How do you get people to talk about you when there’s nothing extraordinary to talk about?
Or, as Word of Mouth Marketing
author Andy Sernovitz puts it:
The longer you’ve been good, the more people know about you, and the more they know you make good stuff, the less likely they are to suddenly start talking about you.
That’s what Andy calls “the chocolate problem,” so named because nobody ever picks up a phone or tweets to their pal “Dude, have you tried chocolate? It’s awesome!”
No matter how good something is and no matter how often we consume it – indeed, no matter how central a role in our life that something has – there’s not necessarily anything to talk about.
Playing the hits just like you have for twenty years? Nothing to talk about.
Same morning show doing the same stuff now as forever? Nothing to talk about.
Fifth consecutive year you’ve done the same promotion at the same time the same way? Nothing to talk about.
Says Andy, “Solving the chocolate problem is about coming up with fresh, remarkable experiences to get people’s attention.”
It isn’t your positioning line. It doesn’t have to be a product feature.
It just has to be cool. And it has to be worth spreading.
What was your most recent fresh and remarkable experience?
Did you make it easy for your consumers to spread the word?