Articles

Beware Of Opinion Leaders, Look For Accidental Influentials

Companies seem to think if you get a strong opinion leader to talk about your brand, you are in marketing heaven. In a recent InformationWeek article, several experts say that other than Oprah, opinion leaders don’t necessarily act as a catalyst for successful word-of-mouth campaigns, online or off.Michael Shore, VP of worldwide consumer insights for Mattel, takes a much more holistic approach. "We're not interested in opinion leaders. We'd consider that too narrow a focus." Instead, he does a 'cultural assessment' where he watches online discussions for language, behavioral patters, and values. That information is integrated into product ideation & innovation or ad & concept testing.

Lenoard M. Lodish, a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania said he finds most trends are started by a critical mass of people, rather than one person, who talks about your brand or product. He calls these people "accidental influentials".

But it's not easy to identify these accidental influentials. It begs the question, how are companies supposed to know where to focus their efforts for word-of-mouth campaigns? A customer advisory panel is one option that gives companies constant and immediate access to a group of people to ask them any question at any time. It also enables companies to watch discussions and identify trends to consider when making corporate decisions.

Vision Critical has helped hundreds of leading brands to build their own customer advisory panel for quick hit surveys or to watch discussions in forums where they can moderate or let it grow organically. If you would like to learn how to create a group to identify influentials and spot trends, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on June 6, 2007
Permalink