Our Consumer Generated Content research and marketing practice has been stirring up quite a bit of interest from savvy marketers recently as CGC garners more attention and recognition as an exceptionally insightful and influential channel. Still, we find that whilst many people understand the concept of word-of-mouth online they struggle to see how it presents a marketing opportunity. Examples are many, easily found in forums and social networks from flyertalk.com to bebo.com but one example is particularly noteworthy as it comes from the man who perhaps knows the importance of WOM better than anyone.

Fred Reichheld, author of The Ultimate Question blogged about this email exchange between he and his son. The importance of which is best stated by Fred:

Moral of this story: It is not advertising campaigns, marketing promotions, or retention programs that determine corporate reputations and profitable growth; it is the millions of conversations and email exchanges that occur between family members, friends and colleagues every month of the year.

Fred came short of pointing out that this conversation, whilst incredibly influential amongst the Reichheld’s personal networks, it is now influencing an exponentially larger group of people including you and I simply because he decided to blog about it. This is WOM online, this is CGC and after reading Fred’s post one cannot deny its commercial importance to Chase, Commerce Bank and USAA.

I for one, had ever heard of USAA banking but now I’m not only aware and have visited their website with curiosity but I actually think somewhat favourably of them. That’s a valuable impression. Further, my mild disinterest in Chase is galvanized and I’m actually considering switching from Citibank to Commerce Bank because this story supports what I already know about the bank. Btw, I don’t particularly like their TV ads but I suspect they are effective.

Beyond widening the circle of influence this example also demonstrates the opportunity each of the brands mentioned now has to better understand their customers and perhaps even engage with them in this channel. This is what makes online WOM and CGC a valuable marketing channel. The Reichheld’s exchange is but one of thousands of conversations online about each of those banks. In aggregate and when analysed properly, these conversations yield tremendously insightful customer and competitive information unmatched by surveys and focus groups. Further, each is an invitation for the brand to connect with customers on a more personal level demonstrating their interest in the individual and their commitment to customer experiences.

This is an opportunity to close the brand gap on both sides of the equation, an opportunity to be a more effective marketer and for now, a great competitive advantage for those marketers who act and act wisely.

Chalk up one more contribution to our ever-evolving communication behaviour, and understanding thereof, courtesy of the Internet.