grass roots marketing (a.k.a., viral marketing), and this buzz (ironically) is what "grass roots" is all about: igniting the enthusiasm of a few people, who share their enthusiasm with others, who catch the fire and pass it along.

The marketing professional seeking to harness the power of grass roots should study the work of political strategists. Both disciplines--grass roots marketing and politics--are based on the Diffusion Theory: the hypothesis that every successful idea is first embraced by a small group of "influencers" before it spreads to the masses.

Who exactly are these influencers? We call them adoptive connected chatleaders (ACCs).

* Adoptive -- They must have an innate reason to use a product or service. (For instance, expectant moms are logical targets for diaper innovations.) Beyond a lifestyle connection, however, they must also be "adoptive-prone" by nature, and constantly seek out and try that "new, new thing."

* Connected -- They must be linked, along multiple lines, to the community surrounding them. Pick up on the mom example: She might be a business associate of other moms; she might be a leader in her neighborhood association; she might be a Lamaze teacher. Better yet, she is all of those things.

* Chatleader -- They must be wired to "talk." Connections are of little value if the connected is hesitant to voice her opinion, or if she's ignored when she does voice it. To qualify as a full-fledged ACC, she must be naturally vocal and credible. Giving the "gift of information" builds her self- and social-esteem.

When looking for ACCs, it's important to recognize that they operate at national, regional and local levels. The latter represent the "real grass roots." They're the most difficult to find and engage. But they're also as important, if not more so, than the others. (We remain animals who trust the person next door more than the activist in Washington or the academic in New York.)

To reach the grass roots ACC population, there must be a local starting point. Again drawing from the hybrid political-marketing model, this starting point is the "Community Organizer," a truly unique individual with a special set of skills. She not only lives and works in the targeted community, she knows it intimately: its leaders, culture and pressure points. She carries a deep list of contacts built up over the course of time, through volunteer work, political involvement, community events and civic duties. She is a relationship-builder. She talks to and connects with everyone. She rarely forgets a name or face or "hot button."

Like the politicos, marketers should build a network of Community Organizers. They are your key to the local ACC populations in the top-20 markets and beyond.

The next steps are fundamental to any campaign, whether it's selling a candidate or a brand: Profile the audience; craft and test messages; select the communities in which you'll implement.

From there, working closely with the Community Organizers, you must identify groups and events that place her team at the epicenter of the ACC population. She must create and deploy a series of "virtual classrooms," with leave-behinds and word-of-mouth incentives. She must nurture the ACCs: tracking how, and how often, they spread the word; looking for opportunities to build their relationship toward even higher levels of activity.

In the end, this is a rifle, not a shotgun, approach. It does not generate millions of impressions. It develops sustainable relationships with a few thousand key people, transforming them into an unpaid sales force. Thus, the value proposition for this model cannot be measured in traditional terms of cost-per-contact. But we know it works--from the popularity of personal digital assistants to the election of Jesse Ventura to the anonymity of William Dawes.

And who, you ask, is William Dawes? He was Paul Revere's counterpart. Unfortunately, while he carried the same message and covered as much ground, Dawes failed to rally the troops like Revere did. In the Tipping Point, a wonderful book for the grass roots believer, author Malcolm Gladwell argues that Revere accomplished what Dawes could not simply because they were different people. Revere was (in our words) an ACC; Dawes wasn't.

And that is the exponential power of one.

Marianna Deal and Pete Abel are both senior partners at Fleishman-Hillard. They lead the public affairs and marketing groups, respectively, at the firm's St. Louis headquarters.