December 5, 2006
BrainTrust Query: Does P&G’s Tremor have the formula for building “The Buzz”?
By Bill Bittner, President, BWH Consulting
Marketing folks are still pondering how to deal with the continuing fragmentation of consumer lifestyles. Do you run TV ads, hit the radio waves, start an internet campaign or, better yet – do you start “the buzz” yourself? Procter & Gamble has a new service for doing just that. (I kind of stumbled on it while doing some research into the Global Commerce Initiative’s prediction of the retail environment for 2016.)
Tremor is the name of the marketing service that P&G has started. They work closely with their clients to develop marketing campaigns that utilize two national panels P&G has built. One panel consists of 450,000 women with kids (i.e. mothers) and the other consists of 250,000 boys and girls, ages 13 to 19. The panelists have been identified as “connectors,” consumers who are likely to carry a message to others. The average mother speaks to five people a day; the “connector mom” speaks to 20. The average teen has 25 people on their IM (instant messenger) list; the “connector teen” has 150.
The P&G service proceeds in five steps, designed to create a measurable impact on consumer awareness and sales through peer group buzz. One of the case studies posted on the Tremor web site describes the process. The campaign was organized for the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) with a goal of pumping up milk consumption among teens who currently drink at least one glass per day.
Tremor began by researching teen attitudes, in this case the role of milk in their overall health. What came out was a desire among teens to maintain a “toned” appearance.
Tremor deployed a “3x Challenge” campaign to its panel of 250,000 teen “connectors” with the claim: “Drinking three eight-ounce glasses of milk a day can help you achieve the look you want.” Panelists received information packets, Lance Armstrong-style bracelets to share with friends and other material designed to inspire participation.
According to the Tremor web site, the campaign resulted in an additional 1.5 million teens “talking about milk” and consumption indexing at 105 nationally.
Discussion Questions: Does Tremor’s method seem like a viable way to convey a marketing message? Can the impact of a panel of “connectors” be enough
to get stimulate buzz? Does a company risk any consumer backlash if consumers discover they are being targeted?
The Global Commerce Initiative study is an interesting projection of what the retail landscape might look like in 2016. But the key point that surrounded
the discussion of Tremor was that “manufacturers are going to begin acting more like retailers and retailers are going to begin acting more like manufacturers.” Manufacturers
will begin promoting more directly to end consumers as they use new information channels to reach targeted individuals (not just markets). Retailers must distinguish themselves
by offering services that differentiate the product offerings at their locations from their competitors’. In the supermarket area, this will include the “assembly” of whole household
meals that are prepared from recipes at the store.
My thought is that the P&G technique might work for the “mom market,” but I have concerns about the teen market. Not that I think moms are more gullible;
I just believe they will not question each other’s motivation as much. I believe teens will be more perceptive of “what’s cool” and that the same kids that are connectors may
not be the ones who are coolest. It could be that the reason they have so many names in their IM lists is because they’re in the band (not that being in the band is bad).
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Poll
If they truly are connectors, which I doubt, then they are savvy and would only create buzz around interesting, exciting, new products and would not be vulnerable to push from marketers around weaker products. BuzzAgents, WOMMA, and similar businesses and groups have been working this approach for some time now but this is not any kind of silver bullet. Like most other sexy marketing practices, it only works when the product and price are right. I think the test was with a product such as milk because the effect would be unmeasurable.
P&G’s network for connector moms is called Vocalpoint.com. Both Vocalpoint and Tremors are permission-based consumer panel networks for highly-involved consumers. While their outward trappings suggest they exist primarily for market research purposes, the sizes of the panels that Bill B. reports suggest that they could very easily have a viral impact on consumer opinion.
Some panel members might feel “used” by this type of activity, but I suspect that feeling is more than offset by the feeling of exclusivity that members enjoy. That is, if you consider being a member of a group of 250,000 people exclusive.
“Buzz” marketing has been around for a while. My favorite example are the reps who buy people shots of new alcoholic beverages in trendy nightclubs. Paid by the liquor marketers, their job is to get the coolest people to try the latest brands and flavors, in the hope of igniting a grassroots consumption fad. Call it “engineered spontaneity.”
“I believe teens will be more perceptive of ‘what’s cool’ and that the same kids that are connectors may not be the ones who are coolest. It could be that the reason they have so many names in their IM lists is because they’re in the band (not that being in the band is bad).”
This shows the beauty of what they are doing. They are attacking a fragmented market — who is more fragmented than teens, with all their cliques? Look at “Heroes” — Claire won the Homecoming Queen because the freaks voted for her! Are the ‘band geeks’ cool to the ‘jocks’? Of course not, but that’s entirely the point of this approach. Connect with the connector within each clique and you span the market; if you just go for the ‘cool’ kids, however you define it, then you limit yourself.
For the record, I was a ‘drama geek’ and a cross-country runner, so I got to see multiple cliques; imagine if I got the same message from connectors in both groups?
P&G’s Tremor is based on premise that their “connector” panel are socially-outgoing, respected influencers that are seen by peers as “in the know.” And they have really built scale into their structure — 450,000 mothers and 250,000 teens is a huge recruiting and maintenance endeavor.
I agree with Bill Bittner that among the women target audience Tremor could work since it’s enough for panel members just to be social networkers in order to pass along a marketing message and stimulate word of mouth. However, among teens, recruiting the really “cool” kids is a challenge. Teens that peers look up to for fashion, music, opinion clues are not going to be in a Tremor panel — that would not be “cool.”
Moreover this teen/young adult audience does not like being overtly marketed to. They will sniff out a Tremor member in a NY minute and the marketing message will be rejected. For this audience, getting “buzz” going has to be much more subtle, more of a guerrilla effort and below the radar. But overall I applaud P&G’s effort — it’s unique, timely and another way to counter the fragmentation in traditional media.
P&G began with Tremors for the teen market. It was so successful they branched out to the Moms market. While the use of the internet is new the process is based upon the old diffusion of innovation research: find the opinion leaders, get them engaged, and they pass the information on to others creating a strong word-of-mouth campaign. Finding people who use and the Internet and are opinion leaders is critical for success. P&G appears to have done the research to make this happen if the “connector Moms” speak to 20 other people as opposed to other Moms who only speak to 5 other people.
This process does not work just because a group of people are part of an internet group. It works because they are right opinion leaders who are part of the group.
Every brand’s ultimate goal: the best sell-through possible. If you get all the shelf space of your dreams, and the sell-through is disappointing, the work will be for naught. Whoever drives the sell-through will achieve superior margins. If the sell-through is the retailer’s achievement, then the retailer gets the margin. Best example: a unique private-label success, such as Trader Joe’s and Victoria’s Secret. If the sell-through is driven by the producer’s brand, the retailer’s margin will be small and the brand’s margin will be superior. Examples: Coke; Marlboro; and Toyota. Tremor and other buzz promotion methods will have their effectiveness and costs measured against all the other promotion tools. It’s unlikely that any single promotion tool will remain superior in cost-effectiveness, since clutter always damages media known to be effective.
I first wrote about Tremor in my 2001 book The Myth of Excellence. Nobody had heard of it then, but I was bullish on the concept. Today, I’m even more bullish then I was years ago.
As a former agency brand planner, I find this approach very, very innovative. Today, the media challenge is enormous. The answers to connecting relevantly to people resides in the minds of those we try to reach. Be it for buzz promotions or any other media tool, it’s all about insights that drive ideas. Finding a way to tap into the “Connectors” referred to just makes sense. Not only do they have a pulse on how their circle of friends think, but they also have a passion for spreading the word and sharing their own perspectives with research people.
I once read a quote from a strategic lead at Target that said “statistics are like bikinis…it’s what they hide that matters.” There’s a lot of merit to this, as brands are finding a need to tap into almost a “6th sense” regarding the big insights that will make a brand message or experience resonate.
Regardless of how Tremor works initially, they are taking a proactive approach to finding new methods to find consumer insights that can be used in combination with all other media/messaging efforts. Kudos.
More Discussions
Is Five Below Poised For Even Greater Growth?
Five Below is hitting serious growth numbers. Can this trend continue?Should IKEA Be Flattening Management?
Should IKEA be trimming down its management headcount?Is Legislation the Answer on Visa, Mastercard Swipe Fees as ~$200 Billion Record Is Set?
Is lawmaking the way forward on swipe fees?
If they truly are connectors, which I doubt, then they are savvy and would only create buzz around interesting, exciting, new products and would not be vulnerable to push from marketers around weaker products. BuzzAgents, WOMMA, and similar businesses and groups have been working this approach for some time now but this is not any kind of silver bullet. Like most other sexy marketing practices, it only works when the product and price are right. I think the test was with a product such as milk because the effect would be unmeasurable.
P&G’s network for connector moms is called Vocalpoint.com. Both Vocalpoint and Tremors are permission-based consumer panel networks for highly-involved consumers. While their outward trappings suggest they exist primarily for market research purposes, the sizes of the panels that Bill B. reports suggest that they could very easily have a viral impact on consumer opinion.
Some panel members might feel “used” by this type of activity, but I suspect that feeling is more than offset by the feeling of exclusivity that members enjoy. That is, if you consider being a member of a group of 250,000 people exclusive.
“Buzz” marketing has been around for a while. My favorite example are the reps who buy people shots of new alcoholic beverages in trendy nightclubs. Paid by the liquor marketers, their job is to get the coolest people to try the latest brands and flavors, in the hope of igniting a grassroots consumption fad. Call it “engineered spontaneity.”
“I believe teens will be more perceptive of ‘what’s cool’ and that the same kids that are connectors may not be the ones who are coolest. It could be that the reason they have so many names in their IM lists is because they’re in the band (not that being in the band is bad).”
This shows the beauty of what they are doing. They are attacking a fragmented market — who is more fragmented than teens, with all their cliques? Look at “Heroes” — Claire won the Homecoming Queen because the freaks voted for her! Are the ‘band geeks’ cool to the ‘jocks’? Of course not, but that’s entirely the point of this approach. Connect with the connector within each clique and you span the market; if you just go for the ‘cool’ kids, however you define it, then you limit yourself.
For the record, I was a ‘drama geek’ and a cross-country runner, so I got to see multiple cliques; imagine if I got the same message from connectors in both groups?
P&G’s Tremor is based on premise that their “connector” panel are socially-outgoing, respected influencers that are seen by peers as “in the know.” And they have really built scale into their structure — 450,000 mothers and 250,000 teens is a huge recruiting and maintenance endeavor.
I agree with Bill Bittner that among the women target audience Tremor could work since it’s enough for panel members just to be social networkers in order to pass along a marketing message and stimulate word of mouth. However, among teens, recruiting the really “cool” kids is a challenge. Teens that peers look up to for fashion, music, opinion clues are not going to be in a Tremor panel — that would not be “cool.”
Moreover this teen/young adult audience does not like being overtly marketed to. They will sniff out a Tremor member in a NY minute and the marketing message will be rejected. For this audience, getting “buzz” going has to be much more subtle, more of a guerrilla effort and below the radar. But overall I applaud P&G’s effort — it’s unique, timely and another way to counter the fragmentation in traditional media.
P&G began with Tremors for the teen market. It was so successful they branched out to the Moms market. While the use of the internet is new the process is based upon the old diffusion of innovation research: find the opinion leaders, get them engaged, and they pass the information on to others creating a strong word-of-mouth campaign. Finding people who use and the Internet and are opinion leaders is critical for success. P&G appears to have done the research to make this happen if the “connector Moms” speak to 20 other people as opposed to other Moms who only speak to 5 other people.
This process does not work just because a group of people are part of an internet group. It works because they are right opinion leaders who are part of the group.
Every brand’s ultimate goal: the best sell-through possible. If you get all the shelf space of your dreams, and the sell-through is disappointing, the work will be for naught. Whoever drives the sell-through will achieve superior margins. If the sell-through is the retailer’s achievement, then the retailer gets the margin. Best example: a unique private-label success, such as Trader Joe’s and Victoria’s Secret. If the sell-through is driven by the producer’s brand, the retailer’s margin will be small and the brand’s margin will be superior. Examples: Coke; Marlboro; and Toyota. Tremor and other buzz promotion methods will have their effectiveness and costs measured against all the other promotion tools. It’s unlikely that any single promotion tool will remain superior in cost-effectiveness, since clutter always damages media known to be effective.
I first wrote about Tremor in my 2001 book The Myth of Excellence. Nobody had heard of it then, but I was bullish on the concept. Today, I’m even more bullish then I was years ago.
As a former agency brand planner, I find this approach very, very innovative. Today, the media challenge is enormous. The answers to connecting relevantly to people resides in the minds of those we try to reach. Be it for buzz promotions or any other media tool, it’s all about insights that drive ideas. Finding a way to tap into the “Connectors” referred to just makes sense. Not only do they have a pulse on how their circle of friends think, but they also have a passion for spreading the word and sharing their own perspectives with research people.
I once read a quote from a strategic lead at Target that said “statistics are like bikinis…it’s what they hide that matters.” There’s a lot of merit to this, as brands are finding a need to tap into almost a “6th sense” regarding the big insights that will make a brand message or experience resonate.
Regardless of how Tremor works initially, they are taking a proactive approach to finding new methods to find consumer insights that can be used in combination with all other media/messaging efforts. Kudos.