口碑营销旧貌换新颜

    Chubbies公司“为男人生产顶呱呱的短裤”。它的爱好者自称“短裤帮”（Chubster Nation），主要是一群18到25岁、受过大学教育、爱好运动的男青年。

    根据Chubbies公司的世界观，“长裤是工作的时候穿的，”而短裤——尤其是他们生产的短裤，则是运动、娱乐、泡吧或是爬喜马拉雅山的时候穿的。他们把这种思想称为“短裤革命”。不过这场革命可不会上电视，而是会通过Facebook、Twitter和Instagram等社交网站传播开去。

    自从2011年末Chubbies短裤上市以来，这家公司就只在社交媒体上进行推广。但现在这种漂亮、复古的短裤不仅畅销美国，而且还卖到了全球40多个国家。Chubbies公司四名创始人之一的汤姆•蒙哥马利说：“我们没有花多少钱，但是增长速度却非常惊艳。”

    那么这场口碑营销的成功秘诀是什么？

    市场调研公司福雷斯特公司（Forrester）分析师扎卡里•瑞斯•戴维斯指出：“当你想买新东西的时候，你在网络上认识和尊敬的人会成为你最重要的发现来源。”

    口碑营销并不是什么新生事物。早在二战期间，为了节约粮食支援前线，美国就形成了一种鼓励人们多吃动物内脏，把最好的肉留给前线军人的风气。心理学家库尔特•勒温发现，当时留守后方的妇女们通过互相之间的谈话，其中很多人改变了不吃动物内脏的习惯。

    另一个经典的例子是特百惠（Tupperware）。它也不喜欢打正式广告，而是通过举行派对的方式进行口碑营销。这家公司经常会把一些亲朋好友组织起来，在非正式的家庭聚会上宣传自己的产品，最终发展成了一个家喻户晓的品牌。

    据瑞斯•戴维斯表示，口碑营销的新趋势是，不少公司正在打造有组织的口碑营销活动，使人们更容易把产品推荐给网上和网下的熟人，而且还会与他们进行探讨。

    以Chubbies为例：Chubbies的顾客经常会在网上分享自己穿短裤的照片，而且也常常在别人的照片下方评论留言。这样一来，顾客就成了非常有效的活广告。蒙哥马利说：“如果没有Facebook，要在这么短的时间内扩展到这么大的规模几乎是不可能的，至少效果会差很多。”他还说，社交媒体对于一家服装公司的主要好处之一，就是提供了一个可视化的角度来接触消费者。

    要想建立一个支持者的群体，首先要能够和他们说上话。2010年，四名沃顿商学院（Wharton Business School）的MBA毕业生成立了Warby Parker眼镜公司，想把眼镜直接卖给消费者，所以直接向消费者进行营销也是很合理的。这家公司的创始人之一兼联合CEO尼尔•布鲁门萨尔认为：“我们并不把社交当成广告，而是当成一种与顾客互动的方式。”他们说到做到。Warby Parker的顾客也非常喜欢在网上展示自己戴眼镜或墨镜的照片。另外，这家在全美各地送眼镜的眼镜之旅活动，以及向发展中国家捐赠50万架眼镜的活动，也都成了人们茶余饭后的谈资。

    Chubbies makes "radical shorts for men." Its enthusiasts are denizens of Chubster Nation, a realm of 18-25, sports-playing, college-educated "guys."

    According to the Chubbies worldview: "Pants are for work," while shorts -- their shorts -- are for having fun, or jumping off rocks, or playing beer pong, or climbing Everest. They dub this ethos the "shorts revolution." And this particular revolution will not be televised, but it will be Facebooked, Tweeted, and Instagrammed.

    Since Chubbies launched in late 2011, it has only marketed itself via social media. Yet these bright, retro shorts now ship all over the U.S. and over 40 other countries. "We haven't spent much, but the growth has been awesome," says Tom Montgomery, one of Chubbies' four founders.

    So what's the secret to successful word-of-mouth marketing?

    "People you know and respect online are the most important sources of discovery, when you're looking for new things to buy," says Forrester Analyst, Zachary Reiss-Davis.

    But word-of-mouth marketing isn't new. During World War II, there was a drive in the U.S. to encourage more people to eat animal organs, saving the best cuts for the military. Psychologist Kurt Lewin discovered that women -- the gatekeepers of the family diet -- began to reconsider their opinion of sweetmeat through conversations they had with each other.

    Then there are other classic cases like Tupperware, which shunned formal ads for word-of-mouth campaigns in the form of Tupperware parties. By gathering friends, family, and colleagues to advocate for their goods at informal home events, Tupperware grew into a household name.

    What is new, according to Reiss-Davis, is that companies are building structured word-of-mouth campaigns that make it easy for people to recommend and discuss products with people they know both offline and via the social web.

    Take Chubbies: Its customers frequently share photos and comment on each other's short-wearing escapades, turning customers into highly effective billboards. "Being able to scale in such a short time would have most likely been impossible, or very different, without Facebook," says Montgomery, adding that the opportunity for a clothing company to reach people in a visual way, is one of social media's key strengths.

    To build a community of advocates, you have to be able to talk to them. When four Wharton MBA graduates started eyeglass ecommerce operation Warby Parker in 2010, they wanted to sell their eyewear directly to customers. So it made sense to market to them directly too. "We don't view social as advertising, but as a way of engaging with customers," says co-founder and joint CEO Neil Blumenthal. And they mean it. Like Chubbies, Warby Parker customers post photos of themselves wearing their shades and specs en masse. Everything from the company's "Class Trip" -- a whimsical voyage delivering glasses across the U.S. -- to their campaign to give half a million pairs of eyeglasses to people in the developing world, gives people something to talk about.