Dr. Carl's Slides Available

The slides from Dr. Carl's talk on the Birth of WOM (sounds like a the name of an MGM Blockbuster from 1967) are available. This is a great deck that talks about the DNA and the genesis of Word of Mouth. Or, rather, the surge in interest in WOM by the Marketing Clan.

I have one more bullet to add--and I think I mentioned it previously. I think the re-focus on WOM has to do with companies realizing that they need to focus more on consumer relationships than they do on awareness. I don't think WOM is the marketing-tactic flavor of the month because it really represents a move toward (or, perhaps a concession to) a way of marketing that deals less with telling people what to do than it is listening to them.

And a big part of why marketers are focused on that is not because they suddenly became more interested in their consumers. Its because they discovered that their favorite tactic--display--is getting avoided more quickly, easily and efficiently.