It looks like Pizza Hut have managed to use an iphone app to drive a large number of sales. Apparently in the last three months the iphone app been downloaded more than a million times and has also generated more than a million dollars in sales in the US.

The company did have a WAP enabled mobile site before launching the iphone app but as Bernard Acoca of Pizza Hut explained it did not have the “explosive level of growth” seen with the iPhone app. It probably helps that users of the App get a 20% discount. It was also an advantage that it featured in apple adverts in the US. However it clearly shows that other food outlets could benefit from this move. Rivals Dominos have also targeted mobile devices with a iphone optimized website.

So how do you know if an i-phone app would work for your customers? Clearly there is a specific demographic who are using iphonesat the moment. In a recent report Forrester suggested that companies should do some market research to identify who if any of your customers are on iphone.. For instance “Coca-cola recognised a segment of its younger customers were on the iPhone and found that an app could be a way of connecting with a youthful audience at a reasonable price”. Clearly it always pays to know your audience!

The iphone povides plenty of opportunites to be creative and these are the applications that have really worked when it comes to branding. “For instance, Zippo’s big idea was to turn an iPhone into a virtual cigarette lighter that often gets used by live concert-goers who in the past would have used a real lighter during an encore,” Forrester says “The application has been downloaded more than 3 million times and rose as high as the No. 2 free iPhone application.”

 Here at SociaLNK we strive to keep ahead of the latest developments in technology. All the evidence shows that in the West mobile will be huge in 2010. In Asia it clearly already is!

I spent a little time listening to a podcast by John Moore of WOMMA today. As he points out 90% of word of mouth happens in the physical world. So we must be careful not to simply focus on social media when considering our marketing efforts. Although he admits it is much easier to measure the effect of a social media campaign that does not mean that you should ignore offline WOM.

He suggests that there are two main strategies for encouraging Word of Mouth conversations. These are summarised in the mantra “Bake it, or Make it just don’t fake it”.

Baking It: A company that takes this strategy makes it a clear objective to make their company outstanding in some way. This can be through making a remarkable product (e.g. Apple’s ipod) or providing over the top customer service (Zappos). In fact it could even be to have terrible service. I remember as a student we used to frequent a hugely popular restaurant in London. They were famous for having extremely rude staff and very cheap food. As students we found this extremely funny and everybody had to go and experience it.

As John points out “Baking it follows the thinking that a company’s personality is its best form of advertising”

Making It: A different strategy which is just as valid is to make news in some way. As John puts it “Remarkable things get remarked about”. Good advertising does play a part here. 22% of Word of Mouth is generated by interesting advertising. This is where social media can play apart in creating interesting events which can be promoted online. Viral apps and videos can play a part here.

However you can think outside the box on this one. Policy decisions can have a big impact in generating Word of Mouth. John mentioned a company called Pizza Patrol in the US that recently started accepting Pesos in payment. This was a policy decision that generated huge quantities of publicity both positive and negative for the company. However the end result was an increase in sales. They took a risk and it paid off.

Faking It: John’s last point is that companies must work with integrity. If they don’t in today’s connected world they will be found out.

Here at SociaLNK we take Word of Mouth very seriously. We would be happy to talk to you about your own campaigns.

What is meant by Word of Mouth as opposed to buzz?

For me word of mouth seems to be about developing a sustainable reputation in a field. Allowing consumers to part-take and be part of that reputation by engaging with the product. The real value is through building joint conversations with your clients.

Buzz can be a by-product of such Word of Mouth campaigns – it is what happens when you do something that really clicks with your market. However it is not sustainable in and of itself. There have always been such “one off” marketing ploys that cause a stir. However when Buzz is backed up by a fully engaged community then the effects can be truly amazing

 I liked this comment by Kathy Sierra:

“Buzz: Getting users excited about YOU.
Sustainable WOM: Getting them excited about THEMSELVES.
Buzz is awesome. Focusing on getting it is not. .”

I think the best example I’ve experienced of people getting excited about themselves must be around the release of the latest apple i-phone. I have never seen so many facebook messages about a product. I am sure Apple hardly had to do any marketing. They just need to seed a rumour for the information to be out there in the blogosphere. To top this I have also recently had two cases of facebook pals relating a good experience when they went to have their Apples fixed at an Apple store. Apple are a fantastic example of a well manicured reputation, good word of mouth campaigns which all result in fantastic buzz!

The take home message on word of mouth is that you really need to build a sustainable social media strategy to develop your brand and reputation. This is the key to really building up conversations about your brand. This is where our expertise at sociaLNK lies.